Off the oil habit

[shoredivr]

Over the last two weeks, I have taken my rural home off the heating oil habit. I've had my oil furnace replaced by a geothermal system. Over the past 5 years, my heating oil costs have gone from $306 CN to $550 per winter heating month, and now I'm off that.

It's been a short process, whereby 5 x 165' holes were drilled, PVC heat loops installed, then connected into the house, then the oil furnace removed, heat pump and water heater installed. As a secondary gain, the system acts as an air conditioner in the summer, and pre-heats my hot water. See these folks for process details: Bostech Mechanical Ltd.

And so, tonight, my friends, I came home to a house heated by the Earth. Last night and tonight are the coldest it's been this year in SW Ontario... -17C degrees outside... and it's warm in here, +18C! Woohoo! Yes, I'll have an electric bill for the heat pump, but by conservative estimates it's 1/6th the monthly cost of oil. In less then seven years, if the price of heating oil stays the same, I'll have this baby paid off.

Over the weekend, there's an intermediary system attached to the heat loop, to make sure the "antifreeze" in the loop is doing its thing. Monday is final tweak day. A check yesterday had the loop system pressurized to 60 PSI, to check for leaks before putting the "antifreeze" in, which seemed to this diver to be rather low

From now on, the Earth heats this house!

 

[Ayisha]

Hi Shoredivr, how does that compare to a natural gas furnace?

We switched to a tankless water heater almost a year and a half ago, and that saved on our energy costs, particularly in the winter. It was also better for the environment than the old hot water tanks.

You're right, it's freakin' cold here today!! It's minus 23 C (minus 9F) with the windchill in Toronto right now! Going down to -19C plus windchill tonight...

 

[shoredivr]

Hi Ayisha, I have no idea since where I live is about 8 km from the nearest natural gas line, so that's never been an option for me...propane heating, on the other hand, is more expensive than heating oil at the moment.

Beautiful full moon out there tonight. Yep, it's a cold one outside, I bet Humber Bay topside is a treat tomorrow morning for hardy winter divers.

 

[Deep South Divers]

Wow... Neat.

Always wondered about both of those... Tankless hot water heaters (I have a wife and four daughters, so having endless hot water seems like a Godsend) and geothermal heaters/coolers. How incredibly cool.

 

[Hockeynut]

I don't get how this works.

 

[fstbttms]

One of my buddies/competitors in the hull cleaning biz here in the Bay Area recently built a hot water suit system, based on a propane-powered tankless water heater mounted on the radar arch of his RIB. He says it works too well and he needs to rig a thermostat to bring the temp down.

 

[Ayisha]

The tankless water heater is great because instead of heating and maintaining your whole hot water tank at 140 F (or whatever your gov't standard is) 24/7 or the number of times a day you have authorized, it heats only the water you use on demand.

In a conventional hot water tank, the tank has to be kept at 140F in order to inhibit bacterial growth, but is mixed with cold water to cool it down to a max of 120F before it enters your faucet. This is a waste of constant heating, especially in colder months, plus it is a waste when it is cooled down, plus you probably cool it further as you use it.

Instead, the tankless water heater can be set by the user at, for example, 110F, and it only heats the water when you actually turn it on, so there is no waste of heating. It instantly heats the water and it takes only a few seconds to begin heating and then remains constant. You never run out of hot water because it is always available to instantly heat, unlike a conventional tank.

The tankless water heater is compact and flat, and just attaches to a wall. It is also more environmentally friendly.

You can see some info about tankless water heaters at Tankless Advantages - Rinnai

 

[Deep South Divers]

Awesome.