Energy, cost advantages raise geothermal system interest
How? By using the natural temperature of the Earth in a geothermal system of heating and cooling to cut down on energy usage, a system that increasingly is becoming popular with energy- and cost-conscious homeowners.
A Tarrant County physician, Jim Kauffman and his wife have owned two homes in the Mira Vista neighborhood of southwest Fort Worth, but their third home is the first they had built. The couple began thinking about their new home around the end of 2006 and Kauffman knew he wanted to integrate a geothermal system into the home’s construction.
“I had heard about it several years ago. We were going around to some of the home and garden shows around Fort Worth and they had people who were demonstrating these geothermal systems,” Kauffman said. “I looked at a couple of them and they intrigued me.”
He asked builder Dan Thomas, president of Dan Thomas Homes Inc., to make it happen, and Thomas contacted Klund Services Heating & Air, in Burleson, to do the job.
A geothermal system is a closed loop system in which a series of pipes is installed underground to allow for fluid to flow through continuously, carrying heat away from the house (or building in commercial settings) during summer or toward the house in winter. As the pipes snake their way through the ground, up and down, the temperature of the water in the pipes matches the temperature underground. In this way, less energy is needed to heat or cool the home because the Earth’s own temperature keeps the home at a constant level – about 67 degrees, Kauffman said.
Simply put, it takes less energy to move a house from 67 degrees to 72 degrees than it does to move from, say, 54 degrees to a comfortable room temperature.
“You use the Earth to provide most of the energy to convert the air from whatever temperature it is outside to 72 or whatever you’d like to set it on,” Kauffman said. “It uses considerably less energy to do the same work. And because the system doesn’t have all the coils of a traditional system the maintenance on them is supposed to be considerably less over the same unit”
The system costs about twice as much as a traditional heating and air conditioning system, but the advantage is in reduced electric bills. In the summer of 2007, the Kauffmans opened a bill to the amount of $1,200. This past summer, in their new home, the couple’s largest bill was $375.
Needless to say, they’re pleased.
For the Kauffman’s system, 13 holes between 4 inches and 6 inches in diameter were drilled at various places around the lot. The pipe is fed through and the system connected to the house. Depending on the job, holes are drilled to between 250 feet and 300 feet.
“Obviously there’s an investment up front, a high-end air conditioning system compared to a geothermal are very similar in price, but we have to drill the ground loop wells and that’s where the added cost comes in,” said David Klund, president of Klund Services.
Despite the higher costs of more energy-efficient products – solar panels, light bulbs, geothermal systems and so on – Klund said the latter fits right in with the ever-growing trend to use less energy and reduce one’s impact on the environment.
“Geothermal has been around a long time, obviously with this talk of energy and everyone trying to go green it’s becoming more popular,” Klund said. He added, “The geothermal fits in with our energy-saving and green ambitions that everyone has. It seems like every radio station or TV you’ll see something about going green and being environmentally sound. With our situation with fuel and the production of electricity … I don’t think electricity is going to be cheaper any time soon.”
Builder Dan Thomas has another project in the works: Klund’s new home, which, of course, will use a geothermal system.
