DIVESTING FROM FOSSIL FUELS;
GEOTHERMAL HOME-Heating System
Lara Wahl
Written: November 18, 2016
Let's talk RENEWABLE Heating source. Here is the breakdown of my Geothermal Heating project for our home in Upton, $$ and all! that we installed in our efforts to DIVEST our home from fossil Fuels!! We did it!! How can I talk the talk without Walking the Walk.
Firstly, this is roughly how geothermal works
(at least our unit):
You drill 2 “wells,” or holes, 400 ft deep- for a 2100 sq foot home. In these wells will live a looped length of pipe that runs to the bottom of the “well” and back up. In these pipes runs fluid, along with some food grade antifreeze- same as in your fridge, which keeps the pipe from freezing. Well, is not super accurate, despite the fact that this is what they call it, because you do not draw water from the ground from these “holes.”.The fluid stays in the pipes and runs to the depth of the ground then back up and into your house to your unit where the temperature comes in at 50 degrees. The reason for this is that whether it is the coldest day of the year or the hottest, the temp of the Earth at that depth is always about 50/55 degrees. The unit uses just a little energy to heat the temp up to 67 or whatever you keep your home set to, in winter, and uses barely any energy to cool it, because it's already coming in VERY cool at 50ish. Fans working with an HVAC system BLOW across the pipes and channel it all over your house through vents.
Cost:
Okay, first let me qualify this by saying we were spending about $5,500 a year in Oil!! The house we bought in Upton, in 2006, came with a loud annoying, old, oil burner. It was time to upgrade the inefficient unit and I could not bring myself to switching to gas. I couldn't do it.
Furthermore... I went to the beach with my kids and looked out into the glorious beauty of this planet, and I decided I was going to live my ideals and my integrity. And DIVE IN.
Why do I say dive in? Well because to do a unit like this, I won't lie to you, it is a TON of up front cost- unless you are smart like me ;) don't mind doing a TON of paperwork, and in order to make it worth it, you have to KNOW that you are sticking around for at least a few years- which turns out is not really true, as I was saving money from year one. But I didn't know this and it was scary, and I was uncertain where we would be. But the moment it was clear that I was doing it, there was no going back.
1. MASSAVE
Okay first step. In Massachusetts, if you make any upgrades to your heating system, there is a program called Mass Save- I believe other states have something similar. I don't honestly think we would have been able to do it without them. They come to your home and they give you free energy efficient light bulbs, and thermostats. They do free sealant insulation in your attic, among other things. This is a service that is paid by us. Every month on our utility bills, all the rate payers across Mass- in efforts to help people with their heating cost, and in efforts to save energy for the state and planet. It's been amazing and actually ends up saving the people who are paying for it, lots of money, if you are smart enough to take advantage of what you are already paying for! The other thing they do is provide a 0% -7 year loan u to 25k for energy upgrades to your current heating system, as long as what you are installing is more efficient. That’s right 0%. That’s basically a FREE LOAN.
There are a few steps within this first Big step of this process.
You have to:
1. Call them and schedule an appointment.
2. Have them come out and do what is called an energy audit.
3. They give you a report a few weeks later in which you tell them you wish to proceed with updating your unit.
4. Contact companies and get quotes and compare.
5. (FIND SOMEONE who is willing to work with your steep driveway! lol) When I chose my narrow pick of team, of heating contractors I chose Boucher Energy Systems, Inc., in Mendon.- which I LOVED.
6. You take the quote the company ($44k roughly! - don't give up yet!!!! ) gives you to one of the banks working with Mass save to give you the 7 year loan. The bank, if you are approved, gives you this loan and therefore suddenly you are able to offset the cost and spread it out for 7 years! (We used the full 25 k- because it's 0% who wouldn't! that means no fees, no interest nothing!)
Second part: phew- I know!
2. Massachusetts Clean Energy Center.
They, at the time were providing a $6,000k Grant for geothermal units!! Thanks to the Awesome Steve at Boucher, from the company I chose to work with for installation, for filling out the lengthy form with me not once, but TWICE (due to a last minute change in equipment) God bless him. We got it! We got it by the skin of our teeth. Mass CEC does this, to study heat efficiency with these units as another AMAZING thing Deval Patrick set up when he was governor of Massachusetts. Their mission statement: "Mass CEC is a publicly-funded agency dedicated to accelerating the success of clean energy technologies, companies and projects in the Commonwealth—while creating high-quality jobs and long-term economic growth for the people of Massachusetts. " Amazing. PS their current mission is renewable energy storage- BIG. keep your eye on that one.
So let's review. the whole project cost 44k minus the 25k we got at 0% interest, zero down, so now now we are down to 19k minus the 6k grant (which we would have done the project anyway even if we didn't get it, but this sweetened the deal soooo nicely!) - so that comes to 13k. Now meanwhile,
3. The Federal govt. gives a Tax rebate
to anyone installing solar and or Geothermal for 30% of the cost of the project! That's right- THEY PAY for nearly a third of your total project costs! (Only through the end of 2021!! Act fast, who knows what it will be next year, maybe better!) Guess what 30% of 44k is? 13,200!!! I am not kidding you. Now of course the $25 k and the $6k we got before we started paying our company for the project. So the 13k came out of pocket, but then the rebate came in a few months later with our tax return!! So essentially we made $200! :)
Okay so. cost to run the thing? Well your electric bill goes up a little in the winter, and not really much at all in summer! (This is so different than what we were used to.) So our only heating cost is that little bit of electric increase, plus paying off the loan that was stretched out over 7 years with no interest. No more oil, no gas, just added electric. We have noticed our bill increased by about $1,500 a year. A YEAR. Total for Heating costs! Much better than the $5,500 we were paying for before in oil, and even when you roll in the monthly loan payments to the bank that loaned us the 25k , ($3,571 a year) that is still slightly cheaper than what we paying for before for oil, and after the 7 years are up, it is MUCH cheaper. What a radical concept, saving and the environment can go hand and hand!
So a LOT of forms, a ton of work later, we did it! Oh and I didn't mention the fact that the well drilling company was terrified of our driveway as was I, and thought that maybe because of our steep driveway we may not have been able to do it! We did it anyway :) ! That rig is HUGE... and I nearly crapped my pants watching it go down the driveway! :)
Also... because we have an intermitant stream near where we dug our "wells" we had to get special permission from the Conservation Commission... but it was no problem! As the stream was plenty far from the digging.
Also.. :) the company piped HVAC through the whole house... which was certainly an undertaking. But amazing in the end as we got central air out of it! Boucher was awesome, and it is sooo nice and cool in the summer! and so cozy in the winter.
The reason also I should mention as to why we are 100% fossil fuel free and divested, is because our electricity supplier is Viridian. In Mass you can choose your supplier and we chose them because they locked us in to a competitive rate- same as we were paying before- and they ONLY use wind, solar, and hydro. So there you go. :)