Monday, February 11, 2013

Geothermal heat & hot water

I've been trying to nail down the specifics of some of the infrastructure of our new home.  We knew we wanted to use a geothermal heat pump to heat the house because it's dirt cheap (no pun intended) to operate, and with the government incentives currently in place, it's not all that much more expensive to install than a traditional furnace & A/C.  I had heard rumors that it could also be used to provide "free hot water."  Since heating water can use anywhere from 20-30% of a home's annual utility bill, reducing this cost can have a significant impact on a home's operational cost.  I wanted to share what I found about that.