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In order to insure maximum energy efficiency throughout the entire home, HTH selected construction products, materials and systems designed with that expressed purpose in mind.  In order to prove those selections performed as expected, we decided to take it one step further by installing our own in-house tracking system.

With the support of our local electric supplier – White River Valley Electric Cooperative – we purchased sub-meters for installation in the mechanical room of this home which allow us to track, document, and project our “actual” electric usage and overall operating costs.

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Although sub-metering was a unique concept to our electric contractor Greg Kline of G.M. Electric (pictured here), Greg was eager to assist us with outfitting our mechanical room in “HTH fashion”.

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In addition to the traditional primary electric meter located on the exterior of the home, Greg installed three additional sub-meters for us.  The first meter in the mechanical room reads and records the overall usage pertaining to all heating, cooling and hot water production within the home. The last two meters in the circuit are assigned to a.) heating components (including radiant in-floor hot water production/hot water tanks), and b.) cooling components (including the air handler) so that we can further determine how much we’re paying for heating Vs cooling.

While this approach is clearly a bit over the top for most homes, this usage tracking method has provided HTH with incredible insight into actual efficiencies of the systems we chose to install.

Did it prove beneficial?  Oh yes, absolutely!  At the end of the first calendar year of operation the meter assigned to track the geothermal heating and cooling system read 1,104 kilowatt hours @ .09 cents per hour = $99.36 ÷ 12 months of operation = $8.28* per month to heat and cool the entire home.

*This amount does not include utility company fees, taxes, etc.