I
Introduction
have been passionate about geothermal air-conditioning for 20 years
because it is renewable, sustainable, and comfortable. And now
with new federal incentives in the United States, I am glad to say
that I can add a fourth watchword: doable. Even so, my favorite word of
the four is sustainable. You may think it’s because geothermal technologies
can reduce
our reliance
on dirty,
scarce
fossil fuels and lessen our
impact
on the environment.
That’s certainly true,
but that’s not the fi
rst
thing
I think of.
You see, I grew up as the oldest of nine children on a nine-acre ranch
in the high desert of California. My father is a great man, a high school
English teacher, who provided well for our family on $18,000 per year
during the 1970s, my formative years. Our electrical budget was $50.
Our food budget was $200. We had a shared party line for the phone
and no cable TV. We could get one or two network affi liates by antenna
if the atmospheric conditions were right. By our very nature, we were
green before it was cool.
If we wanted hot water, we had to make sure the black garden hose
was spread out just right on the roof and turned on to fi ll the hot water
tank. We never had a dryer. A warm fi re in the winter and a swamp
(evaporative) cooler in the summer in the common room were the total
extent of climate control. Most of our fruit and vegetables came from the
garden. We had livestock for milk and food, including chickens for eggs
and the occasional Sunday dinner. We were able to sustain our lives on
what we had. To this day, that’s what “sustainable” means to me.
I now live in a 3000-square-foot home on a tad over two acres in
Pasco County, Florida, not far from Tampa. My beautiful wife and I
have four children, a garden, goats, chickens, pigs, dogs, cats, and a
solid desire to maintain family values and a sustainable lifestyle. We
live a very comfortable life, with every luxury I could ever have imagined,
but sustainable. A
wise leader in the Church
once provided
counsel
that I can’t forget:
When you buy an item, luxury or not, the retail

cost
is only a fraction of the real
cost.
Picture a boat, an ATV, or an RV. The real costs are quantifi ed in the
time and resources it takes to fuel it, maintain it, repair it, clean it, store

Introduction
it, insure it, license it, and then advertise and fi nally sell it for a loss—or
dispose of it properly. It turns out that, in most cases, these are not very
sustainable items.
The same goes for many landscaping items, such as nonnative sod
and shrubbery. I have a beautiful, natural Florida landscape with native
grasses, pine trees, and scrub oak. My Bahia grass, which you often see
along freeways here, requires only monthly mowing. Imported grasses
require constant watering and mowing and infl uxes of fertilizers and
pesticides, although they still get brown spots from dryness and cinch
bugs. Sure, I have been tempted many a time to install a sprinkler system
and a “perfect” manicured
lawn, or some exotic fl
owering plants

like
the neighbors have. Then the idea of sustainability comes to mind.
If
I get such items, nice as they may seem, there’s
an ongoing cost to
maintain
them, water them, fertilize them, protect
them from
pests, and
so
on.
I could afford all of the above items. But I choose not to have a boat,
an RV, or a carpet of green grass, or any of the costs that go along with
them. What I have is a house with a solar water heater, geothermal airconditioning,
fl

uorescent and LED lighting, beautiful garden, and a few
farm animals. I have fi ve bedrooms and fi ve bathrooms, a 15,000-gallon
pool, and a 1500-foot lanai. My energy bill averages about $250 per
month. I have no water, sewer, cable, or phone bill. I call that sustainable.
The money I save goes to saving for retirement, schooling, children,
charity, and a good dose of spontaneous family fun. Things like eating
out, vacations, and visiting theme parks and museums. These are things
that bring our family closer together, truly enrich our lives, and sustain
our economy.
Sustainability is what this book is really about. I have one employee
for whom we are sizing a geothermal system at the time of this writing.
He has a 2000-square-foot home with an average monthly electric bill of
$450, on top of water, sewer, and trash. That is not sustainable for him.
It is so expensive that he may never get ahead. With utility bills rising
beyond infl ation, he may be facing $600 to $800 bills in the next few
years. Many others are in this situation.
Typical air-conditioning (AC) equipment, which has a seasonal
energy effi ciency ratio (SEER) of 10, is sucking the life right out of our
fellow consumers. The cost of air-conditioning systems has doubled
over the past fi ve years. This is partly a result of rising material costs,
but is primarily due to government-mandated effi ciency requirements
for 13-SEER equipment. A 30% increase in effi ciency makes a big difference,
but it’s not enough. The federal stimulus package has allowed
for
$1500 tax credits
for air-source
(nongeothermal) residential
systems
that
meet certain criteria. That stops at the end of 2010. After
that, the
only
air-conditioning
and heating product
left on the stimulus radar is
the
little-known geothermal system, the subject of this book. The tax
credit
for geothermal heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning
(HVAC)

will be in force until 2016, offering an unprecedented 30% of costs, with