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Geothermal when house is pretty air tight - worth it?

  • 09-06-2014 11:58am
    #1
    MizMix
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 313 ✭✭


    Is geothermal worth it with a pretty air tight, well insulated house with a good MHRV system? Given the capital outlay of geothermal does it make sense if the overall heat required by a heating system is quite low? I take it the payback period in a less insulated house would be much sooner.

    Re BER- I'm not talking passive but an A3 BER (hopefully). I'm just trying to get my head around the heating options and was surprised by the cost when researching some posts here. Solar is a definite for us but I'm not sure geothermal is the best option and perhaps we should push as much as possible into an airtight build and go with a cheaper alternative to geo. Is solar limited to heating water in our climate or can it do more?

    To the professionals and recent self builders - what have you gone with? If you were building again what would you do?


Comments

  • #2
    froshtyv
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 225 ✭✭froshtyv


    MizMix wrote: »
    Is geothermal worth it with a pretty air tight, well insulated house with a good MHRV system? Given the capital outlay of geothermal does it make sense if the overall heat required by a heating system is quite low? I take it the payback period in a less insulated house would be much sooner.

    Re BER- I'm not talking passive but an A3 BER (hopefully). I'm just trying to get my head around the heating options and was surprised by the cost when researching some posts here. Solar is a definite for us but I'm not sure geothermal is the best option and perhaps we should push as much as possible into an airtight build and go with a cheaper alternative to geo. Is solar limited to heating water in our climate or can it do more?

    To the professionals and recent self builders - what have you gone with? If you were building again what would you do?

    You mention payback period of the heat pump but not about the solar?
    Solar would have a longer payback period than the heat pump.

    Is there any particular reason you say solar is a must?

    What are you using to heat your house Rads or UFH?


  • #3
    MizMix
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 313 ✭✭MizMix


    On reflection I probably should have said 'we're pretty sure solar is a must'. I assumed capital outlay to be much much smaller than geo. If we don't go for geo than solar is a must (esp with new regs)

    We're new to all this so in comparison to most posters here- we're clueless! Trying to research and get as many opinions (from professionals, recent builders etc) as possible so I know I'm most likely making incorrect assumptions. We've lots of time to get our heads around it but trying to get as many opinions as possible e.g. geo is probably much better now than say 5 years ago?

    UFG downstairs- ideally. Rads upstairs. Again could be wrong but with carpets upstairs I've heard the UFG isn't great for mites, allergies etc. I understand UFG and geo is a great combination.


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