True to his last name, Jack Greathouse decided to build a place of his own, complete with geothermal heating. He and his wife, 1983 Mount Si graduate Melinda Horiuchi, bought property in North Bend near Mount Si Road and have been working on their house for the past two years.
Greathouse spent part of that time digging trenches for his geothermal system.
“We’re trying to build it as green as we can,” Greathouse said. “I have some excavation equipment and I was able to do some of the work myself, which saved us quite a bit of money on the installation.”
As more people are building green, geothermal heating is becoming a popular option. Debby Peterman and her husband opted for a geothermal system from Duvall’s Cherry Valley Heating & Cooling when they moved to North Bend in 2006. The couple investigated a variety of heat sources and found geothermal to be the least expensive for the 1,400 square-foot home they designed.
“We built a very small footprint,” Peterman said. “We wanted to be as energy efficient as possible.”
Most houses are heated with gas or electric furnaces. If homeowners have about an acre of property, they can install a geothermal system, said Sean Dillon, North Bend resident and the Northwest territory manager for WaterFurnace International, a geothermal company.
Geothermal owners take advantage of the very earth on which they stand; year round, the Snoqualmie Valley ground maintains a temperature between 50 and 70 degrees Fahrenheit.
Using a series of closed loops buried in the ground, the geothermal system extracts heat from the earth and distributes it through a house’s air duct system. The heat energy can also be used for a radiant floor system or domestic hot water heating, according to Dillon.
For cooling, heat is extracted from the home and either put back into the ground or into a hot water tank.
At WaterFurnace, a geothermal system costs about $18,000, Dillon said. Most geothermal owners can get 30 percent back through the IRS’ Residential Energy Efficient Property Credit. Visit www.irs.gov to learn more.
Homeowners save between 40 and 70 percent on heating, cooling and hot water costs, depending on what kind of system they have, Dillon said.
Homeowners can place the geothermal loops in the ground different ways: horizontally, vertically, in a pond or in well water.
“The majority are horizontal because with the vertical you have to dig really deep,” Peterman said.
Air-conditioning costs extra, and Peterman said she chose not to buy it. She opens her windows instead.
“During the summer it’s really hot, but we’re on the river, so we didn’t have any problems.”
Greathouse also opted to bypass air-conditioning.
“We’re a little higher elevation,” Greathouse said. “There’s a few days a year where it’s uncomfortably warm, but most of the time it’s a reasonable temperature.”
The one complaint Peterman did hear involved noise. When pipes transfer heat into the house, she heard it can be loud, so the Petermans installed an extra soundboard around their bedroom to muffle it. According to WaterFurnace’s Web site, though, the geothermal system is known for being quiet.
Despite its initial cost, Peterman said her geothermal system has paid off.
“I love this kind of heat. I love the geothermal,” Peterman said. “I don’t know what our bills would have been before this, but our average heating bill in the summer is about $100 and in the winter, when it does get cold, I think probably the highest would be $200.”
Laura Geggel: 392-6434 ext. 221 or [email protected]. Comment at www.snovalleystar.com.
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