When my sister and her husband built their new cabin, they spent an utter fortune on the heating and cooling system.
Leanne and Ben are exceptionally energy conscious and looked for a heating and cooling which would lessen their carbon footprint.
They met with a local HVAC company and listed their needs and priorities, then the contractor recommended a geothermal heat pump. Leanne and Ben researched geothermal heating and cooling and found out that that this type of temperature control is considered the most environmentally compatible by the EPA. It makes use of the readily available energy found below the ground, and it simply moves heat from one location to another. During the winter months, the geothermal heat pump draws from the fairly steady underground temperature to supply heat into the house. In the summertime, the heat pump simply reverses the operation, pulling heat out of the home. This process is so perfectly energy efficient, it produces four units of energy for every single unit it requires to operate. Despite the immense expense of installing the underground loop plan and heat pump, Leanne and Ben expected to recover their investment in less than 4 years. They had researched it and found that this type of system can maintain perfect year round temperature for about a dollar a day. Regrettably, they failed to realize that a geothermal heat pump has a hard time handling severely cold weather. Leanne and Ben live in an area where the winter temperature will occasionally drop well below zero. No matter how high they crank up the thermostat, or how continuously the heat pump works, their home is slightly cold. They had to go out and buy about ten portable space heaters to supplement the heat pump.