Looking for incentives….
After researching websites and learning about the process of GeoThermal I decided to call our State Authority to find out if there are any incentives for installing a GeoThermal system in our home. By the way, in the State of New York the answer is a big fat NO. Actually, they do offer a four point decrease on the interest rate off of a home equity loan. Unfortunately, the loan has to be from one of their “approved” lenders and after I called the lenders, I was told that if I already had an equity loan with another bank that they would not extend this benefit to me. So, if you are in the State of New York and don’t have an equity loan and want to go with one of their “approved” banks, then you will get a lower percentage rate on your loan. But, there are no incentives specific towards GeoThermal like there are for the other primary renewable energy: Solar.
If you want to learn more about my specific experience with trying to get help from my state click here
If you want to find out about possible incentives in your State check out our “resources” page.
Researching products….
After finding out that no incentives would be extended to us, we still decided to move forward with getting estimates. After all, the price of home heating oil was fast approaching 5 dollars per gallon! So, what GeoThermal systems were around? What was out there? A lot of internet work helped us to find out which products were available. See “Steps to Geo-Thermal” for a short list of manufacturers.
Researching organizations…
I found the International Ground Source Heat Pump Association (IGSHPA). From their website you can find “certified” contractors, drillers, etc. There is also some good info on GeoThermal on their website. The State of New York has the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) who handles quite a bit of energy and environmental issues for the State. On their website I found a list of GeoThermal contractors as well. Furthermore, I looked for NYSERDA “approved” energy auditors so that I may be able to get the 4 point discount on a loan (at the time I didn’t know that I wouldn’t be able to get one).
I compared these lists to see if there were any duplicates. I found a few.
Word of Mouth…
I put the word out that I was interested in GeoThermal and found two people at work who had a Geo System. One person has had his system since 1995 and loves it! My brother-in-law also had a GeoThermal system put in 2 years before. I was able to see the setup and got an idea of what to expect out of installation. So, putting the word out helps you get first hand knowledge and hopefully some good opinions.