By Andrea F. Siegel , sun reporter|May 18, 2008
The grinding noise of drilling two 400-foot-deep holes in the ground was ear-splitting, never mind the toll the job was taking on the front lawn.
But Monica and Dave Borle leaned over the railing outside the front door of their Pasadena home on a sunny April morning as though they couldn't get close enough to the red flatbed truck with its generator and derrick. Their focus was less on the loud drama and more on what this mess promises: eco-friendly, efficient energy with a financial reward.
They're switching to geothermal heat and air conditioning.
"It's the right thing to do," said computer scientist Dave Borle.
Last summer, having already applied most of the routine energy-saving techniques in their home, they sweated through electric bills topping $450 a month for their all-electric 2,400-square-foot house. Grimacing at the prospect of monthly electric bills approaching $600 this summer, the couple researched alternative energy methods. Their conclusion: Use Mother Earth's constant temperature of about 56 degrees to heat and air-condition their house.
An estimated 2,500 or so Maryland homes have geothermal systems, from condos in Ocean City to expansive homes in Harford County.
Skyrocketing home air-conditioning and heating costs, and notably electric rates and fossil fuels, have ignited homeowner interest in the past two years - so much that some well-drillers are finding geo-exchange projects are the mainstay of their work.
The potential energy savings are typically greater than loan repayment for retrofitting or what's added to a mortgage.
"You can look at numbers between 60 and 70 percent of your heating and cooling," said Dustin Owens, sales manager for Owens Comfort Systems, a Bowie-based heating and cooling company, which outfitted the Borles' home.
The most disruptive part of the transition was boring into the ground for two 800-foot-long pipe loops that conduct the ground's heat, work that took a little more than a day. Ensuing work completed this month connected the loops, through pipes laid in trenches, to a specialized heat pump inside the house. The Borles' home already had the forced-air vents.
The Borles aren't terribly concerned about the appearance this spring of the front yard.
"It's grass, it'll grow back," Monica Borle said with a shrug.
