Is Geothermal Heat Pump HVAC Worth It?

Our furnace and air conditioner are getting a little "long in the tooth."  In fact, they are original to our 1986 house.  And while to my mind, the 80s were just like totally only yesterday, the harsh truth is that 24 years have gone by.  We have a traditional gas burning forced-air furnace that once in a while gets plugged up with old construction debris (sucked down from the cold air returns which are only cavities in the walls) and spills water on our basement storage room floor.  Other than that, it's kept on chugging along and we have our fingers crossed that it won't die anytime soon.  The same goes for the A/C, which as far as I can recall has never needed a repair. (Knock on wood.)

But as time marches on we are getting closer to that day when we'll need to replace our HVAC.  With that in mind, we've from time to time looked into geothermal heating and cooling systems.  They are efficient and provide a "green" alternative to traditional HVAC systems.  But like many green products, it can be more expensive.  So if you are thinking of installing one, you ought to weigh the expenses against the return.

Geothermal systems work by using the heat stored in the surface of the earth to heat the home in cold weather, or to pull heat out of the home to cool it in warm weather. Polyethylene piping is installed under the ground or under water, and water (or antifreeze) is circulated through these pipes to either be warmed by the ground temperature (about 50 degrees) or to transfer heat from the house to the ground.  A small unit in the house uses electricity to concentrate the heat and to circulate the air.  More info on the operation of the geothermal heat pump is here.

As home improvements go, the geothermal HVAC system is one of your very high ticket items.  Depending on what type of installation you get it may be more or less expenses.  Installation types include:

Horizontal Loop - piping runs back and forth underneath your driveway or yard

Pond Loop - piping is installed under water

Vertical Loop - if you don't have the square footage available for horizontal, the alternative is to have a well driller drill a shaft into the earth for the piping to run down into

Open Loop - also involves drilling, as it uses ground water for heating and cooling

According to the Consumer Energy Center, geothermal heat pumps cost (for an "average" home) about $7500, plus the cost of installation which varies depending on the need for drilling (anywhere from $10,000 - $30,000).   To reap a savings of 30-60% on your heating and cooling bill, is it worth it?  

If you are planning to stay in your home for at least 5-10 years, the geothermal HVAC will probably pay for itself in energy savings.  In our situation, where we are still paying off credit card bills from our kitchen remodel, it would not be cost effective to put money into a geothermal heat pump rather than paying off high-interest debts.  But we are keeping our fingers crossed that the traditional HVAC we have will keep on trucking until we are able to justify the expense of a high priced heating and cooling system, and have saved up the cash to buy it.

Posted by Caeli at 05:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Deciding to paint the woodwork in your home is a big step.  Once you start, you can't stop with one door frame, or just do the baseboards.  Oh no, once you start painting woodwork you are committing yourself to painting all doors, door frames, window frames and mullions, baseboards and any other type of molding or trim in the room (such as cove molding or crown molding). You may also be committed to painting the woodwork in adjoining rooms.  You may or may not have to do both sides of doors.

Yet, freshly painted woodwork can really improve and update the look of your home's interior.  Typically, new model homes have white woodwork.  So if your home was built, say, circa 1985, it may have all oak or oak-looking woodwork, and thus it is dated.  A fresh coat of white paint (following a nice coat of primer of course) takes at least 20 years of the look of the house.  

After remodeling a few years ago, we made the choice to go with white woodwork in the newly re-done rooms.  It took a while before we addressed the adjoining areas, including a hallway that leads from the front door to our new dining room.   But the walls were looking worse than dingy (decorated by toddlers with Crayolas and a the dog wiping her face in the wall, don't ask) so when I finally made the leap to paint the walls, I knew it was time to address the woodwork as well. 

Here are some tips for painting ceiling, walls and woodwork:

1. Prime everything that needs priming first, from stains on the walls or a dark/bright paint color, to never-before-painted woodwork.  For priming, you don't have to mask anything that will eventually be painted.
2. When painting ceiling, walls and woodwork in the same room, start with the ceiling.  A flat white ("ceiling white") paint is the best choice. Do two coats.
3. Paint the walls.  You might use a low-tack tape to mask the just-painted ceiling for cutting in the edges, but it is better if you can just be careful.  The trick to painting edges without masking is to load your brush with paint (but not so it's dripping all over the place), place it on the wall 1-2" below the place where the wall and ceiling meet, then holding it at a 45, allow the brush to fan out, so the edge of the fanned-out bristles just brush the joint between walls and ceiling.  The other trick: have a wet rag handy for oopsies.  Do two coats of wall paint.
4. Paint the woodwork.  You did do a coat of primer first, right?  You may have to mask the walls around the edges of door and window frames to protect your new paint job.  Now, start from the inside and work your way out.  If you're painting a window, start with the mullions, and the interior of the window frame.  Also, work top down.  This is to help you catch any drips.   Use a brush well-loaded with paint, hold it at a 45 degree angle, and use long, smooth strokes.  "Paint on, paint off Daniel-son."  Well, paint-on, anyway.  You may need to do three coats of paint for woodwork that was never painted before. 
5. When removing masking tape, use a utility knife to score areas that have a lot of paint on them, and pull the tape of at an angle to the surface to prevent pulling off the new paint with it.
   

Needless to say, this is a time-consuming project, and if you buy good-quality paint which I believe is worth it (we like Sherwin Williams) it can cost $100-$200.  Because you need to let the coats of paint dry between re-coats, you're looking at 2-3 days most likely.  But the end result will be worth it!  Here is a picture of my newly painted hallway.  Believe me, it looks 1000% better than it did before I painted it, ceiling, walls, and woodwork.

Posted by Caeli at 02:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)