In simple terms, Geothermal Energy refers to the energy contained in the earth.  In the context of heating and cooling your home, Geothermal Energy refers to the energy that can be extracted from the earth and used to heat your home or domestic hot water.

Nothing!  They are the same thing!

 Tomato, Toe-mah-toe!

Believe it or not, a Heat Pump works exactly like your refrigerator.  No kidding!

People think that refrigerators make things cold, but that is simply a misconception.  In reality, your refrigerator is designed to EXTRACT the heat from the inside of the box, and release it into the surrounding area.  That's why you feel warm air flowing around the outside of the fridge while it is running.  That warmth is actually the heat that was extracted from the inside of the box.  This is accomplished through the use of a refrigeration circuit.

With a Heat Pump, the heat is extracted from the ground (Geothermal Heat Pump) or from the outside air (Air Source Heat Pump) using the same kind of refrigeration circuit in your fridge.

Heat Pumps also have a unique feature that Refrigerators do not have . . . a reversing valve.

The reversing valve in a heat pump reverses the flow of refrigerant within so that in air-conditioning mode, it can extract the heat from the inside of your house and store it in the ground (for Geothermal Heat Pumps), or release it into the outside air (for Air Source Heat Pumps).

This is one area where Geothermal Heat Pumps outperform their Air Source counterparts.  Air Source models release that heat into the outside air where you can no longer benefit from it.  Geothermal Heat Pumps however, move that heat into the ground, storing it until you need it during the heating season.  In this sense, Geothermal Heat Pumps MOVE the heat from one area to another, and in this respect will always outperform air source heat pumps.

Not in Eastern Ontario (nor in the vast majority of Canada for that matter), and don't let anyone try to convince you otherwise! 

To illustrate, it will be necessary to understand the differences in both systems.

While both Geothermal AND Air Source Heat Pumps utilize the exact same mechanical technology, they use very different mediums to exchange the heat energy.

Geothermal Heat Pumps use a series of pipes that are buried in the ground - anywhere from 5 feet deep (for horizontal loop systems) to hundreds of feet deep (for drilled - vertical loop systems).  Geothermal fluid is pumped through this loop, and the fluid picks up heat from the ground which is on average, around 45F in Eastern Ontario.  The Geothermal Heat Pump then extracts the heat from the fluid and circulates it throughout your house.  The fluid leaving the Geothermal Heat Pump will be around 5 degrees cooler where the ground will heat it back up again.  By the end of the heating season the ground temperature will have been lowered to around 35F.  During the summer, the sun will heat the earth up, and by extension will heat the loop back up.

Air source heat pumps are two-part systems.  One part is located inside the house, and the other part (called the 'outdoor fan coil') is located outside.  Outside air is drawn over the fan coil where the heat is extracted and carried into the house.  When the outside air is hovering around freezing, the outside fan coils tend to freeze up.  When this happens, the ability of the heat pump to extract heat is significantly impaired.  To overcome this, the air source heat pump will have to enter a 'defrost cycle'.  During this cycle, heat from the INSIDE of the house is extracted to heat the outdoor coil.  This can happen as often as every 45 minutes for air source heat pumps.  This is where air source heat pumps lose their efficiency DRASTICALLY!

To sum up, Air Source Heat pumps are IDEAL in warmer climates where the outside temperatures rarely fall below 5C (41F).  Below this temperature, Air Source Heat Pumps are impractical.

If you are contemplating an Air Source Heat Pump over a Geothermal Heat Pump in Eastern Ontario, you should think again!  Ask us about:

- our client with a 2,500 square foot house who has two air-source heat pumps AND a $16,000 annual electric bill.  Then ask us about

- our client with a 5,400 square foot house, two Geothermal heat pumps, and a $4,600 annual electric bill.

That's more than twice the house with 1/4 the operating cost.

Maybe in Iceland!

Certainly in Iceland, they have Geothermal Energy Farms that tap deeply into the earth, pumping the boiling hot water throughout their communities to heat their homes and provide unlimited hot water.

Outside of those volcanic areas however, there is still useable energy in the earth.  We just have to extract it in a different way.

The Geothermal Energy that we tap into in Eastern Ontario is extracted by burying piping in the ground and circulating a geothermal fluid through it.  The fluid picks up the heat from the ground and circulates it through the Geothermal Heat Pump where the heat is extracted and pumped throughout your house.  

Now, while the ground temperature might only be 45F, the Heat Pump can still extract a significant volume of heat energy by circulating the 45F fluid through its refrigeration circuit.  The returning fluid will be about 5 degrees cooler when it enters back into the ground loop where the surrounding ground will warm it back up.

Not really, but it depends on who you talk to.

The cost of the physical geothermal heat pump is pretty much on par with a top-of-the-line modulating gas furnace with air conditioning.  It is also slightly LESS expensive than the equipment cost of an air source heat pump.  YES, I said LESS expensive!

