Dandelion Geothermal
ARMANDO COBO
| Posted in General Questions on
I just saw this article in CNN.com. Interesting, but I wonder if its really up to snuff in a NY climate, besides the $37K price tag, and no mention of the size, quality of construction and loads of the house.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/02/tech/dandelion-air-google/index.html
https://dandelionenergy.com/
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Looks like a garden variety geothermal system. The article makes it sound like it's something new, which is a sad reflection on the state of journalism. It claims to be half the cost of other geothermal units, and it that is true then it's genuinely newsworthy. I think in most cases you'd still be better off with a cheaper and easier to service air-air heat pump, but maybe in certain climates it would make sense(?)
Where did you see the $37k price tag? The only price I see is $20k.
The $20k price includes the NY Sate and Federal incentives, which are about to expire). There are many areas in the country without State or Local incentives. One must account for a level playing field, not just NY, were apparently are first being sold.
Per the Dandelion website: $19,423 upfront or $135/mo over 20 years. Two stage compressor, vertical loops, approx 1.5 to 4 ton models, water pre-heater, COP > 4.
It would be interesting to see a payback calculation comparing to a ducted air-air heat pump and a heat pump water heater.
The innovation is in their data mining, and financing structures, not the geo technology. They are using public records to figure out concentrations of houses with oil or propane fired hot air furnaces within a particular size range, in locations where the soil is suitable for their drilling technology (also not particularly innovative.) By being able to pre-sell or pre-drill a bunch of houses in close proximity to one another, all with systems of similar size they can reduce project costs.
They may be able to garner extra subsidy in parts of the NY gas grid that are currently capacity constrained. The policy mood in NY is to avoid new pipeline infrastructure, which is expected to become a stranded asset well before it could be paid off, necessary to meet their climate action goals.
https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/can-non-pipeline-alternatives-curb-new-yorks-rising-natural-gas-demand#gs.I9psXSo
"The proposal also includes provisions to electrify space heating in selected neighborhoods. Plans call for the installation of ground-source heat pumps at up to 8,800 single-family homes in Westchester County and air-source heat pumps at up to 1,000 small- and mid-sized multi-family buildings in the Bronx that use fuel oil for heat.
Incentives to install heat pumps would also be provided to an additional 1,000 small commercial and large residential buildings in the region."