Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Cost of eco building

[John Beutler (jbeutler]

At Liberty Village, we have what is called ground-assist heat pumps.  They 
cost about $6,000 extra for drilling a well for each unit.  I suppose in 
different areas of the country the costs of drilling the well might vary a 
good deal, though in our part of Maryland wells are not considered sure 
things.  The well water is used as a heat exchange source for the heating 
and cooling system, in combination with a heat pump.  In contrast to the 
typical heat pumps, there is no heat exchanging unit outside, so no fan 
noise at all, as you would normally have.  The air conditioning is 
essentially free for the cost of circulating air and water.  With heating 
you heat from the 55 degree ground water temperature with electricity.  The 
overall cost is VERY low.  We pay $120 per month to heat, cool, light, do 
hot water, etc, for a rather large unit - half of a duplex with three 
aboveground floors and a finished basement.  Of course we have good 
insulation, windows, but nothing too exotic.  If you compare this to the 
cost of heating our previous (old) house with oil, even at last year's 
prices, it's night and day - I highly recommend investing money in this 
type of system if it's suitable for your area.

There was a lot of debate when this was proposed but it was a very good move.

Cheers

JAB


At 07:58 AM 11/11/2005 -0500, Mlj45 [at] aol.com wrote:
> We are a newly forming co-housing group in Ulster County New York, and we
> are currently in the design stage. We are discussing the costs of "building
> green", installing solar, geo thermal, etc... We are wondering if anyone 
> has any
> information about balancing out the initial costs of building green, versus
> how  long it might take to get back the initial extra investmant in energy
> savings.  We know, of course, the value of building green, but need some 
> feed back
> on the  financial part. Thanks, Lynne James, Ulster County  Co-Housing
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John Beutler
Liberty Village, MD
jbeutler [at] adelphia.net
http://www.libertyvillage.com/