Where Geothermal tends to get knocked for being priced out of the market, is on the cost of the energy source - the infamous 'loop'.

The loop is the most critical part of the geothermal system.  It is the energy source!  It is the physical device that extracts the heat energy from the ground and makes it accessible to the Geothermal Heat Pump to be injected into your house. Yes - there is a cost to it, but it is not prohibitive.

Look at it this way.  With a gas furnace, you pay to have the gas delivered to your house . . . IN PERPETUITY . . . FOREVER!  In addition, you have to pay for the gas you consume . . . IN PERPETUITY  . . . FOREVER!  As the price of gas goes up (and it does . . . and will IN PERPETUITY AND FOREVER), the operating cost also increases.

When you install a loop, you do so only once.  There are NO ongoing costs for the operation of, or maintenance of the loop.  It will last for generations - for the life of your house and beyond.  NOTHING is consumed or used up.  Fluid is circulated - that's all!  The heat energy that you extract from the ground is FREE!  You own the land.  You own the loop.  You own the energy . . . IN PERPETUITY . . .  FOREVER!

When you try to compare say, the cost of a Natural Gas furnace installation with a Geothermal Heat Pump, Geothermal will cost a bit more initially (due to the cost of the loop), but the savings in operating costs will soon outperform Gas!  Consider the 'cost' of the loop as a prepayment on your future energy.

In reality, the cost of a loop for a standard 3-ton system (which is adequate for a well-insulated 1,500 square foot home) is about $6,000 to $8,000 for a horizontal loop, and about $12,000 to $18,000 for a vertical loop (drilled wells).  The type of loop depends on how much land you have for installation.  If you are located in an urban setting with a typical 'lot' that is, say 40 feet by 100 feet, then you'll need a vertical loop system.  If you have more land area for a horizontal loop (and have at least 5 feet of depth before hitting bedrock), then a horizontal loop will be a great option.

Now, if you are located in an Urban area that is serviced by Natural gas, you are unlikely to consider Geothermal TODAY because the cost of natural gas is relatively low.  HOWEVER, the cost of Natural Gas is increasing at a staggering rate.  As of January 2023, in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), Enbridge Gas increased their natural gas prices from 10 cents to 23 cents per cubic meter in two years!  As a commodity with a depleting supply, Natural Gas will only cost more as the years go on.

Right!  The 'loop thing' is the most important part of the system.  It allows for the energy to be extracted from the ground.

There are two flavours of loops.  The Horizontal Loop and the Vertical Loop.

Horizontal loops are exactly that - loops of pipe that are buried horizontally in the ground at a depth of 5-6 feet.  Geothermal fluid is circulated through the loops, picking up the heat energy from the ground and carrying it into the Geothermal Heat Pump.

Vertical loops consist of one or more drilled wells.  A loop of pipe is installed in each well through which the geothermal fluid circulates, picking up the heat energy and carrying it back into the Geothermal Heat Pump.

The loops are designed and sized specifically for the heat pump and the size of your house.

It is true - that a Heat Pump DOES use electricity, but it uses about as much as an electric hair dryer . . . or toaster.

A typical two-stage, 3-ton Geothermal Heat Pump (standard for a 1,500 square foot home) draws around 1,600 watts of energy on stage 1.  A standard hair dryer or electric toaster draws 1,500 watts. 

The Geothermal Heat Pump is using a small amount of electricity to move the heat energy from one location to another:  from the ground to your house in the winter, and from your house to the ground in the summer.  It does not create heat nor does it burn a fuel to create heat (as with Natural Gas, Propane, Oil or Electric Baseboard).  It simply moves heat from one area to another.

Incidentally, if you are considering a Propane furnace as an option, then you might as well consider electric baseboard electric heat.  No joke!  As of January 2023 in Ontario, the price of Propane is higher than the first two tiers of Hydro-One electricity.  What that means is, running a Propane furnace between the hours of 5pm and 11AM will cost MORE than operating electric baseboard heaters during that same time period.

For sure!

You can reduce the installation cost of a Geothermal Heat Pump by making your home more energy efficient!  Sealing it up, higher quality doors and windows, more insulation.

Geothermal systems are sized for the heat loss of the home.  Factors that influence the heat loss include size of home, construction quality standards (as listed above), setting of the home, age of the home, how many stories . . . among other things.

A sizing rule that we sometimes use to roughly predict the cost of a Geothermal System is to assume that an average, well-constructed home will have about 12,000 btu of heat loss for every 500 square feet of living space.  Because many factors can influence the actual heat loss, this is only a ballpark approach.  Nonetheless, this is a sizing rule that we tend to use in the industry.

Using the above sizing rule, a 1,500 square foot home will need a 36,000 btu geothermal furnace with a loop to match.  The length of the horizontal loop (in feet) is roughly 5% of the Heat loss - or in this case, about 1,800 feet of buried pipe. For a vertical loop, the length of the loop will be about 3% of the heat loss, or in this case, 1,080 feet (3 wells @ 180 feet each).

