I'm sure I already mentioned the belching monster of a furnace we have in our basement. I'm sure it was state-of-the-art in 1956. And I certainly admire that it was built well enough to work for 50 winters without so much as a hiccup. But it has to go!
We just got our gas bill yesterday, and it looks like our annual natural gas consumption was 1200 CCF. I plugged that into a carbon-footprint calculator and got a little dizzy when I found out that 1200 CCF produces about 14,000 pounds of carbon dioxide every year. Holy Cow!
That furnace really has to go!
One furnace option we're really keen on is the geothermal heat pump. It consists of a network of underground pipes hooked to a high-efficiency electric heat pump. It is highly efficient because the temperature underground is steady year-round. A traditional furnace pulls freezing air from outside, then heating it to a comfortable indoor temperature. Geothermal pulls the air from the underground pipes, and because it is a steady temperature, expends less energy heating it up to heat your house.
They can also be retrofitted to heat half of your hot water, and to act as an air conditioner in the summertime. So really, it's a furnace, air conditioner and auxiliary water heater all in one. It is also considered one of the cleanest, least CO2 producing furnace options.
We got an estimate from (maybe our one and only) local installed. Looks like it'll cost $12,400 to convert our house to that system. I still have to crunch all the numbers, but it seems promising. The installer estimated the pay-back time at about 5 years. If it cuts those $350 plus heating bills in the winter, it may just work out.
In the meantime, I have a lot more homework to do.
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