The house at 3103 Painted Horse Drive has operating costs much lower than any other house in the subdivision. For its size and comfort, it may have the lowest energy cost in the county, and maybe in the state.

The house is "total electric." Heating, cooling, cooking, washing, drying, etc., is all done with electricity.

"3103" has upgraded insulation and insulated glass in vinyl windows. Orientation to the sun and window placement were given strong consideration during design and construction.

But the most important factor contributing to the house's extremely low enery costs is its GROUND SOURCE GEOTHERMAL HEAT PUMP SYSTEM.

The system uses the almost constant temperature of the earth a few feet below its surface. (A thermometer placed about 6 ft. deep or deeper in the earth will read about 55 degrees Fahrenheit, summer and winter.)

When "3102" was being built, three-135 ft. "wells" were dug in the front yard, and "U" tubes were inserted in each hole. Using those tubes, the heat pump transfers heat from the 55 degree earth into the house in the winter, and moves heat from inside the house into the 55 degree earth in the summer.

Your "whole house central air conditioner" pumps heat from inside you house to the air outside your house, making the inside air cooler.

"3103's" heat pump operates like your air conditioner, but it can switch between "cooling" in summer and "heating" in winter. Switched one way, the heat pump acts like an air conditioner, and when switched the other way, the heat pump acts like a heater.

Read the reports below, and do the math. You'll find the average monthly cost to be less than $70, spring, summer, fall and winter.

If the supplemental floor heat in the lower level was not used, the costs would be even lower.