When the staff at Jamestown Builders initially approached John Shin about installing a geothermal heat-pump system in the home he was buying at Jamestown's Eastern View subdivision in Fulton, Shin was skeptical.
For starters, Shin wasn't exactly sure what the technology entailed. And the words "heat pump" raised red flags "because I would never have a regular heat pump system in my home," he said. "I just don't like them."
In fact, a geothermal heat pump is not a regular heat pump system. Traditional heat pumps use electricity to force air around in an effort to heat and cool a home or building. Bob Light, senior program administrator with Baltimore Gas and Electric Co., said the biggest complaint BGE hears about the traditional system "is that it feels like cold air is coming out of the register because the air is at a lower temperature than skin temperature."
The geothermal heat pump helps property owners capitalize on the earth's ability to store energy. A ground-heat exchange system of looping pipes are filled with a water-based solution and then used to remove or add heat to a home or building. During cold months, a fan inside the structure distributes the warmed air, which usually ranges between 104 and 110 degrees Fahrenheit. Electricity is used only to distribute the heat, not create it, resulting in a substantial savings on utility bills. The system is reversed in summer, removing heat from a dwelling in order to cool it. Waste energy is used to heat hot water -- for free in the summer and at a much lower cost than normal in winter.
Considered the most environmentally friendly method of heating and cooling by builders, it costs, on average, about $3,500 with at least another $3,000 for the heat pump unit and another $3,500 for various incremental costs. That $10,000 can appear steep to homeowners also considering a traditional natural gas system, which averages $4,800 for the gas and central air conditioning, Light said.
BGE had been offering a $2,000 rebate to builders who installed the system, but that has since been rescinded, because "We think the purchase of a ground source heat pump can be justified on its own merit," Light said.
Nationally, interest in geothermal systems has seen rapid growth -- especially in the last 10 months. John Farrell, director of finance and administration for the Geothermal Heat Pump Consortium Inc., said that since the group opened an information center in May, it has averaged 100 calls a day and 6,000 hits on its Internet Web site.
