Just made the decision to go Geothermal

[Smart Red]

Sometime Friday the furnace went out. We had the fireplace running full bore so I didn't try starting the furnace until late Saturday. Nope, I couldn't get it to fire up. It was down to 56 degrees in the house Sunday morning and the world was covered with our first blanket of snow.

Fortunately, in the light of day I was able to get the furnace going. So far, so good. It's stayed running.

Good news about the geothermal. The installer has to finish his current job and then do one more before he can get to us. Last night he called to say he'd discussed our problem with the next people and they've agreed to let him install our system before theirs. How wonderful!

The sooner I can get rid of our failing furnace the better I will like it on many different aspects. So, next week? Maybe the work will begin. I promise to take pics daily of the work. . . and the mess.

 

[Smart Red]

It's been a while since I posted about the geo-thermal heating system we have contracted for.

Good news! The horizontal drilling company guys arrived Thursday morning to start boring the five supply lines.

More good news! We sit on a property with plenty of room on all sides (30 acres total) to give them a choice on where to place the supplies.

Bad news! Despite my telling the gang there was a Limestone Quarry well to the west of our land, that seems to be the first choice for drilling. By noon everyone was gone, and the phone call I received late Thursday said the drillers couldn't get more than 4 feet down without hitting limestone. Go figure! Half a city block from a quarry [old and unused] and these professionals were surprised to hit limestone?

Uncertain news! I'm sitting here doubting that I will have my Christmas present (at that price, nothing else can be afforded here) in time for Christmas. I suspect they are gone until after Christmas or perhaps after the new year.

Good news! The weather predicted through the end of next week is a great for this type of work as anyone could expect at this time of year.

Bad news! I don't think they will be here to enjoy the 'moderate' temperatures and get the job done before 'normal' Wisconsin returns.

Good news! When we purchased this land, we decided where to put the house, dug an extra deep basement to compensate for what would have been shorter basement walls because of the sunken living room. With nine feet of concrete walls sitting on for feet of footings the basement digging went down 13 feet without hitting anything other than black dirt. Not even any rocks to mention were dug up here. Then we dug a sump pump hole another 4 feet down below the basement floor and only then started to hit a soft limestone-y sandy mixture that changed color from black dirt to rusty brown.

Bad news! So far the diggers haven't had the same type of luck. Hopefully, they will return and find another site for the system that matches our home site. Could it be that we built on the only spot of land without rock? Holy Glacial drift, Batman! I never thought of that possibility!

 

[Smart Red]

Now winter has struck the area in ernest and our tired old furnace is rumbling on. No sight of the drillers. No expectation until the weather warms.

 

[Nifty]

Wow, you got 40 years out of your furnace? That's amazing!

I've always been intrigued by geothermal systems! I think if we lived in a more harsh climate, especially somewhere cold, I'd probably really look into investing in one of these systems. It is a HUGE investment, but if I was planning to be somewhere a long time that's very cold and expensive to heat, I'd probably do it.

Sorry to hear about the drilling problems, but it sounds like your old furnace isn't completely lost and that you're frozen solid?

I had my own run-in with a furnace that died, but our results have been good: http://www.sufficientself.com/threads/gas-furnace-to-fix-or-replace.13640/

 

[Smart Red]

Sheesh! I wrote a long reply this afternoon and it's gone! I wonder where it could have disappeared to?

 

[Nifty]

That's really odd that happened! Especially because this software automatically saves replies (about every minute or so) in the event that you

In fact, to test it, I refreshed the page and the text above was still there saved, but in gray:

 

[Smart Red]

Mea culpa, Nifty. There was no problem. I had posted my reply on another thread. I checked back there and found it.

Nope, no problem with the wonderfully run site. It's just this old fogy who can't figure out tech-y stuff and doesn't quite understand what she doesn't know.

 

[Smart Red]

On Saturday I was told that the driller planned to come out on Monday and start putting in the geothermal system. I didn't figure he'd be here. The temperatures were supposed to be about 15 degrees (F) and that is too cold for outside working with water. He wasn't!

We are supposed to have a warming trend and temperatures from Wednesday on should be sunny and above the 20 degree minimum they need to work. Fingers crossed, the system should be getting in soon.

We have been using a 100 gallon tank on the back of our truck to keep the furnace running until the new system is put in. Last weekend, DS got $175 worth of fuel oil. Somehow the tap either was not shut or someone opened it. By the time he got to our house, most of the fuel oil was gone. Phooey! This is NOT fun waiting, buying fuel oil bit by bit, and pumping it by hand into the basement when we expected to be running on Earth power by now.

 

[Nifty]

Are you kidding me!? 100 gallons of oil just wasted? What a bummer!

I hate when projects take longer than contractors say they will. I always wonder why that happens. I mean, don't they know what kinds of problems (ground, temps, etc.) they will probably run into and account for that?

 

[Smart Red]

Are you kidding me!? 100 gallons of oil just wasted? What a bummer!

Not quite that bad, @Nifty. We haven't been filling the tank, just putting $150 into each 'load' of fuel oil. Still, that was a lot of wasted fuel oil and necessitated another trip for more only two days later. We typically use 5 gallons of fuel oil a day in the coldest of weather.

We don't want a fuel tank full of oil once the new system is installed, so we're running as close to empty as we dare.