I have been getting lots of questions about how geothermal works especially since the stimulus package upgraded the rebate that you get to 30% of the total cost.  To date, I have not heard any consumer or builder get the principles of geothermal exactly correct so I have asked our in-house expert to give us a quick lesson on Geothermal.  To get a more thorough explanation in person visit us this week at the SouthEastern Lifestyle Construction Conference.

GEOTHERMAL 101

By: Fresh World – Geothermal Systems design, Sales, Installation – Fresh World- Sustainable Solutions for Life

Geothermal heating and cooling technology has been around for decades, but not many people use it—compared to a conventional heat pump, it’s 2x more expensive to install. But if you’re building a new house, installing a geothermal system will only cost a few thousand dollars more than a conventional system and can pay off big through reduced energy and upkeep costs.

A geothermal Heat Pump is nothing more than a Heat Pump. A common misconception is it uses water from the earth to heat and cool your house, it does not! It works on the same principles as a regular air to air heat pump. Firstly I’m going to explain how a Heat Pump works. Compression of any gas to a liquid state (any one remember their chemistry & physics classes?) generates heat. In this case the gas we use is called refrigerant. This high pressure refrigerant is then quickly discharged to a vapor state through the use of a nozzle called an expansion valve, the same way hair spray comes out of an aerosol can. That vaporized refrigerant is now really cold. This cold refrigerant is piped through a coil where air blows past it from your air conditioner unit and the cold is what you feel in the summer time coming out of your vents. Once this refrigerant leaves the coil it begins its journey again through the compressor that puts the refrigerant back into a compressed liquid state. Imagine putting the hair spray back into the can and pressurizing it again so that the cycle can start all over again. But wait. The compressor and the refrigerant are now really hot from all this work so the Heat Pump uses a fan to cool everything off. This is what you see sitting outside your house making all kinds of racket out side your bedroom window. In the winter time this process still happens but in reverse. more…

I love the day after sales. I just picked up some chocolate for my family that was 75% off retail. The first day after the Valentine’s day was 50% now it is 75%. Pretty soon it will be discounted even more.

Seems like green products are getting the same treatment, however in the form of rebates and tax credits. One of our clients chose geothermal HVAC over regular HVAC because the payback made sense with the tax credits. I have not had the chance to tell them that the federal credit is now 30% with no cap. Before they were getting 2K back from the Feds. With the stimulus package, they will be getting about 9500 back from the feds and 2K from the state of GA. That amounts to over 35% back in tax credits. If they lived a little South of Atlanta they would be getting even more! Some EMC’s have additional rebates available for renewable energy and geothermal HVAC.

You can buy a lot of discounted chocolate with that rebate! (I am not suggesting that- please invest your savings responsibly!)

Looks like some of the manufactures that we represent are jumping on the stimulus bandwagon.  One of them is the geothermal manufacturer that we work with.

We just got one of our clients over 10K in refunds, rebates and credits.  Looks like we can get them even more now since we are a Waterfurnace dealer.  Just got our geothermal newsletter and it looks like they will get an additional 2K back from the manufacturer in addition to the 2K from the feds and 2K from the state.  Yes- that is 6K total.  Not bad since this this particular system outperforms standard efficiency HVAC by over 200%!  Better efficiency along with the great rebates and you do not have any more excuses for not going green now.

For more information on the rest of the rebates visit our Get Paid to Go Green page.

For more details on the rebates read on.

more…

Here in Georgia- it is freezing right now.  We are getting calls left and right to make homes more energy efficient as well as comfortable.  Many of them are looking for a quick fix but a few are thinking long term as well.  If you have an inefficient house and you have holes in your insulation, then stop letting your money go through the roof and out the walls! Energy efficiency also makes your  home more comfortable.  I am sure that your family would appreciate a more comfortable house as well.  The colds and allergies will also diminish.

There are 2 main parts to home performance.  How your home performs, and how you perform in the house.  In the winter, if you have a leaky house then you can either lower the thermostat and freeze (lifestyle change), or you can make your home more energy efficient (home performance changes) and be comfortable and save money!

Within Home Performance you can either do basic changes to your house or advanced changes to save even more money.  Basic changes include: upgrading insulation, draft blocking, sealing up your duct work etc.  These are all areas that you can get an immediate payback on comfort and energy efficiency.

If you have made the basic changes to your home and still want to save money, then upgrade the mechanical systems in your home.  HVAC is the number 1 consumer of energy in the house followed by the water heater.  The most efficient water heater on the market is Solar Thermal.  The most efficient HVAC on the market is geothermal HVAC.  This system is more than twice as efficient as a typical HVAC unit.  Combined with the Solar and Insulation upgrades your energy consumption can be cut by over 50% or more!

For more information on this and other rebates and incentives click here.

To learn more about geothermal in person come visit us at Log Home and Timber Frame Show here in Atlanta this weekend. Read on for more details about the show.

more…