Animal Shelter and Geothermal

Paws and More, the Animal Shelter in Washington

Rio and Ellen cuddling a small cat at Paws and More

We have recently spent time visiting daughter Heather's family in Washington IA. We had a great time, catching up, eating out, playing games (especially Mexican Train Dominos--Rio even dreamed about playing the game!), and seeing where Rio and Nayra volunteer to help at an animal shelter, Paws and More. They play with the cats, walk the dogs, brush and feed the animals, and clean and sweep the place. What a nice thing to do! The facility is very clean, quiet in the cat room, and very loud when you are in the dog room!
Nayra holding a tabby kitten

GEOTHERMAL, A BIG STEP!

Heather and Pedro had geothermal heating and cooling installed this summer. This was a major operation, and much of the work was done when they were on vacation in Colorado. The workers bore several tubular runs for water across their property, 25 feet under the surface!. Water courses through these and runs up into the basement, and through the system. I don't know exactly how it works, all I know is their house was more comfortable than ever, with two zones of control.

It was expensive, but there were grants and tax credits that made it 'affordable', plus a lengthy interest free period where they can chip away at the balance without paying interest fees.

The utility savings will pay for the whole thing in less than 10 years. Heather and Pedro had a huge boiler with radiators all over the house. All that is gone, along with water pipes hanging all over the basement. The workers had to cut the boiler into 3 parts to get it out. The company seels these things for scrap iron. Pedro is having to patch walls and holes in the floors, but they have gained so much space inside the house.

Here is Heather with the main control 'box' for the Geothermal. One of the things it shows is the temperature of the water under the ground, which was like 60 degrees on a 90 degree day in Washington.

This is the main unit, showing where the water from the underground tubes come into the house on the lower right. The large ducting to the upper left is the return air duct. To the far left is one of the two large water heaters one of which is for the house water, the other for the circulating water. This whole thing is like super quiet!

Aside from the comfort/savings of not having 2-3 window air conditioners running, the whole house is evenly heated/cooled, and Pedro's art work will not suffer from humidity or temperature changes. They have researched this for a good long time, and they are just thrilled with the quick results and confort. A partial month's utility bill was over $100 less than before! I guess a lot of new construction uses geothermal, as it is more cost efficient to have it installed new as opposed to conversions. We are really happy for Heather and family for making this move!