My elderly father lives on our farm outside of Guelph where he had been paying about $6,000 to $7,000 per year in heating oil and related maintenance costs for his furnace for the last couple of years while having no air conditioning in the home.
We installed a geothermal system in the summer of 2021 that was designed and installed by Waterloo Energy Products.
This resulted in extra electricity costs of under $1,000 this past winter when, given the price increase for heating oil, we would have likely paid $10,000 in heating oil costs, alone. We also had the added benefit and comfort with air conditioning throughout the entire home as an added bonus from a comfort perspective.
While it did require a sizeable upfront investment, we expect that the system will have paid for itself within five years.
We qualified for a $5,000 grant from the federal Greener Homes Program and were also eligible for a 10 year interest-free loan from the federal government which meant that our additional annual expenses while we pay back the loan will be about $4,000 to $4,500/yr. but well below the $7,000 to $10,000/yr. that my father would be paying for heating oil.
This is all the while saving significant greenhouse gas emissions as per results of the energy audit report after completion of the project:
• Energy Savings: 57%
• Carbon Emission Savings: 8.3 tones/year or 166 tons over the 20 year lifespan of the indoor equipment alone.
Jim Whitestone
