Any of you have it? Particularly, how well does the cooling work since it's hotter than freaking Hades in the summer and only averages around 180 degrees all damn day if you're anywhere near central/eastern OK?
Geothermal Heating & Cooling in Oklahoma
- Thread starter ThorOdinson13
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I have one but I have nothing to compare it to. The house I bought had virtually no insulation and had no central heat and air. When we remodeled my father in law insisted we pony up the extra money. He was a bio systems and agricultural engineer and he always knew what he was talking about. As far as what it would be with a regular unit I have no idea.
I do keep it about 68 degrees in the hottest of the summer days and the bill is never over 175$. This was my grandparents house and the one window unit kept it under 90 when I was a kid. My uncle came over right after the remodel and the first thing he said was "uuummmmm grandma would be pissed" because it was so cool inside.
I do keep it about 68 degrees in the hottest of the summer days and the bill is never over 175$. This was my grandparents house and the one window unit kept it under 90 when I was a kid. My uncle came over right after the remodel and the first thing he said was "uuummmmm grandma would be pissed" because it was so cool inside.
They have one at my work and it seems to work ok. I know the heat part works great. Now on the cooling I don't know if it is just an insulation thing since we have a lot of windows and no blinds but you have to keep it cooler in the mornings if you want it cool for the afternoon in 100+ heat. I think the system may be a bit older also and other parts of the place seem to stay cold no matter what. I think if they are done right they are a good deal. Maintenance seems to be the sticking point once they get real old.
I have one. Love it. Tax credits helped pay for it. My utilities are very low.
The only reason I moved back was so my kids could be around family. I have a huge number of cousins with small kids here and my parents are here. My kids are their only grandkids. When my grandma died we had the chance to buy her house and a small plot of land and we took it. My wife and I gave up awesome jobs with great companies to come back when our second was born. While here career has bounced back, she will never find a company with as good of a culture and benefits as she had. Plus she drives 1 1/2 hours one way to work. We actually looked up our house yesterday and it is listed as worth $400,000. We bought it for 259,000$ In 2009.
My career however has taken a punch in the nuts. I had a coworker text me last year and thank me for leaving because he got the manager position I was being groomed for. There was a small chance but a realistic one I could have been an executive or Vice President of that company. Spilled milk at this point, but Colorado had every pro in the world over Oklahoma except my family. Weather, beauty, geography, schools, endless possibilities vocationally and recreationally. If I ever start to question the decision I just look outside and see my best friends farm (my grandparents) and know that it was the best choice.
Wow, you are a better man than me. My wife and I decided we couldn't stay in the Oklahoma/Texas panhandle just for the sake of being near family anymore. We absolutely hated living in that region. Stillwater was second on our list of possible destinations.
As my cousins kids get older and i remember the trouble I got in with my cousins I start to wonder about that aspect. But in a large town like Denver at least I know I can rip a new asshole into my kids friends parents here easier than I could there.
That's a good point. We live in a small town in Colorado, so hopefully we really know a lot of people by the time that age comes around. That is of course if we don't end up having to give up on purchasing a home here. I'm okay with renting short term but we are already discussing the possibility of having to give up on finding a place here and trying to establish a timeline. It's not necessarily that we cannot afford anything it is that nothing here falls within our financial goals, which was one reason we had decided we would sell our last home even had we stayed in the panhandle.
Sometimes the right choice isn't the easy choice...
In Sep 2011 we sold our house in Longmont and moved to Iowa to help my mother in law on her farm. In Sep 2013, I moved back (followed two months later by the wife and kids; those two months sucked big time) and bought a house around the corner in Longmont.
I thought houses here were expensive in 2013... Our house has potentially appreciated by almost $90,000 in two years. I'm not sure what's going on in this market, but it's hard for me to comprehend how there is a strong fundamental basis for that kind of appreciation.
As to the OP, I looked in to geothermal and I always wondered how well that worked in crazy hot climates. However, I have a friend in Iowa whose father put in a ground source heat pump with wells. They love it. The installation cost obviously was not cheap, so you need to plan on being there quite a few years for things to amortize. For heating a house that sees -10 true/-30 wind chills multiple times per year and cooling a house that sees 90+ with 100+ head indices many times per year, the effectiveness has been pretty spot on.
If you are building, spend the money on spray foam. I'm amazed how well it works. Granted, I am happy investing some money up front to reduce my costs in the future and I see the lower operating cost as a type of insurance against unforseen events in addition to just acknowledging the crossover point when the raw dollars start to work in the black.
Also the people who sprayed the insulation in my attic accidently emptied the entire truck up there so I have somewhere around R100. I'm sure that helps so see if you can swing that.
