What are the costs involved with geoexchange systems?

What are the costs involved with geoexchange systems?

In terms of ground source heat pumps (geoexchange units), they are being used on a wide variety of projects and certainly are realistic and economically feasible. The challenge is that the companies responsible for construction are seldom the same companies that own and operate the buildings afterwards. Geoexchange systems have a high initial capital cost but pay for themselves in energy savings over a period of years; consequently, developers are reluctant to spend the additional money on installing them and passing that to the consumer as a price premium because they don't believe that consumers are willing to spend more upfront on "green". A solution used by several developers (such as Windmill and Vancity Enterprises) is to separate the cost of the geoexchange system from the cost of the housing unit and then to tack on a "green loan" on each unit that is paid back monthly over a 10 year period (essentially, the owners pay for it out of their energy savings). For more information, check out Geoexchange BC http://www.geoexchangebc.ca/ or check out the case studies on our website - http://www.sustainablebuildingcentre.com/green_building_case_studies