Affordable reality of offgrid power

Originally posted by acorn ↑

The geothermal hvac unit that I am looking at is a 2.5 -3 kw unit . That unit is capable of doing a 30 square house . Heating , cooling and hot water . The installer has customers who I can talk to and let me look at their power bills so I can see the facts for myself . I am yet to do this . That is obviously a super important part of this whole thing .

Your idea of multiple splitties isn't a bad idea at all . The beauty there is you could probably retrofit an extra one or two if needed . You can get multi head splitties anyway which could work as well .

I've been speaking to a few a/c people recently . Privately they will tell you that in some circumstances , rc heaters won't do the job when it is really cold . The coldest we get here is 0 deg which should be ok but I'm still checking that out . -20 ? I reckon that's pushing it . I know up in the high country they struggle when the temp goes negative .

I have been given a couple of rough quotes for a ducted rc ac system and they start at 15k and depending of the quality of the unit , can go a bit higher than that .

The thing with having solar panels offsetting the hvac system is that most of the time ( during the day ) , there will be nobody home . Early evening for heat/cool is probably the prime time , just when the panels stop producing . Yes , it would make sense to precool/heat the house during the afternoon for free . I'm just wondering how much extra energy is required for that evening/overnight period .

" So are you planning on being off grid and Geo HVAC or one or the other? "

All options are on the table for me . Everyone's situation is slightly different so adapting the technology is where the detail becomes crucial . As you previously posted , when building a new place on acres , 25k is almost negligible . Or the example of the depreciation on a new car .

So , in theory , for 60k I could probably have a total off grid system and a 30 square house that is completely heated and cooled . No power bills ever . Heating and cooling running all day if I choose .

Compared to : 5k for power connection .
15k for ducted rvac .
5k for solar boosted hot water .

Roughly a 35k difference . Less 3k a year for power bills ? Hmmm , the gap is starting to reduce .

Not forgetting solar panel and battery replacement at some point although I expect that the replacements in time will be much cheaper and more efficient so maybe the replacement costs will not be so bad .

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From an engineering point of view i do like the idea of the geothermal and if you are intending on living there long time some extra money isn't all that bad. I just can't find much data on their efficiency. Everything i read is US based andf compares them to normal element electric heating.
In regards to the extra panels just remember if your house is very well insulated (always use more insulation than the builder recommends) you will be able to heat and cool it during the day when no one is home and it should retain a lot of that heat with minimal input from HVAC. I run my split system at night on batteries with no problems because once the sun is down the heat load is greatly reduced.
If i was building i would install a few splits around the place and still use a centralised wood heater that was hooked up to a solar hotwater system and maybe even a few hydronic units.. At the start of the year buy 6-7 cubes of good wood that is already split and enjoy a beautiful fire for $1000. You can also supplement that with any wood from the block that you need to get rid of anyway. My inlaws do this and for the sake of a measly $1000 it's great. Nothing beats the radiant heat from a good quality wood heater. I personally don't like the the warm rather than hot air that comes out of a split unit.