I believe it trapped. Hell, it may have even appreciated by more than that. The real estate here may push us out. We are just renting now and I'm not sure how long I'm willing to do that. I do know that I'm damn sure not sacrificing financial goals just to get into a home here.
You are paying to be in one of the prime places in America. All of the places to be alone in the Rockies, and every lavish thing you can think of in Denver. It's a great life there, but if you buy a house you might have to be committed to retiring in it if another bust comes along however Prices were only catostrophically down a few years. The demand to be in Colorado is going to be fairly inelastic I would think in the long term. Plus interest rates are going to be rising eventually. I would say find something small with an additional metal building so you can rid yourself of any storage inside the house. Spend your weekends and evenings not at your house and you won't feel cramped.
I kept my small camper in storage in Loveland on the big Thompson. Less than an hour from Estes park. It was fifty bucks a month to store it and I could pull it from one side of he camp ground to the other in any weather and camp the weekend for five dollars a night per person in off peak months. In the peak months it was more than that when I used it but I literally only had to pull it about 400 ft to get in a prime spot when I had the camping bug. It was a great launching point to go many places I normally didn't get to from my house.
I kept my small camper in storage in Loveland on the big Thompson. Less than an hour from Estes park. It was fifty bucks a month to store it and I could pull it from one side of he camp ground to the other in any weather and camp the weekend for five dollars a night per person in off peak months. In the peak months it was more than that when I used it but I literally only had to pull it about 400 ft to get in a prime spot when I had the camping bug. It was a great launching point to go many places I normally didn't get to from my house.
We live in a great little rental right now. It's 1,054 square foot two bed one bath. We are a family of four and it's been easy. Hell, I grew up sharing a room with three brothers. The only complaint is one bath and that's because of my old man stomach.
Houses that need a lot of remodeling here can cost $300k+. Complete gut jobs are $200k+. Almost invested in a home for $165k that had meth smoked in it, had no stairs to the basement, and would have required well and septic work.
You are right though about it being a great place to live. We absolutely love it. I suppose my wife could go back to work and double our income but that would not be best for our kids IMO. Right now we are discussing the establishment of a timeline on how long we are willing to rent before we move on.
That said, if we have to move the end goal will be to build a cabin up here for retirement and snow birding.
Bailey. We picked it because prices dropped pretty dramatically as you hit Pine then Bailey (up drastically in the last year). They drop even more in Jefferson but Jefferson isn't an option for us. I suppose we could go east of Denver but if I'm going to live in the plains I'd prefer Stillwater.
Cool place. I used to camp and fish in lost park south of Jefferson. I almost got trapped there in a snow storm but got out before they closed the highway.
Pretty bad ass area, you should stay.
I lived in the newly annexed area in southern aurora. It's blowing up so I can't imagine what it would look like in ten years. parker was a great town too but it was being swallowed up and becoming part of the greater metro area.
Pretty bad ass area, you should stay.
I lived in the newly annexed area in southern aurora. It's blowing up so I can't imagine what it would look like in ten years. parker was a great town too but it was being swallowed up and becoming part of the greater metro area.
Definitely not hard to get caught up there. We were taking my parents to Fairplay. It was a nice day, blue skies, little windy, but the roads were clear. We went over the Kenosha pass and the wind and blowing snow were nuts. We made it to the little gas station in Jefferson, turned around, and headed back over the pass. They closed the road about 15 minutes later. It would have been a damn long drive to Fairplay in that. We can see mount Evans right out our kitchen window. If you want to pm me I'll shoot you some photos.
I live in Longmont; yeah, the boring plains. Mostly I am down here for access to job opportunities. I would love to live up in the mountains somewhere, but there are several things keeping us down here.
Maybe someday I will be fortunate enough to have a 'second home' in the mountains. Given the practicality levels present in both my wife and I, it seems pretty unlikely.
@HighStickHarry, the S version of PM is the only one I am familiar with, and Mrs. AB is past all that. (Don't ask; it's 24/7 now.)
I catch Jack on channel 148 (Radio Classics) on XM when I'm in the car for a long time. Just last week I was at the wheel for six hours before a neighborhood kid unlocked my door.
I obviously don't know your specific goals Thor, but if you and the Mrs. decide you want to move closer to Denver, there's a big new development getting ready to go in between Roxborough and Highlands Ranch.
We live in Highlands Ranch and love it; we live close enough to the mountains to get away when we want to, and yet downtown Denver is only a 35-minute drive when there's no traffic. To each their own, obviously, but it's been perfect for us.
