Going green
This is a new page, but is where the future of 24 hour heating and cooling lies, I just installed a high efficiency furnace and geothermal cooling in my home so I can tell you how real life performance is, and how difficult it is to get the rebates from excel energy. I'll be installing solar and a tankless water heater next month, so check back to see how it all goes.
Geothermal heat pump project
This is the current answer to our energy crisis!! boasts up to 400% efficiency where the highest you get with conventional gas equipment is 95%, and it operates on 31 ounces of refrigerant, (As much as a fast food soda)
How it works : Six feet under your yard the temperatures are relatively consistent, so wether summer or winter if we collect that heat/cool and distribute it throughout our house we have to do very little more to make it comfortable, we run pipes full of liquid through your yard to exchange the heat (to the ground in the summer/from the ground in the winter) and replace your furnace/boiler with a small heat pump.
Drawbacks : 1. This is very intrusive, your yard will be turned upside down, 8 ft. down, when we get done you'll be level with no excess dirt but you will need to call the landscaper after forking out $30,000 2. This costs $30,000 at that price no matter how efficient this unit is it's not going to pay for itself in energy savings at current rates for 10 years, but energy costs are rising quickly and if your concerns are global, for those of us that can there is a different level of responsibility.
Tankless : We're installing allot of tankless water heaters these days, the best of them are 99% efficient and you never run out of hot water, these can also be used for space heating, conventional water heaters have chinese steel tanks which begin rusting the day you install them, these have copper and stainless steel so no rust and 30 year life span vs. 10 to 12 year life spans of conventional, next a conventional water heater keeps heating 50 gallons of water when you're not using it, tankless only heats water after you turn on the faucet, lastly these are direct vented so it does not use your oxygen, it pumps fresh air directly into the combustion chamber from outside so its efficiency doesn't taper as you use oxygen and you don't become less efficient as your equipment uses oxygen. Ive chosen the "eternal" for my home, 98% efficiency with enough hot water to heat my home domestic hot water and pool.
Drawbacks : This is not your typical water heater job, these last 3 times longer and use somewhere around half the energy but cost 4 times as much then require us to run 2 new flu pipes, a dedicated circuit and sometimes a larger gas pipe, average install for domestic tankless water heater is $3500.00. Boilers prices are less effected as the dedicated circuit and larger gas supply are already there, average price $7200.00
Solar : We installed a solar loop on the geothermal system but there's no discerning how much it contributed, still cool though, stay tuned we're adding a solar water heating system next that provides 100% of domestic hot water.
P.v. solar (photo voltaic) : Or "electric solar" the systems that are being sold now convert 20% of the energy absorbed into direct current electricity, the industry claims to be on the verge of panels that convert 80%, we're installing these systems but we're keeping our clients informed and we're really exited about what's next! Check back with us real soon.
