Well, our new geothermal furnace is pumping along nicely, filling the house with nice warm air. Our last natural gas bill was only $9, far less than the $300 plus a month we paid with our 1957 gas furnace chugging along in the basement.
But now that the furnace is nice, it's made it very clear that we need to replace our windows ASAP if we are going to save any energy. We still have the original single-pane aluminim frame 1950s windows in this house. We got our second snow of the year today, and as usual, the inside of the glass is covered in a nice sheet of ice. Inside. So, every minute we run the furnace, we're sending all of that heat out into the ether because our windows are terrible.
I have no idea how much replacement windows cost or even if anyone will come and do that work in the middle of winter, but this Saturday, I'm heading out for an Energy Star window shopping adventure to see if we can afford it. New windows were on the list of to-do projects, but I was planning to wait a couple of years. I don't think we can afford to wait that long.
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2 comments:
We've been reading about geothermal heat and would like to give it a try. Our ancient furnace has to go by next winter.
What kind of system did you have installed? Did it cost very much more than a high efficiency replacement unit?
Please, tell us more. I need details! :o)
If you scroll through the archives, we've done alotof posts about our geothermal furnace. The quick answers: the price depends on the size of your house. We paid about $12,500 to heat and cool 2800 square feet, and to attach it to our hot water heater for free hot water in the summer. The furnace is a high-efficiency electric heat pump. It also came with a new programmable thermostat. Our estimated payback time for our investment is 5 years, based on past utility bills. For alternative energy, that's nothing!
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