Geothermal Heat Pump System

OK...yesterday, I called up a HVAC place, Pantherhvac (pantherhvac.com), and they came out to check out my house.  Mike, the owner of the company, was great.  We walked around the house...looked at my POS existing heat pumps and talked geothermal. Did I say it was great yet?  Because if not, here it is again...it was great and it was fun.  I guess having a spend a lot of money isn't fun, but talking about saving energy and money is.

Anyhow, so the best places for the wells will be in the front yard...and I really liked his idea of putting the wells under the driveway, since I was already planning on tearing out my beat up driveway anyway and putting in something permeable.  The nice thing for them about putting the wells there is no utilities and no sprinkler system to deal with. Plus, the drill rig doesn't have to deal with trees.  So, the wells would under the driveway and then I'd have a small trench that would run two 1.25" lines (supply and return) to the crawl space.  This is nice because it would be minimal yard repair from the excavation in the front yard.   And before you ask...the well system has a 55 year warranty.

So the system will include two @ 2 ton units.  The downstairs unit would be a combined unit with all brand new insulated duct work.  Next to that unit would be the "liquid half" of my upstairs unit, so it would be a split system.  Then the air handler would be in the attic like the way it is now.  The main duct work in the attic would be replaced with insulated stuff.  However, the current "drops" to each room are already insulated and new, so they can be reused.  Only the duct run to the bonus room would be replaced since the insulation is falling off of it.   Oh, and we discussed putting on a different supply vent in our master bathroom to redirect the air...because the ventilation fan for that bathroom is literally 3" from the supply duct.  So...when the ventilation fan is running and the heat turns on, the heat literally goes straight outside.  This is why I have that vent in the bathroom is closed.

Ok...for hot water, I'm getting two quotes.  One for the normal system with the desuperheater to give me free hot water in the summer (the reject heat from A/C is used to heat the hot water).  The other will be for "priority" hot water which essentially is using the geothermal system to heat your hot water.  It's also called geothermal hot water.

So, when talking dollars and sense we discussed round numbers until I get the official quote on Monday.  The unofficial quote is $30k.  So, take that $30k and minus the 30% federal tax credit ($10k), and now it's $20k.  Then, the State of NC has a 35% tax credit capped at $8.4k.  So minus the $8.4k, and I'm at $11.6k.  Fantastic.  I got a quote from my current HVAC contractor for a new high efficiency air source heat pump (16-18 SEER, 9.X HSPF) that was $14k. So, after tax breaks, this system will cost me less than installing the air source heat pumps while being significantly more efficient!

Now I just need the official quote.  I also need to call up two other HVAC places to get quotes from them to keep everyone 'honest'.

Oh...and BTW, I showed the HVAC guy my TED 5000.  He loved it.  He's probably going to start including one with his geothermal systems to show folks how much energy/money they are saving.