New Homes Heated From The Ground Up
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A home at the Hemlock Estates development in Whitinsville. All 31 new homes being constructed will be heated and cooled by geothermal systems.
Joseph Marinella became intrigued when he kept hearing about geothermal heating and cooling systems as he was building residential developments in the Whitinsville area.
After a lot of research and a year of testing a system at his brother’s house, he is now offering them as standard features on the 31 new homes in his latest housing development called Hemlock Estates in Whitinsville. His 25-year-old company, J&F Marinella Development Corp., is constructing the new homes.
“With the cost of oil last year and the constant talk about gas and oil prices, I started looking at information about water furnaces.
I had heard about them and began looking for information about them,” Marinella said.
And more developers may begin offering geothermal systems or other more “green features” in order to compete in what continues to be a very dismal local housing market.
Marinella took the geothermal plunge only after doing some research.
His brother converted from an oil system to a geothermal system for about $35,000 at his home.
Then the brothers observed the system over a year before Marinella decided to offer it in his newest development.
“The thing he noticed most was a very constant heat or cooling,” he said.
The other perk of the system was that during cold snaps with single-digit temperatures, the furnace was not taxed to keep up the temperature of the house.
“There is no need to raise and lower the thermostat. You set it at the temperature you want and that’s it,” he said.
He recognized after watching his brother’s system operate that a replacement system in an existing house will take longer to recoup the costs than a new home that includes the system.
They also liked the way the system needed very little maintenance.
How It Works
In the Hemlock Estates homes, the systems have a very deep well that includes a circulating water loop.
The water carries the heat from energy stored below the earth.
The water is also recycled back into the system.
It consists of a heat pump, the liquid heat-exchange medium, which is water, and the ductwork in the house.
This development offers public water and sewer, so there is no worry about needing additional water for the house, although the geothermal system can also provide water for sprinklers instead of using town water, Marinella said.
Two houses at Hemlock Estates have been sold and occupied, while another three sales have closed. The home prices range from $349,999 to $399,000 for houses between 1,632 square feet to 2,200 square feet.
They are on parcels that are anywhere from slightly less than half an acre to just under an acre.
“I love my house and I love my heating system,” said Wendy Reardon, a school teacher, whose family recently moved into their new Hemlock Estates home.
She was attracted to it due to the geothermal heating and cooling system because of its environmentally friendly features — no use of fossil fuels and recycling the water the system uses to transport the heat.
But once in the house, she really liked the system itself.
“It has very even heat, which is really great,” she said, adding that on recent hot spells the air conditioning “worked fabulously.”
Clean And Green
Marinella said prospective and actual buyers like the fact that there is no oil, no burner and no emissions, giving them a smaller carbon footprint and ending the need to worry about oil prices.
The water furnaces, as they’re called, are more efficient than oil furnaces, according to Marinella’s discussions with the manufacturers, because they deliver five units of energy for every unit of electricity they use, he said.
The compressors are inside the house and are very quiet.
Marinella said he is not aware of any other developers in the area providing geothermal as standard in their new homes.
For him, it wasn’t just about providing an environmentally-friendly heating and cooling system, although he thought that was important.
“I wanted to provide a great value at a good market value,” he said.
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