Real Savings Example in Philadelphia
Here is an account from a homeowner who switched to geothermal heating & cooling and saved 70%. Enjoy!
For comparison, I chose December 2007 - December 2008 vs. December 2010 - December 2011. I intentionally skipped 2009/2010 because this is the period during which we replaced the old furnace and AC with the geothermal heat pump. Because we have kids that are constantly keeping the lights on in our lower level and we do a LOT of laundry, we probably have significantly higher than average electricity costs without heating and cooling. Looking at our bills, it seems that the baseline cost was between $160 and $180/month. Anytime when the monthly power bill was lower than that, it’s because we were out of town for an extended period of time. Although I can’t easily separate out the costs for heating and cooling, I have made calculations based on assumed costs without heating and cooling (baseline) of both $160 and $180. Also, I have not even bothered to try to account for the two points below. If I did, the savings would be even more noticeable.
Increase in electricity rates since 2008
The fact that we keep the house 2 degrees warmer during the winter and 4 degrees cooler during the summer than we did with the old system (because we can do so efficiently now).
BASELINE OF $180
Estimated heating and cooling before geothermal heat pump: $2,079
Estimated heating and cooling after geothermal heat pump: $621
Estimated savings: $1,458 (70%)
BASELINE OF $160
Estimated heating and cooling before geothermal heat pump: $2,224
Estimated heating and cooling after geothermal heat pump: $842
Estimated savings: $1,382 (62%)
Total Energy Cost in 2008: $4,090
Total Energy Cost in 2010: $2,733
Reduction in total energy cost: $1,357 (33%)
Data for comparison:
2008 ELECTRICITY
12/10/2007 - 1/13/2008 - $160
1/13/2008 - 2/12/2008 - $176
2/12/2008 - 3/12/2008 - $163
3/12/2008 - 4/10/2008 - $121
4/10/2008 - 5/11/2008 - $145
5/11/2008 - 6/10/2008 - $192
6/10/2008 - 7/13/2008 - $336
7/13/2008 - 8/11/2008 - $294
8/11/2008 - 9/10/2008 - $218
9/10/2008 - 10/9/2008 - $184
10/9/2008 - 11/9/2008 - $172
11/9/2008 - 12/10/2008 - $174
2008 PROPANE
12/3/2007 - $604
3/18/2008 - $665
9/12/2008 - $486
2010 ELECTRICITY
12/9/2010 - 1/12/2011 - $246
1/12/2011 - 2/13/2011 - $294
2/13/2011 - 3/14/2011 - $215
3/14/2011 - 4/12/2011 - $196
4/12/2011 - 5/11/2011 - $151
5/11/2011 - 6/12/2011 - $304
6/12/2011 - 7/12/2011 - $233
7/12/2011 - 8/10/2011 - $247
8/10/2011 - 9/11/2011 - $260
9/11/2011 - 10/10/2011 - $161
10/10/2011 - 11/8/2011 - $206
11/8/2011 - 12/11/2011 - $220
This system was installed outside of Philadelphia PA by Sinton Air.
Here is another geothermal savings example which includes costs and savings.
