geothermal thoughts

Submitted by Cynthia Sham Rang on Mon, 07/20/2015 - 12:37

We've just bought an older bungalow that requires a lot of renovating. Newer homes are totally soulless, have no property/trees, and are filled with chemical laden materials. Older homes are already renovated with the biggest, best and grandest of everything. Those of you who know me know that I don't fit into either of those with much comfort, but we found this wonderful small place with a good sized lot that needs to be totally gutted and then, with tlc, be rebuilt.

In considering how to do this - add onto the back, put on a second floor, etc - I'm also thinking about the possibility of geothermal heating/cooling.
I don't really know a lot about geothermal except that it saves electricity/gas and am wondering if anyone out there has any information that they could share with me.

Grateful for anything you might have to say.......

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Profile picture for user Spiritpaws
Spiritpaws Tue, 07/21/2015 - 10:46

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Hi Cynthia,

My brother is a geo thermal scientist in New Zealand. He is currently working on a big geo thermal project in Chile, as the Chilean government has targeted the year 2020 to be 50% geothermal. My brother is coming to the states the beginning of August, and I would be happy to ask him about geo thermal in Canada, and any advice or contacts he might have.

tigger

Profile picture for user Cynthia Sham Rang
Cynthia Sham Rang Mon, 07/20/2015 - 23:01

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Thanks Lesley - I feel this is a wonderful opportunity for me to work in as 'friendly' a manner as I can, and geothermal is not particularly popular here so I'm having some difficulty finding impartial information. I do feel a bit uncomfortable with the depth of digging that is required with our cold winters, but would appreciate any further information you could give me from your friends. I will also look into the gathering heat from air method.

What you did at #5 with the gardens has me quite inspired, and I'm envisaging a garden that has very little grass and requires very little formal maintenance - walkways, native plants, secret areas - and of course a greenhouse. At the moment it's a riot of overgrown weeds.

Thank you.

ps - grateful for the lift from the airport!!!

Profile picture for user Tilly Bud
Tilly Bud Mon, 07/20/2015 - 22:31

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Hi Cynthia,

When I looked into geothermal heating here some 10 years ago it was quite in its infancy with there not being many experienced people out there, its a lot more in use now I think. As far as I recall the method was quite straight forward if you didn’t mind digging a lot of shallow trenches in your land to lay the pipes which would gather the slight warmth in temperature from the land and then that would be used to to warm the house through the fairly constant gentle warmth of underfloor heating. Some friends of mine have installed such a system in their new build house and it also has some kind of fancy heat recovery system in the house that utilises the warmth all over again. I’ll make a visit and see how they are getting along and let you know. I know you can also gather heat from the air too, which doesn't involve digging up your garden.

Sound like you’ll have many wonderful explorations with your new home. :0)

With love
Lesley