Early Retirement & Financial Independence Community - View Single Post

jazz4cash · 11-08-2007, 04:59 PM

Thanks to all.

Walt.......your response on another thread was the reason I posted to begin with. Glad to hear you are still satisfied with the system

There's no way the operating cost could be "practically free" as you must pay electricity to run the pumps and compressors.

The figure I've seen on closed loop system piping is 1000' per ton (not 100)...will check on that. We need a closed loop system and probably have adequate lot size.

Water Furnace is a company that specializes in the equipment and they are located in Indiana (Elkhart or Ft Wayne, I believe)

We've experienced a 60% increase in electric rates, so we were initially just looking at replacing our 80gal electric water heater with gas, but 1st quote was 4k because we need the forced vent system. Now Im wondering if it would be cost effective to replace heating and cooling systems together with the water heater. Our home has a 2 zone HVAC system which is gas on the 1st floor and heat pump on the 2nd floor that totals about 5 tons of cooling. Might be possible to re-use the indoor heat pump equipment. I also like the idea of keeping the gas furnace for backup. I would consider if payback is under 8 yrs. With fuel cost going up the payback becomes more favorable. I live near DC so heating and cooling are both significant.

11-08-2007, 04:59 PM	#14
jazz4cash Thinks s/he gets paid by the post Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Laurel, MD Posts: 1,239	Thanks to all. Walt.......your response on another thread was the reason I posted to begin with. Glad to hear you are still satisfied with the system There's no way the operating cost could be "practically free" as you must pay electricity to run the pumps and compressors. The figure I've seen on closed loop system piping is 1000' per ton (not 100)...will check on that. We need a closed loop system and probably have adequate lot size. Water Furnace is a company that specializes in the equipment and they are located in Indiana (Elkhart or Ft Wayne, I believe) We've experienced a 60% increase in electric rates, so we were initially just looking at replacing our 80gal electric water heater with gas, but 1st quote was 4k because we need the forced vent system. Now Im wondering if it would be cost effective to replace heating and cooling systems together with the water heater. Our home has a 2 zone HVAC system which is gas on the 1st floor and heat pump on the 2nd floor that totals about 5 tons of cooling. Might be possible to re-use the indoor heat pump equipment. I also like the idea of keeping the gas furnace for backup. I would consider if payback is under 8 yrs. With fuel cost going up the payback becomes more favorable. I live near DC so heating and cooling are both significant.