Question for hvac folks - geothermal and insulation/venting attic

[swampratt]

MY bathroom upstairs has the ceiling just a few inches away from the roof decking,
I have the space almost filled to the decking with insulation.. 4" space left for air circulation.
My ceiling temp in the bathroom the other day was 92f I found an old sun shade that aluminum covered bubble wrap stuff.

I placed it over the insulation to create a Radiant barrier.. the next day was even sunnier and hotter and the ceiling temp was 82f .
Look up AttifFoil radiant barrier.

If you have windows that get sun think about Low E film.. Lowes sells it.. i put it on my geo metro Huge difference when i installed them in my home

 

[Fredkrueger100]

geothermal .......expensive to install.......cheap to operate .........expensive to repair and maintain.anyone who tells you different is selling them and I sold them for years. you will never save enough to off set the costs.at around five years you start losing pumps and taco valves etc and you try to stay ahead of the repairs the rest of it's life span

I have geothermal and it sucks. It struggles to keep my house cool and you can barely even feel it blowing air out. I have had it worked on 3-4 times over the last 3 years the last being last week. It is only about 10 years old. I definitely would not get one. There are not that many people that work on them either. So that can be a task finding someone who will and someone that actually knows what they are doing. I would much rather have a regular unit. But I didn't pay to have it installed either. I rent from my tribe and they are the ones that chose these types of units. I also read the post where the person has a 4500 square foot home with 5 people and their bill was never over $280. We are s family of 3 in about a 1400 square foot home and are total electric and my bill never gets below $250. It usually is around $300. Could be the difference in units or what the utility company charges. I keep mine set on 67 and it usually climbs to 73. I know for most that ain't bad but when you have it set as low as I do it should maintain the temp. But it never does. When my dad turns his York on it blows as hard as I have seen. His is the top of the line York. When I build my house that is what I will be getting.

 

[zseese]

Well, I appreciate everyone's input. I'm going to get the quote for the geothermal unit, but if it's too much more than a standard unit after rebates I'll just opt for a regular unit, and concentrate on insulating, installing barriers, and tinting/resealing my crappy windows. Going from a 10 seer to minimum 13 seer should help anyways in addition to the other upgrades. Especially since I hopefully won't be in this house more than 5 more years or so. Thanks all

 

[excat]

Well, I appreciate everyone's input. I'm going to get the quote for the geothermal unit, but if it's too much more than a standard unit after rebates I'll just opt for a regular unit, and concentrate on insulating, installing barriers, and tinting/resealing my crappy windows. Going from a 10 seer to minimum 13 seer should help anyways in addition to the other upgrades. Especially since I hopefully won't be in this house more than 5 more years or so. Thanks all

One thing you may consider looking into is talking to a realtor in your area. If you own your home and will be selling in the next 5 years, you could ask them if people are specifically looking for them, or avoiding them. When i bought my house, i wouldnt even look at a house with those systems. I'll wait for the technology to get better, and our local market to catch up. As someone said, not many competent repair people you can call to work on them. That means that service will already cost you a premium from the get go.

 

[SoonerP226]

To OP: I've done a lot of research into this. They will generate a better return on investment that a conventional system. Find a reputable installer and go for it.

FWIW, my former boss and I have similarly-sized houses. Mine was built in the early '80s and he built his about 10-15 years ago, so his has much better insulation and general sealing than mine. I have a conventional heat pump with a gas furnace; he has geothermal. His electric bills run $180-$225 per month year-round; my combined electric and gas bills run $150-$200 per month.

That's completely anecdotal, but it's still true.

 

[nofearfactor]

Non geothermal here. Put on a new roof and replaced the turbine vent hoods with peak vents, added some new insulation, new sealing, added all new soffitt vents all around the house, and then we went with a new ArmstrongAir AC unit and gas heater and a new gas hot water tank: all about 4 springs ago- up to 14 Seer on the outside unit. 3 people in a 3k sq ft or so house, my electric bill in summer never gets over $100-120 and gas about $35; winter the electric is about $70 or so and gas about $70-80. Programmable thermostat is set on about 71-72 winter 72-74 and we stay nice and warm in winter and cool in the summer. The old Ruud outside unit we placed was probably set when the house was built in the 80s it was so old looking.

 

[zseese]

Well just got off the phone with an oge geothermal/hvac specialist and was told that at 1108 sq ft my house is too small for the geothermal to be financially worth it! So insulation, sealant, window insulation and tinting it is! Guess that saves a lot of guesswork...

 

[saddlebum]

So you lied to people for years?

To OP: I've done a lot of research into this. They will generate a better return on investment that a conventional system. Find a reputable installer and go for it.

No , I worked for a wholesaler and geos where one of the products we offered contractor who wanted them. Part of my job was to try and make the pos work. My opinion was well know by those contractors. Buy a high seer/ eer air to air heat pump and be done with it

 

[doctorjj]

I have geothermal and it sucks. It struggles to keep my house cool and you can barely even feel it blowing air out. I have had it worked on 3-4 times over the last 3 years the last being last week. It is only about 10 years old. I definitely would not get one. There are not that many people that work on them either. So that can be a task finding someone who will and someone that actually knows what they are doing. I would much rather have a regular unit. But I didn't pay to have it installed either. I rent from my tribe and they are the ones that chose these types of units. I also read the post where the person has a 4500 square foot home with 5 people and their bill was never over $280. We are s family of 3 in about a 1400 square foot home and are total electric and my bill never gets below $250. It usually is around $300. Could be the difference in units or what the utility company charges. I keep mine set on 67 and it usually climbs to 73. I know for most that ain't bad but when you have it set as low as I do it should maintain the temp. But it never does. When my dad turns his York on it blows as hard as I have seen. His is the top of the line York. When I build my house that is what I will be getting.

Sounds like a poorly designed system. It happens. The county courthouse here went geothermal but their ground loops weren't large enough and by the end of the summer that had saturated the ground with heat. They had to put in auxiliary cooling towers. That cost them a bunch of money. They should have sued the engineer who did the calc's for the initial install. Point being, don't blame the technology when the specific design was bad.

 

[doctorjj]

Check out the ClimateMaster Trilogy. Made right here in OKC. It uses 30% less energy than other GHP's and will provide 100% of your hot water. It was developed by Oak Ridge Labs. They have done studies proving that GHP's have less operational costs and less maintenance costs that conventional systems. Either that or you can believe a couple of anecdotal stories on here. Your choice.