3 ms·

Many homes here warm the house only using electrical radiators. And it can get very cold in the winter. Not exactly the smartest way to heat a house, still wid

• voisin 5y ago
  Given the cost, it seems like there would be a big opportunity to install geothermal to bring that cost down. The payback would be quick with electricity costs like that.
  • cpach 5y ago
    Indeed! And many households install such systems. There can still be obstacles though. Quite a few houses here lack a distribution system for the radiators. Those radiators are directly connected to the electricity system. I.e. the house lacks a water-based heat circulation system (or similar). One could retrofit such a system, but then it’s about double the cost compared to only installing the geothermal pump. The background to this situation is partly that in the 70s, the government required houses to be built this way. Electricity was cheap back then, we had lots of nuclear and water-power and wanted to get away from oil. Another thing to keep in mind that even a geothermal system requires some electricity to run – and they are not terribly effective when the weather is very cold outside.