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| We have had our Carrier unit going on for 12 years in a completely remodeled house with addition. I really like it for the air conditioning, its ok for heat. We have had issues with our unit. The main thing was there is a special manifold / distributor connected to the compressor that splits off and connects to our hot water heater. Ended up being a factory defect crack and flooded water over the whole electrical portion of our unit. It was dumb luck that we caught it in our basement immediately after it started. That was a special part that we are told is no longer available nor repairable, so our hot water heater is on its own versus being connected to the geo unit.
It seems I have too many other things going on with the farm or my repair shop, but if it would not be such a bitch to remove, I would like to attempt to repair / modify / make that portion work again.
After this we now have had a few other issues, that I blame it on the water problem being sprayed all over the parts from before. No help from Carrier. The problem being that our unit was built by a manufacturer / company that they no longer do business with, and the newer units will not interchange at all with the older units.
My dealer has been good, local guy, but his hands were tied.
All this happened about 3 years ago end of March when it was starting to warm up some, so I was able to heat the house with a few electric heaters and our propane gas fireplace insert. If its real bitter and windy, we fire up the fireplace to help out. Some above mentioned insulate....YES ! INSULATE, I wish I would have went with spray foam.
When we installed, there were rebates and incentives available to out the geo in. I did all the digging and some of the plumbing and most of the wiring. I have my loops in the ground right at 5-6 ft. It will work more efficient the longer the system is in due to ground settling back in.
Check into underground boring, that is really popular here.
Ours is a 5-6 ton system on a roughly 2200 sq ft ranch style home w/ half basement. and we are in the $ 230 a month range average. We have two heat strips on separate breakers that I can flip on if needed. I fired them up twice I think when it was bitter and windy for a week at a time, but for the most part are off. Normal temp for us is 72-74*F.
After what we been thru...I would not think twice about installing a propane backup, I would have one !, I have a 20KW propane backup generator that will run the whole house, but if the geo system does not work, you are still dead in the water.
Soooo, after a long winded story....yes.... I would probably do it again...( reluctantly nodding and shrugging ).
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Geo thermal
