Which heating system??

smaggie

Hey all. I need help.

I am building a house about 2500 sq feet. I was thinking about a Geothermal system. My biggest concern is running costs. I cant get a straight answer on this. I have asked people who have the system but am getting conflicting answers, about 50/50. i know it uses alot of electricity, but would it still be cheaper then a wood pellet system or similar?

Any advice and help will be appriciated.
Cheers!

muffler

Type it into the search box and you will find loads of threads on it.

mr_edge_to_you

Hey

Myself and my fiancé are hoping to start construction in the near future on a 2100sq ft storey and a half house. We have decided to go with a Geo-thermal system with UFH. I wouldn't be the most knowledgeable person in relation to construction matters so I was relying on opinions of friends in the decision.

During my extensive research the one piece of advice I got really struck a chord in relation to the running costs of geo-thermal heating (albeit from a salesman!). He made the point that people like me and my fiancé move from a nice small warm gas heated apartment into a newly biult 2700sq ft mansion. We wire it for electrics and gadgets all over the place. We install electric showers in 3 ensuites. We put recess lights all over the house (the most inefficient lighting solution in the world apparently). And they blame the geo-thermal! The particular salesman said that they were receiving a large number of complaints from people that felt their geo-thermal was costing them a fortune to run so they began to install specific meters for the geo-thermal which has shown that it is all the other fancy gadgets and lights that drive up the cost. In our renated apartment we have no dishwasher or drier. Only 8 sockets in the entire living area and 2 sockets in each bedroom! Only one TV now which will definitely become 2 when we move. All big consumers of electricity! I accept that he is a salesman but I always appreciate a well made logical point. My other half aggreed, he made a good case!

I'm also an accountant and my previous two bosses both installed a geo-thermal heating system. Knowing these two individuals I can be 100% sure they've done the maths on the investment.

I'm led to beleive that in order for wood pellet system to be cost efficient you must by your pellets in very large bulk quantities. This requires a lot of storage space which we are not prepared to sacrifice in our garage. Secondly there is a good bit of maintenance in the wood-pellet systems. I'm open to correction but they've been the opinions I've gotten from friends and "non-boards.ie" contacts.

We also have 4 showers in our house and geo-thermal heating will deliver this, I'm advised. That'd be faily expensive to heat from an immersion tank.

The geo-thermal and UFH gives a nice ambient house temperature which is ideal too if you plan to have people at home during the day (ie kids _ in a few years all going well!)

Aside from the cost issue, geo-thermal eliminates oil dependency, which is important for me.

Anyway, they're some of my reasons for going the geo-thermal route. Best of luck! It's a tough decision!