Gonna Get Hot

[etat]

Trying ta plan ahead.  My house has got bunches of extra insulation in it.  Radiant barrier on the sheathing under the siding on the west, and south end.  A couple of electric built in wall heaters in the bathrooms.  Gonna staple radiant barrier to the underside of the rafters.  Starting about a foot above the ceiling joists, and stopping just shy of the ridge vent.  Gonna throw in a couple of three burner vanguard heaters I been saving forever. Got a pretty good ole buck stove fireplace insert with a blower on it I traded for and am thinking about building some kind of fireplace around it.

That GREAT BIG house I roofed here awhile back has convinced me I 'absolutely need' a whole house fan upstairs.  They put one in just up above the stairs.  It blows air out of the house, into the attic, where it eventually exits the ridge vent.  It was running, the day was fairly hot but not quite unbearable, and that house was cool and comfortable.  It was pullin fresh air in the windows downstairs and moving the warmer air into and out of the Attic, helping to cool it some too. It really was amazing how comfortable it was in that house without running an airconditioner. Gonna get me one a dem.

Now our summers get hot.  Worse than that they get HUMID.  Pert near about unbearable so.  Now, I got this kind of problem. .  I DON"T like being cold in the wintertime, and I DON"T like a hot house in the summertime..  Especially after coming off a hot roof.

Now, i've read a bit about geothermal, but still don't know squat about it.  I think I'd have an advantage, there's a fairly deep pond near about within casting distance of my front porch.  Had lots of it dug out with a trackhoe, deep as he could dig and still get out of there.  Would probably be pretty easy to sink some cooling coils in if I did know anything about geothermal or how much it'd cost.  Afraid it'd bust the budget.

Gonna do the duct work and install myself.  Heck, we've done everything else.  I left myself plenty of room under the floor to crawl around in. Yep,  it's gonna get to the point I've got to get some airconditioning.  Really don't want to resort to the old window units.  I was thinking a outside heat pump that would cool or heat and would have auxiliary heating strips in it too.  This way I'd have me a choice in the future depending on which is highest gas or electricity, want to only burn wood occasionally.  

Does any of this sound like I'm a thinking right, and if so what size or kind of heatpump for a 2400 square foot house, heated and cooled area.  Any ideas on what one of these suckers sell for.  

I really need some input here about what to do. We done come too far doing too good to make a mistake on heating and cooling.  

[Fla._Deadheader]

  Ground temp at 8' of depth in the southern half of the US is around 56°, year round.

  When we built the house in Ark., I ran 3 lengths of 4" PVC field tile around the foundation, for air circulation. Didn't have the monee for a 12" pipe :.

  System works like this; You run as much pipe as you can afford and you have one end under the house, where you can hook up to the plenum for distribution to the outermost rooms, just like a hot-air heating system. This works very well with Mobile Home A/C- heat ducts.  The other end of the pipe runs above ground, into a "doghouse" type structure, this is well screened and protected from rain and snow.

  The whole house fan will pull cool-warm air from the pipe, through the 56° ground and replace the hot-cold air in the house. No A/C is needed. Just be sure that the pipe cannot get water in it. THAT will make a musty smell. As long as fresh air is drawn through, it will stay fresh. Corrugated steel galvanised pipe of 12-16" works the best. I don't know how to figure the cfm flow, but, it's a bunch  ;D ;D ;D ;D

[D._Frederick]

cktate,
If you have a pond that is 10 to 15 ft deep, you have a cheap source of heat for a heat pump. You would lay 600-800ft of a special plastic pipe that they run anti freeze through to a heat exchanger on the heatpump, then to a air handling system. This type system will produce 300-400% more heat than a resistive setup. A 2400 ft sq. house in your area would require a 3 to 5 ton system. The air conditioning will cost more to run than the heating.

[etat]

D.  That's really got me interested, and is what is moving in the back of the mind.  The pond is almost 24 feet at it's deepest,  a bunch of it comes in around 15 feet.  Right off the sides drops to 6 foot QUICK, and then steadily gets deeper from there.  I built it that deep cause it's sorta on a hill, without a steady stream feeding it. That's way deeper than needed for catfish but  I've seen lots a ponds dry up enough the last few years to kill the fish.  I did not want that problem. The dang thing cost me a fortune a few years ago, before they got through the price tripled cause of the extra dirt work.  I wanted a levy wide enough to cross safely with a tractor, and a slope that you could mow.  

I've never heard of a geothermal system around here and am concerned that when I go to the heat and air people they'll give me the runaround, but I'm thinking the fact that I wouldn't have to dig wells for the source would save mega bucks.  The pond is exactly 61 feet from my front porch.  What I'd want to buy would be the unit itself, if I could find out what I'm looking for and do the plumbing and trenching and hooking it up myself.  I did call the Riddle heat and air today and ask about a regular one.  They quoted over the phone just over 1800 dollars for a regular heatpump with the additonal electric heating strips.  Havn't done any comparison shopping yet, and didn't think at the time to ask what seer it was.  In fact I don't know enough about seer yet to ask intelligent questions. I didn't ask about a geothermal pump until I acquiere more information.  I intend to try to learn everything I possible can before I make a final decision.  I'm figuring electricity and gas ain't gonna get no cheaper.  If the price of these things can be half way resonable and would save money in the future when I get old and ain't able to turn the dollars, than I believe I'd be crazy to not at least look into, and cosider it.

[sawhead]

A cabinetmaker close to here has a system just about like fdh described 'cept used larger tile pipe ,12,000 sq ft. building stays as cool as if you had AC. In the winter keeps it warm with one woodstove , the air is already 56 degrees so doesnt take a lot to heat up.