Hello dear members of the forum, My name is Meni and I wanted to share my experience here and say some good words about the company that Installed our Geo Thermal system. If someone from New Jersey is looking for a very fine contractor, here is my testimonial: Twelve years ago we bought our 2600sf house, which used propane as its heating source, the tank is owned by the supplier (one of the major companies). For 12 years we had aggravation every time we saw the tank filled. Prices went up every single year, from $1.99 back then to $4.8 the last time we filled it in January 10th, 2014. At that time, we payed $1800. This was for the month of December, one week of which we were away (We set the thermostat at 55 degrees). Not only did we pay thousands of dollars every year for heating, but we were also not comfortable, because we set the temperature in the house at 68 during the day and 62 at night to save money. The last fill was the last straw, and I decided that I would not be a slave to the propane companies any longer and I would go in a different direction.There is no city gas in my street, so the other obvious option was oil. I didn't want to go in that direction because oil is also very expensive and not as clean as what I was used to with propane. After some research, I found out about geothermal and I was very intrigued. From what I have learned (every page of this forum and the greenbuildingtalk.com geo themal forum) is that geothermal is expensive to install and there are many contractors that are either unreliable or not knowledgeable enough.Equipped with my knowledge, I started to look for a contractor and one of the offers I got was from Ryan company. Their offer was not the cheapest but the reasons I signed a contract with them were as follows: 1. The company is very established with many years of experience and is family owned.2. Patrick Ryan was very responsive to every phone call, answering every question I had with amazing patience (and I had so many), and with vast knowledge. 3. Ryan was taking care of all the procedures of the rebates from the state and getting all the permits required by the state and the town. 4. The company got our house energy star certified (and helping us get the rebate for that).5. The most important thing for me was the fact that Ryan took care of the whole process from start to finish, from the paperwork with the banks and the state to the actual installation, which included the drilling. Other contractors hire well drilling companies to do the drilling, which is not ideal to say the least. Unexpected problems during the drilling can make the process cost more, not to mention delays associated with dealing with a 3rd party. Payment were divided into 5 equal parts according to the progress in a very fair manner.A few days after signing the contract, their trucks were in my back yard, starting to drill in the low 2 digits temperature, every single day, even when it snowed. It was a very difficult job; I know because I saw the process. It took longer than what they expected and worked much harder and all that time I was thinking that if the drilling was done by an outside company, it would have cost me much more. I knew that because I read other peoples experiences. Ryan was extremely generous with the number of the wells and their depth, which was I would say at least 50 percent more than what was required by the manufacturer. When the drilling was done, I had 12 professionals working in my house, installing the system, doing the plumbing and the electricity part. All of this was done in one day. I can not say enough how professional, friendly and kind these people are, keeping it all clean and neat and doing all they could to please us. The installation in our utility room was meticulous; I never saw anywhere (I was also watching so many youtube video clips of installations...) anything so nice and neat.I wasn't an easy customer, calling Patrick almost every single day, but I could always reach him with ease. He always answered his phone, and in rare cases of getting his answer machine, he would call me within few minutes. The office staff were also so kind and patient with me. I am not exaggerating when I say that every single person I dealt with at this company was amazing. And finally, the best part:Ryan installed a WaterFurnace series7.As you all know, this is the most advanced and efficient system in the market today, giving real time information about the performance of the system and the electricity use (instant, daily, weekly, etc) so I could see how much energy I use at any given moment. During half of the month of February, when the temperatures outside were between 20-30 degrees, the system was using usually anywhere from 1.5kwh to 2.5kwh , and that was to heat my whole house as well as our water! From paying $40-50 a day for not much heat in the house we went to $2-3 a day and having constant comfortable heat and hot water. That was beyond my expectations.I would also like to mention that there was a timing issue with the propane amount that was in the tank. I didn't want to refill before we were done with the installation and Ryan was always on the watch to make sure that I will not get stuck without heat and I felt that they really cared about me and my family. We enjoy the system since march of last year. Summer months bills were ridiculously low ($130 in august). December total watts consumption of the system was 695KW. we keep the house at 69 degrees and take 5-7 showers daily, Water comes from the desuperheater buffer tank at above 100 degrees on average in the last month. cost of hot water using propane before was fortune, now, almost free ! Our System: Waterfurnace series 7, 3 tons unit.4 vertical wells, each 250 feet, 1 inch diameter. I cannot say enough how happy and fortunate I feel that I engaged with this company. My house is open to anyone who wants to see how a professional installation should look like. Ryan company has my information.
Its nice to hear a good story like this from a Homeowner! Congratulations to both you and your Professionals! Thanks for sharing!
The Ryan team was at my house today (full story to be shared in a forthcoming post) to install a WaterFurnace 7 Series and I too can't praise them enough. The only bad part is that these guys are so good that I'm spoiled now. I doubt that I will ever have another experience that will match the professionalism that they exhibited.
We have just received January electric bill. $290. That's $150 more than last January. So heating our house (69 degrees) and water for 6 Showers per day cost us $150. Amazing ! I forgot to mention before, there is also an all house humidifier that runs constantly whenever the pump is running using hot water. last year, before we had the geothermal, it was connected to cal water, I don't want to think how much more propane we would use if it was connected back then to the hot water. Now, almost free.