As of January 2023:

• Geothermal Heat Pump will cost between $10,000 and $12,000
• Horizontal Loop will cost between $6,000 and $8,000
• Labour and connection costs will run around $3,000

The total installation cost of this 3-ton system could be as low as $19,000

Now, don't be fooled.  Bigger is ALWAYS more expensive.  So, if you are contemplating building a 4,500 square foot McMansion with floor-to-ceiling windows in your 'great-big' room, then the heat loss will be MUCH higher.  A much larger Geothermal system would be required which will attract a MUCH higher price.  It goes without saying however, that the operating cost will be MUCH lower with Geothermal than with Natural Gas, Oil or Propane.  MUCH, MUCH LOWER!

Absolutely, and we are happy to oblige.  

The first thing we will do is to determine your ability and level of involvement.  If you want to take care of excavating for installing the loop, then that can shave thousands off of the loop cost.  If you want to take care of the duct work, then that too, can shave thousands off of the installation cost.

The first thing to do is to start the conversation.  Give us a call, and tell us your plans!

Yes!

Currently (as of January 2023), the Canada Greener Homes Grant could cover up to $5,000 (in total) for improvements you make to your home, including the conversion to Geothermal.

For more information, go to the Canada Greener Homes webpage.

From a lifestyle perspective, we can best answer this question by considering any of these three methods: 

The 'Shopping Method':
We can predict your suitability for Geothermal by considering how you shop.

If you are the type of person who buys 10 of 'something' when it's on sale (even though TODAY you only need one), then Geothermal is a perfect option for you.

If on the other hand, you only buy one of the 'something' on sale because you only need one TODAY, then you are not very likely to go ahead with a Geothermal system.

An investment into a geothermal system requires forward thinking.  In essence, you are prepaying TODAY for access to an unlimited amount of energy forever.  There is a cost to that, just as there is a cost for buying 9 more of the 'somethings' that you do not necessarily need today.  While the cost is not prohibitive, nonetheless, there is still a cost.

You can either pay NOW, or pay FOREVER.

The 'Save the Planet Method':
If you are an all-round green person who strongly believes in climate change, renewable energy, energy efficiency and subscribe to the philosophy that we can ALL have a part in saving our planet, then Geothermal is a perfect option for you.

If on the other hand, you cannot relate to any of the above, or rather, you relate to it, but but do not buy into it, then you are not likely to go ahead with a Geothermal System.

The 'You Have No Other Options Method':
If you are located in an area that is not serviced by Natural gas, has difficult winter access that prohibits delivery of Propane or Oil, and you have no other options, then Geothermal is a Perfect fit!!

All that to say, Geothermal is a lifestyle decision for some, and a necessity for others.  

For many consumers, the decision to go Geothermal is a matter of balancing priorities and may involve sacrifices.  A client once told me that it was more important for them to spend $35,000 on Geothermal than on a new car because they spend the majority of their life at home . . . and not in a car!

Practically none, well, except with the requirement to change the air filters several times per year (if you have a liquid-to-air system).

The beauty of Geothermal is that you 'set it and forget it.' 

We recommend that you dispense with the practice of turning your thermostat up and down throughout the day.  Geothermal works best and most efficiently if it is expected to operate in a consistent fashion 24/7.  Your house will feel MUCH more comfortable in the long run.

Aside from the regular filter changes that you can do yourself, there is no annual maintenance (unlike a fossil-fuel furnace requiring annual cleanings and inspections).

Yeah - we've heard this once or twice over the years :), but usually from HVAC contractors who do not install Geothermal.

Here is a bit of background:

Back in the mid '80s throughout the early '90s, there were a plethora of national programs throughout North America to direct homeowners away from Fossil Fuel heating.  The grants were INSANE, covering up to 75% of the installation costs!

Back then, there were no guidelines or standards for Geothermal sizing or installation.  The installing contractors generally did a fantastic job with the installations, but the Geothermal Heat Pumps were sized for air conditioning comfort and NOT for heating efficiency.  As a result, nearly ALL of these installations were undersized for heating.  This meant that they required internal electric resistance heating coils to make up the difference.  The operating costs were incredibly high during the coldest days of the winter.

As a result, Geothermal got a bad rap because the energy savings were not 'as advertised'!

Those days are long-gone however, and most of those systems have come to the end of their operating life and since been replaced.  Sadly, the bad reputation had lingered in some smaller circles.

So, all that to say . . . should you be worried?  Absolutely NOT.

Today, there are sizing and installation standards (CAN/CSA-C448) that we must (and do) follow.  Systems are sized for 100% of the heating load, and the energy savings are exactly as advertised.  Because the systems are properly sized, they are not overworked which means they have a much longer lifespan (even though there are still some 1990 systems that are still in operation today).