photo credit: David Lewinski

By: Jon Zemke, 7/9/2008 from ConcentrateMedia

Matt and Kelly Grocoff picked an ugly ducking of a house when they bought their century-old Old West Side abode two autumns ago. While others saw an old, dilapidated structure –with the buzz words that make homebuyers run: lead and asbestos– the Grocoffs saw an opportunity to do something special at bargain basement rates. They saw history, and they made their own mark on it.

“It’s one of those things where people didn’t see what was beneath the lead paint and asbestos,” Matt Grocoff says. “You have a structure that has lasted 100 years and could easily last another 100 years if it’s maintained.”

Less than two years later the couple has transformed the Folk Victorian-esque home on the western edge of one of Ann Arbor’s most celebrated historic neighborhoods into an eco-dream house.

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Geothermal heat pumps are the world’s most efficient heating and cooling systems according to the EPA. Some geothermal systems are 500% more efficient than even the most efficient traditional systems.

Although it sounds futuristic and complicated, geothermal heating and cooling (also called ground source heat pump or geoexchange) has been around for decades and is very simple. Geothermal draws on the stable temperature of the ground, around 50 degrees year round, to provide heat in the winter and to dump heat in the summer. A typical 2000 sq foot home can reduce heating and cooling costs to less than $30/month, even in extremely cold or warm climates!

This video is produced by WaterFurnace, the top manufacturer of geothermal heat pumps. But, it is a great introduction to how these remarkable and affordable systems work. You can learn more about how Geoexchange works at the U.S. DOE website or the Geothermal Heat Pump Consortium.

“Even though the installation price of a geothermal system can be several times that of an air-source system of the same heating and cooling capacity, the additional costs are returned to you in energy savings in 5–10 years. System life is estimated at 25 years for the inside components and 50+ years for the ground loop. There are approximately 40,000 geothermal heat pumps installed in the United States each year.” – U.S. Dept. of Energy

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