Yeah! Geothermal is a true possibility for our house

Big news! It looks like our little house will get 100% of its heating and cooling needs through geothermal. I thought that our lot was too small but apparently it is not!

I am going to steal wording from a recent Mike Holmes article on geothermal so that I don't miss anything in the description (thanks Mike).

"In the goal to go green with building, there's often a challenge finding technology that pays off quickly in terms of the added upfront cost, and that works for every home. One of the best options is geothermal heating - it can work anywhere in the world, and you don't have to wait years before you start saving money.

Geothermal heating takes advantage of the earth's renewable energy, by extracting heat from underground through a system of tubing that's filled with a liquid refrigerant. The liquid absorbs the heat from the earth, which is then brought back into a heat pump inside your home. The tubing is buried in a loop, either vertically or horizontally, depending on your lot and access (for our house, it will be the more expensive vertical option as we have a small lot).

If you go below frost depth (four to six feet, depending on geography), the earth maintains a constant average temperature. That soil temperature is an average of 5 degrees - much warmer than the air temperature in winter. A geothermal heating system only needs to raise the temperature about 10 degrees (from 5 degrees to 15 degrees) to keep your home comfortable on even the coldest days. That doesn't require a lot of energy to do - especially if you compare it to raising the temperature from 10 below, or whatever the external air temperature happens to be on a winter day. Geothermal systems don't create heat - they harvest latent heat that already
exists underground. They simply transfer heat energy, unlike fossil fuel furnaces, which create heat by the combustion of natural gas, fuel oil or propane.

In terms of cost savings, most homes in North America are heated by burning gas or oil, or by using electricity produced by a power plant that also burns some kind of fuel. Fuel prices are always going up, and probably always will, since fuel is in limited supply. There is an enormous source of untapped heat energy under the ground. It will be there forever and be constantly renewed, and the cost of it won't be going up - so geothermal will save lots of money. It cuts heating and cooling costs by up to 70 per cent (according to Mike). There is some energy consumed by the pump, compressor and fans - but it's just a fraction of what traditional combustion systems use. A geothermal system is more expensive to install than conventional gas or oil system, but you will save money right away.

In the summer months, geothermal systems operate in reverse - heat is transferred from the house and back into the earth, where the cool ground absorbs the excess heat. Cool air is brought back up. It's simple; I like to think of it as a fan in front of a block of ice. And, there's no big noisy AC unit on the exterior of your house.

Geothermal heat pumps also save energy by pre-heating your domestic hot water (note: it does not address 100% of hot water needs but it gets water to a certain temperature - which also means that we won't get solar panels for hot water if we end up with geothermal). A "desuperheater" - part of the heat pump - transfers heat from the compressor. Geothermal systems can adapt to existing forced air ducting or floor radiant heating.

They provide comfortable steady heat compared to the blast of hot air you get from a forced air heating system.

Since geothermal heating doesn't use combustion, there's no release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. That cuts down on greenhouse gases and reduces the carbon footprint of your home. In the long term, geothermal is one smart way to heat and cool your home.
It's practical for a retrofit, and I think it should be in every new home built (again...according to Mike). In fact, it's really ideal for entire developments, so many homes can enjoy the cost savings. More new home builders should get on board. "

I will write out the details specific to our house soon but I thought that this would be a good start.