Re: Tomorrow Night.
 

I take it it's chilly today in Calgary?

Re: Tomorrow Night.
 

Just a bit. -22° C right now.

Re: Tomorrow Night.
 

Won't help. I think I'll pop out and see if I can find another thingy that speaks Reamur and Kelvin instead. It never gets hot or cold enough for confusion in those languages.

Re: Tomorrow Night.
 

Inside or out? 'Cos if it's out I'll need the Fahrenheit conversion.

Re: Tomorrow Night.
 

Outside (conversion -7°F) Sounds positively balmy. :rofl:

Inside 20°C or 68°F

Re: Tomorrow Night.
 

Balmy? More like barmy.

Re: Tomorrow Night.
 

Well it wouldn't be the first time I've been accused of being a little of my rocker. :p

Re: Tomorrow Night.
 

I missed your added remark earlier. Care to expand on your experiences with geothermal?

Re: Tomorrow Night.
 

The ex contracted to have a geothermal system installed in the middle of December. The hole drilling was subcontracted to a firm that charged $10,000for it but mistakenly sent the bill to her and not the contractor (Tuf-Con? something like that, could find out if it matters), the contractor marked that up to $13,000 on his account. The requirement was four holes in the front garden drilled to some great depth and flushed constantly with water. That volume of water washed away the front garden, depositing mud all over the neighbour's gardens.

Meanwhile the contractor removed the, working, oil furnace and positioned a new one in the wrong place. When it was pointed out that it was in the wrong place he wandered off leaving the house with no heat until, perhaps, the middle of January. What's required is moving the furnace and connecting the holes in the front yard to the furnace. The latter requires digging up the front yard for some sort of exchanger thingy, apparently this can't be done in the cold so I think it very unlikely that they'll have heat for a couple of months yet.

The geothermal system is a whim driven thing, it'll cost about $25,000 + the cost of buying electric heaters and running them for, at least, a month. As a statement of being green it may make sense but compared with keeping the oil system or replacing that with a gas one it will never be cost effective.

Much of this is, of course, the usual saga of difficult customer and cowboy contractor but the cost inefficiency and spectacular mess are features of the technology. Unless one is a Green Party politician, a lottery winner or has divorced well and wishes to flaunt the fact, retro-fitting a geothermal system to an existing house is simply a silly idea.

Re: Tomorrow Night.
 

A hint of bitterness here? Don't blame you mind.

Thanks for the tale though, not that I was ever thinking about geothermal. As you say, it only makes sense for a new build (preferably in Iceland).

Re: Tomorrow Night.
 

In truth not. I think I have good cause but can't quite muster the emotion.