ᐅ Geothermal Energy: Pros and Cons?

bswunde schrieb:
I wonder how large the storage system needs to be for a household of almost five people... and whether that might be excessive?!

Well, there are quite a few more details needed to answer that question, such as the size of the house, the building envelope insulation, the installed heating technology, and so on...

The fact is that oil, gas, and electricity prices are unlikely to get cheaper in the future, so a long-term perspective will certainly provide more insight than just focusing on the storage system costs alone.

Doc.Schnaggls schrieb:
Hi Cascada,

We also considered surface or trench collectors, but there is solid rock on our property starting at a depth of 3 meters (10 feet), so without expensive blasting, it wouldn’t have been possible.
.........
However, we didn’t want gas because we wanted to be independent from fossil fuels.

Regards,

Dirk

Hello Dirk,

Wouldn’t a depth of 3 meters (10 feet) have been sufficient for a trench collector?

You’re right about fossil fuels—that was a factor for us as well. Considering the development of energy prices—especially electricity—our decision might look different today. We probably would have chosen gas and designed the underfloor heating with narrow pipe spacing from the start to be compatible with a heat pump.
If in a few (?) years electricity prices had decreased or stabilized and gas had become significantly more expensive, switching to a heat pump later on would still have been possible. Economically, that might have been the best approach…

Best regards

bswunde schrieb:
I’m concerned that as soon as the ground source heat pump eventually pays off, it will already need to be replaced?!
We are very uncertain about which heating option to choose.
Maybe we should also consider looking at an air-to-water heat pump...

Hello,

Regarding durability, it’s hard to give a precise statement for each individual case. However, there are still heat pumps from the 1980s in operation, for example.
The lifespan of the compressor (it doesn’t always mean the entire heat pump has to be replaced) also depends on proper design and installation, such as minimizing short cycling.

Best regards

Hello and thank you,

we have finally decided on the ground source heat pump. On Saturday, we visited a house completed by our construction company three years ago that has a ground source heat pump. The occupants were very satisfied and were able to clear up our last doubts.
I am looking forward to it.

Deep drilling or shallow collector field?

Then I’ll keep my fingers crossed that everything goes smoothly for you!