Cambridge, southwestern Nebraska | I've had one for 11 years now. Have had no problems with it at all. Have about 5,000 sq. ft. including full basement. We don't circulate very much air in the basement as it is insulated and stays a pretty constant temperature year 'round. We're full electric and the bill runs around $150 to $200 year round. I think we have 4 ton capacity. It is a closed loop and that is what I would reccomend. We have 4 - 190' well loops. (Have to stay just above water level or register them as wells.) Like the others have said, when it is really cold, it will run 45 minutes/hour but that is what they should do. Same thing in the summer for air conditioning. We also have ours hooked into our hotwater heater so that in the summer we heat our hot water with the heat pump.
We have backup electric heat but have only used it maybe 3 times in 11 years. The pump will keep up if the outside temps will get above 0 during the day and have some sunshine. We get a benefit of solar heat on the windows. Several days of below 0 temps and cloudy then we need to use backup heat for a few hours.
ONLY downside is air out of the vents is around 90-95 degrees so you don't get to warm up quickly by standing over the air vents when coming in from outside. |
Geothermal/Ground source heat
