Local Video
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| Innovative heating source cuts costs and pollution |
By: CLAIRE GILBERT, Special to the News
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Posted: Tuesday, March 24, 2009 9:43 pm
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Ross and Victoria Stickley want to leave their home to their daughter, but, with the rising costs of energy, they didn’t want their gift to become a burden. So, they installed a geothermal heat pump in their home last May to improve their heating and cooling system.
The “noble experiment,” Ross Stickley said, took less than a week to install. The system is composed of a total of 2,000 feet of piping in three loops, which lie 18 feet below the ground. The pipes are filled with an antifreeze mixture that uses the natural heat of the earth to maintain a temperature of 50 to 55 degrees Fahrenheit throughout the system, using electricity to further heat or cool the air moving into a home.
As a retired mechanical engineer, Stickley was familiar with the technology of the geothermal heat pump.
“The technology, each piece of it, is not really new,” he said.
With current concerns over energy and environmental consciousness, the geothermal heat pump is becoming popular because it offers a combined solution. The International Ground Source Heat Pump Association estimates that systems in use have eliminated 3 million tons of carbon dioxide, the same as taking 650,000 cars off the road.
“Maintaining the system is the big question,” Stickley said. As geothermal heating systems are uncommon still, there are a number of complications that could arise. Theoretically, the system in the ground should last forever, and the in-home system is estimated to have at least a 25-year life span. If something did need to be replaced, though, most of the system is under 18 feet of dirt.
“Up to now,” Stickley said, “we’ve been quite pleased with it.”
The system cost $20,000 to install, “Half of our new Cadillac we’ve never had,” Victoria Stickley said. While the initial cost requires about five to 10 years to recover in energy savings, depending on varying prices and personal energy use, the geothermal heating system does use less energy.
“Let’s say the consumption is less,” Stickley said, going on to explain that with fluctuating energy costs, it is difficult to pinpoint savings.
For the Stickleys, though, the investment was not so much about the money, but the efficiency and quality of the system. They hope to be able to pass their house down to their daughter, and were looking for a long-term, durable system for heating and cooling. Stickley, who looked into a couple different systems, concluded that “the geothermal system is the most efficient.”
While Stickley is not prepared to praise the system as perfect, believing that the future could bring anything to the table, he had no complaints. The system cannot eliminate a reliance on electricity, but it does increase the use of natural energy sources, Stickley said.
BY THE NUMBERS
5 to 10 — the number of years it takes to recover the initial $20,000 installation cost
50 to 55 — the air temperature (in degrees Farneheit) using an unheated geothermal system
3 million — the estimated number of tons of carbon dioxide saved by geothermal heat pumps
— Claire Gilbert is a junior at St. Olaf College and is serving as an intern at the Northfield News. She can be reached at 645-1114 or cgilbert@northfieldnews.com.
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