{"id":764,"date":"2017-10-24T06:38:55","date_gmt":"2017-10-24T10:38:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dandelionenergy.com\/?p=764"},"modified":"2025-09-19T13:26:32","modified_gmt":"2025-09-19T17:26:32","slug":"geothermal-political-statement-new-york-homeowner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dandelionenergy.com\/geothermal-political-statement-new-york-homeowner","title":{"rendered":"Geothermal is a Political Statement for this New York Homeowner"},"content":{"rendered":"

Like many progressive Americans, Sean Dague did what he could to combat climate change. He donated money to environmental causes, and replaced all the lightbulbs in his house with energy-efficient LEDs.<\/span><\/p>\n

And while he eventually planned to replace his oil-based heating system with something more environmentally friendly, he decided to wait and see whether air source heat pumps got better, or geothermal heat pumps got less expensive. There seemed to be time.<\/span><\/p>\n

A Turning Point<\/h2>\n

That is, until the 2016 presidential election.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI felt like we were moving in the right direction, with the federal Clean Power Plan, tax incentives and the Paris climate agreement,\u201d Dague said. \u201cIt was progress, and then after the election, they announced that all that stuff\u2019s going to be rolled back. …Climate\u2019s really important, and we\u2019re not going to get any action at the federal level now, so everyone who cares about this has to do more themselves.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Starting at Home: Energy Efficiency Upgrades<\/h2>\n

The 41-year-old IBM software engineer joined his <\/span>local chapter<\/span><\/a> of Citizens\u2019 Climate Lobby. He and his wife decided to begin reducing their home\u2019s carbon footprint by re-insulating their attic and replacing their aging, oil-based furnace. More than <\/span>40 percent<\/span><\/a> of the average home\u2019s energy use is consumed by heating alone.<\/span><\/p>\n

Builders constructed their four-bedroom, two-and-a-half bath home in New York\u2019s Hudson Valley in 1960. The original oil tank still sits in place. The oil furnace is about 25 years old. The air conditioning unit is 13 years old. The hot water heater is newer because the original unit ruptured sometime after the couple bought the house in 2004. They use around 700 gallons of oil each winter.<\/span>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Weighing the Cost of Replacement<\/h2>\n

An HVAC company gave the family a ballpark estimate of around $16,000 to replace their existing system. The quote included a conventional, high-efficiency furnace and a quieter, more energy-efficient air conditioner. Their home sits on bedrock. Although Sean had considered a renewable geothermal heating and air conditioning system in the past, he believed drilling in his backyard would be cost-prohibitive.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had wanted to figure out a way to get us off oil for the past couple years,\u201d Dague said. \u201cThe reason why I hadn\u2019t explored geothermal at all was that it was going to be $40,000. That\u2019s a different ballpark, and I\u2019m not sure we can dive there.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Discovering a Geothermal Option with Dandelion<\/h2>\n

With <\/span>Dandelion\u2019s<\/span><\/a> $20,000 geothermal system (after a geothermal rebate<\/a> from NYSERDA), that \u201ccame in a lot closer to the numbers we were thinking,\u201d he said. \u201cWe had this number in our head, that getting this giant oil tank out of our basement is going to be $16,000. We could get it out and not be burning fossil fuels anymore for not much more? Let\u2019s just do that.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

His friends and neighbors show intense interest in the family\u2019s investment with Dandelion. They also want to hear about their experience after the first winter with a renewable heating and air conditioning system.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m OK being the prototype on this one, because it\u2019s important,\u201d Dague said.<\/span><\/p>\n

From Oil to Geothermal<\/h2>\n

Dandelion, in partnership with local installation partner <\/span>Aztech Geothermal<\/span><\/a>, will pull out the family\u2019s oil tank, furnace,\u00a0 and air conditioner, and replace it with an electric heating and air conditioning system made more efficient by a geothermal ground loop. Geothermal systems remain the world\u2019s most <\/span>energy-efficient alternative<\/span><\/a> to conventional heating and air conditioning.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI work in an industry where I\u2019m quite reasonably compensated. We can and should do everything we can do here,\u201d Dague said. \u201cThis house was built in 1960, so making it a \u2018net zero\u2019 house is probably not in the cards, but it can be a lot better than it was, and that\u2019s important for us living in it now, and it\u2019s also important for the next people who live here, as it\u2019ll use less energy and won\u2019t require fossil fuels to heat.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Climate\u2019s really important, and we\u2019re not going to get any action at the federal level now, so everyone who cares about this has to do more themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":4533,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[45,46,11,32],"class_list":["post-764","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-post","tag-climate","tag-climate-change","tag-geothermal","tag-homeowner-profiles"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nNew York Homeowner Switches from Oil to Geothermal - Dandelion Energy | Residential Geothermal Heating & Cooling<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"After the 2016 election, IBM engineer Sean Dague replaced his aging oil furnace with a Dandelion geothermal system.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dandelionenergy.com\/geothermal-political-statement-new-york-homeowner\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"New York Homeowner Switches from Oil to Geothermal - 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