Heating and cooling bills might be cut in half with your own "backyard" energy system. Geothermal systems using heat pumps is now a well-worn proven system. As simple as it sounds few really do it. Why not? Experts find that builders and contractors are not keen on these systems given their habit of cookie cutter heating and air systems as their bread and butter. Fooling with custom designed in-ground thermal loops is often not their expertise. So where do you go to get help for this bargain deal in saving money and energy bills? Good old "Google" is there for starters. Type in "Geothermal Systems" and you will get a few thousand sites, weed them to the install that fits you, plug in a few numbers in a myriad of calculators, and you are on your way to your new future.

Heat pumps in general are low maintenance and proven systems. They function 365 days a year as a quiet little guard for your energy bills. Credits are available from utilities and governing bodies, so check out your own local situation. Research is your best tool to begin this journey into the field of alternative energy. While car companies rave on about "E-85" machines, you will not save money there. Mostly sources like ethanol will float their pricing on the backs of fossil fuels, and offer you no real direct payback for your efforts. Profits are going mad among ethanol producers, and while good for our balance of foreign dependence, it only speaks to the "national" interests, not to your bank account, at least short term.

Geothermal has all the marks of a big winner for consumers willing to engage it. Simple installs can use DIY technology for capturing earth's absorbed heat, or direct sun. The ingredients include plastic tubing, earth or even water ponds, and some kind of "heat pump" to move the liquid coolant around through what amounts to nothing but a kind of radiator. Fans are about the only other piece of this puzzle for distribution.

To get a list of equipment alternatives you can visit www.dulley.com. Jim Dulley is an engineer turned columnist, known for his helpful home-owner advice. Click on his #842
"Heat Pump" buyer's guide in his pulldown menu. Another good source of starter guidance is www.waterfurnace.com where you can get educated on the types of installs they support. Their "Savings Calculator" will give you an idea of the payback for your installation costs. They suggest more or less 7-8 years, depending on killowatt costs in your area, and your other "gas" fuel costs. Since all of those are going to rise continuously over the next half dozen years you might find your money coming back quicker than anyone estimates. If you are willing to bet on yourself, and can afford to get geothermal installed now, every day forward you are saving real money, not to mention lowering demand on the other "Geo". That is the "geopolitical" pressures of oil reserves in the hands of fomenting terrorist supporting Arab countries, and demands from the two major ethnic populations, China and India with nearly one half of the World's population. When you consider we are consuming nearly half of the world's energy supplies with only 5% (yes we said it right, 300 million people consuming half of the six billion populatino world's energy) you can see this picture better. Take into account that lifestyle standards and demands of those two big "peoples" are rising at double digits, and you see a collision of entitlement that will rock our world sooner than later. Geothermal "backyard" energy savings can make a real contribution to saving America as we know and love her. Our very lifestyle and our lives are on the line from here on forward.
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