Hot take: My $4,500 geothermal quote was a giant waste of money for my Decatur house

Everyone in this group raves about geothermal being the ultimate energy saver, but I dropped $4,500 on a ground loop installation last summer and my electric bill barely dropped $20 a month. The contractor drilled through an old water line and I had to spend another $800 on a plumber to fix the mess. Plus my yard still looks like a battlefield with those random dirt patches where the trenches were. Has anyone else had a bad experience with those residential geothermal systems in older Atlanta homes?

3 comments

3 Comments

amyh128d ago

Read this one article from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution last month. Said older Decatur homes like ours have super shallow clay soil. Ground loops need deep, stable ground to work right. That contractor probably didn't do a proper site survey. Bet the system is just cycling on and off constantly.

ward.anna8d ago

Yeah, you're not wrong about the clay soil issue here, it's definitely a thing. But the cycling on and off thing is more likely a bad control board or a refrigerant leak than the ground loop just not working right. A system that's sized wrong for the loop will usually just run poorly from day one, not start cycling after a few months.

morganmartinez8d ago

Only thing I know about clay soil is that it's great for making ugly pots in fifth grade art class. Definitely wouldn't trust me to pick a contractor either.