EcoRenovator - View Single Post - Looking at getting a new place. Efficiency was an after though

oil pan 4 · 08-05-17, 02:11 PM

The new place is a pocket listing, belongs to a friend of ours. We may have up to a year to get it. So no rush.
The worse thing about it by far is it's cost 180,000 I just hate the idea of owing the bank that much money again.
But it seems has everything going for it other wise.
A big house 4 bed rooms, 2 full bathrooms, 2 car garage, 2 finished out buildings, a run down metal pipe frame tractor shed that could be made useable again and a 4th building that probably just needs demo all on 19 acres, has a well, it's out of town, able to shoot guns, just no high velocity center fire rifles since there are neighbors, or until silencers are removed from the National firearms act.
It's just me an my wife at the moment and it looks like our family will be growing here soon and that size is perfect for the proposed expansion.

It doesn't need a tremendous amount of work and its kind of out of town.

All appliances are electric. Has septic and city water. Has gas service but it's not hooked up.
There is an irrigation well but it is disused and requires 3 phase power.

Having our own well water is kind of a high priority for me. So I will be looking at ripping out or repairing the the above ground motor, hollow shaft driven irrigation pump stuff and either repairing it and get it going on a VFD powered by 240v single phase or replacing it with normal submerged well pump stuff. That's the first step in going off grid.

This place has electric resistance central heat and central air plus a few not so efficient hidden on/off type splits.
So it looks like I will be ripping out my high efficiency senville inverter 9,000 and 24,000 BTU splits and taking them with me.
If you want to even think about going off grid and still have A/C you have to have inverter units.
I don't mind having the large indoor split unit hanging off the wall.

So the power bill is kind of high. My plan would be get the gas service hooked up, change all appliances to gas replace the less efficient splits with my units.

Back in 2013 I helped my friend expand gas lines to all over his house. He changed his dryer, water heater and furnace from electric to gas, he says it has cut his power bill during warmer months by about 1/3 and his gas bill is maybe $5 higher. So that's my plan too.

The current place we have is small, in the city, fully paid off and not worth that much so we will probably rent it out to friends for cheap.

There is a lot of room for me to put in solar panels. So I would want to do grid tie panels then install more and more panels until one day I can cut the service drop and cancel power service with a big 48v off grid setup.
That's one of the big reasons why I want to get rid of the electric appliances and install my more efficient gear.

A ground source geothermal heatpump is on the table for sure now. I never considered them before because I just didn't have the land. Now I could literally put it anywhere.
What would be the options for installing a outside central air unit that is inverter based and uses geothermal?

08-05-17, 02:11 PM	#1
oil pan 4 Land owner Join Date: Nov 2012 Location: NM Posts: 1,026 Thanks: 12 Thanked 127 Times in 107 Posts	Looking at getting a new place. Efficiency was an after though The new place is a pocket listing, belongs to a friend of ours. We may have up to a year to get it. So no rush. The worse thing about it by far is it's cost 180,000 I just hate the idea of owing the bank that much money again. But it seems has everything going for it other wise. A big house 4 bed rooms, 2 full bathrooms, 2 car garage, 2 finished out buildings, a run down metal pipe frame tractor shed that could be made useable again and a 4th building that probably just needs demo all on 19 acres, has a well, it's out of town, able to shoot guns, just no high velocity center fire rifles since there are neighbors, or until silencers are removed from the National firearms act. It's just me an my wife at the moment and it looks like our family will be growing here soon and that size is perfect for the proposed expansion. It doesn't need a tremendous amount of work and its kind of out of town. All appliances are electric. Has septic and city water. Has gas service but it's not hooked up. There is an irrigation well but it is disused and requires 3 phase power. Having our own well water is kind of a high priority for me. So I will be looking at ripping out or repairing the the above ground motor, hollow shaft driven irrigation pump stuff and either repairing it and get it going on a VFD powered by 240v single phase or replacing it with normal submerged well pump stuff. That's the first step in going off grid. This place has electric resistance central heat and central air plus a few not so efficient hidden on/off type splits. So it looks like I will be ripping out my high efficiency senville inverter 9,000 and 24,000 BTU splits and taking them with me. If you want to even think about going off grid and still have A/C you have to have inverter units. I don't mind having the large indoor split unit hanging off the wall. So the power bill is kind of high. My plan would be get the gas service hooked up, change all appliances to gas replace the less efficient splits with my units. Back in 2013 I helped my friend expand gas lines to all over his house. He changed his dryer, water heater and furnace from electric to gas, he says it has cut his power bill during warmer months by about 1/3 and his gas bill is maybe $5 higher. So that's my plan too. The current place we have is small, in the city, fully paid off and not worth that much so we will probably rent it out to friends for cheap. There is a lot of room for me to put in solar panels. So I would want to do grid tie panels then install more and more panels until one day I can cut the service drop and cancel power service with a big 48v off grid setup. That's one of the big reasons why I want to get rid of the electric appliances and install my more efficient gear. A ground source geothermal heatpump is on the table for sure now. I never considered them before because I just didn't have the land. Now I could literally put it anywhere. What would be the options for installing a outside central air unit that is inverter based and uses geothermal?