Low temperature baseboards with geothermal

Hi Vivek,

I tried and tried to find an installer willing to implement this plan for a reasonable price but came up short. I probably directly spoke with 8 installers. They either didn't believe in the high heat models or were concerned with piping chilled water to an air handler, specifically the condensation that would potentially occur along the pipes. They were also noted how expensive it would be to upgrade my baseboards to low temp baseboards, but I wasn't as concerned about this as I was willing to do that work myself.

I ended up getting an ASHP whole house system, which was substantially cheaper than GSHP for the quotes I was receiving. That said, I sacrificed some on comfort and efficiency with the ASHP, relative to the GSPH. Although the drop in efficiency probably wasn't too much, given the type of GSPH system I was looking into. I will be installing more ceiling fans and room-to-room Panasonic high-efficiency exhaust fans around the house to improve air distribution (I went with 6 ductless indoor units paired with 2 outdoor units to cover my entire house's heating and cooling). I also need to upgrade my basement's insulation too.

It is nice being off oil though now and I'm about to get a 12 kW solar array installed too which should about cover my home's annual electric load... it'll also be a cash flow positive investment with all the incentives we have here in Massachusetts. With my air distribution and insulation upgrades, along with the solar array, I'll mostly get to the same place I wanted to with a GSHP, albeit in a less elegant way.

I would have loved to implement a GSPH solution, but it was just too cost prohibitive in my area.

Good luck.

- Brad

 

Thanks Brad,

I assume the ductless option for the ASHP was the reason you weren't able to find an equivalent GSHP solution.

Was my summary of the GSHP system you were looking at (if you found an installer to work with) accurate?

Vivek

 

Yes, your summary was accurate of my intended GSPH system.

I had the ASHP installed for the reasons I previously stated regarding finding an affordable installer willing to implement my GSHP idea. There are far more contractors that have sufficient ASHP experience than GSPH experience too. I probably should have done a combination of ductless and ducts for the indoor aspect of the ASHP, but I'll compensate with the room-to-room exhaust fans and ceiling fans.