Geo Thermal vs. LP Furnace and A/C Condensing Unit?

fcat700

Member
the other thing have u tried to get him down at all?
let him know if I cant get it done for X amount I am going to have to go with the forced air guy

I did today...he moved $1,500, the cost of the Venmar Kubix air exchanger. All but sealed the deal for me.

Thanks for the feedback guys.
 
Last edited:

Woodtic

Active member
Those numbers the salesman gave you are one sided. You can make electric heat,LP,Nat gas,be the most efficient on paper. I deal with this every day,accept with large buildings buying bulk power on the open market. We have to guarantee the savings,before the job goes in. I'm not saying Geo isn't the way to go,but there is a lot of home work to do. Can't trust the power supplier or the salesman. It all boils down to this: install cost,operating cost,maint cost,replacement cost, and what is the life span of this equipment. This is no different than buying a hybrid car or a gas car.
 

fcat700

Member
Those numbers the salesman gave you are one sided. You can make electric heat,LP,Nat gas,be the most efficient on paper. I deal with this every day,accept with large buildings buying bulk power on the open market. We have to guarantee the savings,before the job goes in. I'm not saying Geo isn't the way to go,but there is a lot of home work to do. Can't trust the power supplier or the salesman. It all boils down to this: install cost,operating cost,maint cost,replacement cost, and what is the life span of this equipment. This is no different than buying a hybrid car or a gas car.

Thanks for the insight Woodtic. I'm going to brake it down and please give me your thoughts keeping in mind this is a new construction bid and both systems would be installed by the same contractor.
1) install cost:
a) Carrier 100,000 BTU LP furnace 97% efficiency and 16.5 SEER Carrier A/C $13,486.00
b) GeoComfort split system $24,486.00
2) operating cost:
a) Per GeoAnalyst report the annual operating cost is $3,640.00 vs. $1,384.00*
* I can neither confirm or deny the Geo est. but the LP est. seems low base on my experience.
3) maintenance cost:
a) 1 year on labor 10 years on parts for LP furnace
b) 5 year on labor 10 years on parts for Geo
c) Annual preventative maintenance is a little less with Geo...there's no A/C unit
4) replacement cost:
a) I would not expect to have to replace the systems in the 15 to 20 years that I'll live in the home.

I welcome any and all opinions.

PZ
 

Go Fast or Go Home

Active member
I put my Geothermal in 20 years ago and it appears the costs have doubled since then.
I still have my original system and have only had two pumps go out in the 20 years at around $250 per repair.
I took out the service agreement and the service tech comes out twice a year and changes all filters as well as checking and adjusting everything.

Again---20 years old and still going strong.
 

Woodtic

Active member
The $3600 op cost for the standard system is way high on a brand new house with a 97% furnace . Propane is down to $1.40 a gal. Demand for propane is dropping , way to much Nat gas on the market. The numbers you are showing me,I would think the pay back for the geo is 12 to 15 years. That's not very quick. The numbers don't lie.
 
Top