Geothermal Doesn't work…. Wrong.

But many home owners, school districts, and property owners think that this is the case because of unsuccessful geothermal projects in their neighborhood.

Here is how it happens… An untrained geothermal installer quotes a geothermal system. The quote is usually significantly lower than the quotes from more educated and experienced installers, the property owner assumes they will get the same product so they select by lowest price. Winter comes and the geothermal system freezes up, the property owner is furious and convinced that geothermal technology does not work. What happened?

There are numerous reasons for an unsatisfied customer and a nonfunctioning system. Usually the system is under or oversized and installed incorrectly. The uneducated installer will undersize the system to lower the price, or the looper will not grout the entire borehole, or the Renolds value is too low, or the loop field is not large enough, or … you get the point. Bottom line, proper system design and quality installation matters.

To find the right contractor look for the company that fixes others mistakes. Potential geothermal customers need to be educated on what to look for in a contractor.

Lack of Marketing. How did you discover geothermal heat pumps?

Odds are you used the internet, 87% of interested geothermal customers research geothermal on the internet before contacting a geothermal contractor. Unfortunately the web presence of the industry is scattered and hard to locate. There are no geothermal awareness organizations who actively market geothermal solutions on the internet. Many geothermal contractors and manufacturers do not understand the power of the internet and therefore websites, optimization, and marketing are not a large part of their budget.

Tricky Advertising

A word of caution if you find a company on the internet who indicate that they install geothermal and then sway you away from geothermal by telling you that it will not work for your application only to offer you a conventional system, then you might want to show them the door and seek another opinion.

Long Sales Cycles

For contractors, the sales cycle of a geothermal heat pump is a long one. Typically longer than 6-12 months. Several Contractors have come up with theories about selling geothermal…

A different kind of customer - Many contractors believe that the geothermal customer ultimately sells themselves. Contractors can pitch geothermal until they are blue in the face. It's the best option on the market today for the numerous reasons found throughout this website; however it boils down to the customer's values. A forward thinking customer, a smart customer who doesn't follow the status quo adopts geothermal. The next question, how many customers like that are there in the U.S.? In other countries like Sweden, geothermal is the standard.

These industry concerns can and will be overcome in the upcoming years.

Look for an explosion in the number of geothermal heat pumps installed over the next 5 years. To contribute or comment on this page pleasecontact us. To tell your geothermal story pleaseclick here.