Custom home construction is a constantly changing business, as there are new technologies being developed in home building everyday. Here at American Green Home Builders we try to keep our hand on the pulse of the latest innovations in Green Building products and green technologies. It is part of our mission to provide these new sustainable technologies to all of our clients.
One of the newer and more popular technologies that green home builders are using is a Geo-Thermal Heating and Cooling System. Without going into too much detail I will give you a quick breakdown of Geo-thermal heating and cooling systems. Most houses are heated conventionally by using energy from either fossil fuels (Oil or Gas) or electricity which is converted into heat and therefore increasing your bill the more heat you require. Geo-thermal heating and Cooling actually heats your house by using nothing more than a minute amount of electricity to run your heat pump. While conventional heating and cooling starts its process with the outside temperature, Geo-thermal energy starts with a temperature of about 55 degrees Farenheight . Imagine heating your living room..its a lot easier to get it to 70 degrees from 55, then it is to get it to 70 degrees from the 20 degree weather outside. Likewise when cooling it is way easier to get to 65 degrees from 55 then it is from 95 or 100 degrees on a hot day. Basically your are heating and cooling from the temperature in the earth not the temperature around your house. Add solar power to the equation and you may have a zero energy cost.
I am not here to break down Geo-Thermal heating and cooling, but to try and figure out why this technology is being so overpriced. It seems like an injustice to the Green world, because if this technology was less costly, there would be many more people using it. Yes you could say that you will save a ton of money over time, but some people just don’t have the initial money to dish out.
When we began building Green Homes we sent for bids from a variety of sub contractors for pricing on Geo Thermal systems. Truthfully we were appalled. The prices all seemed ridiculous in comparison to the work that was being done. So we brainstormed and Chris Wasserbach our MEP Engineer got together with Earthlinked Technologies and took their training courses to become a Certified Installer. We came up with a system that we can install for only a 20% mark up while most companies are charging 40% or over for this technology. We it find amazing that other builders installing these systems charge so much. It is this pricing that is steering people away from going green even though they can get a 30% tax break. This is very unfortunate beacause many companies calling themselves green are actually overcharging and taking advantage of this new technology instead of making it accessible to the public where it can be shared allowing the benefits to be reaped. So don’t let a large price tag scare you away from this unbelievable technology. Make sure that you do your research and find a company that is not marking their work up 40%. This system may not be as far out of your reach as you think it is.
