I live in the country, but not deep in the country.
- My town is pretty small, but we are only thirty minutes away from a major city, so it isn’t exactly farming country.
That said, I have been possessed of the idea of being more self reliant since COVID19 came through these parts. I never wanted to be a hermit, but the pandemic sort of forced us all to be hermits, and I found that I liked it a lot more than expected. In the spirit of this, I wanted to rely less on society and more on myself, and I think buying a geothermal heat pump is a great first step. Thankfully the air quality is not a major concern out here, but being reliant on the power grid is problematic for a lot of people. Lots of folks have power generators, but most of those are gas powered, which presents the same problem with resources. A geothermal heat pump uses an endlessly renewable energy source, one that does not require me buying fuel from a source or being connected to the grid. The cost up front for such a substantial geothermal heat pump is quite a bit of money, but I can take a loan to cover it. The way I have done the math, the amount of money I will save on utility costs every month will pay off the geothermal heat pump in three years. Since the lifespan on a geothermal heat pump is 8 to 12 years, this thing will more than pay for itself three times over!