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Comment by jqkeller | Hacker News Reader

Ground Source (geothermal) heat pumps are not new, but Dandelion is doing interesting/innovative things. Here is my understanding from keeping track of what they're up to for a little while.

First they've developed a new drilling rig to try and drop the drilling time, cost and mess by 10x. Call the drilling traditionally 50% of the cost. This is for doing vertical bore holes, instead of horizontal trenches.

Second, they're targeting/marketing directly to home owners in cold regions who use heating oil for heating. The data collection/marketing is ground breaking for residential HVAC, but I would guess probably nothing too amazing compared to any modern web company.

Third, they're bringing modern financing to the ground source heat pump space. Similar to solar leases/PPA's is my understanding.

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Thanks for pointing out how this is different. On the surface it just seemed like yet another tech company reinventing the wheel and calling it a "smart" product.

Unfortunately, it's still not all that different from traditional geothermal with a "Google" sticker on it for me to really consider it innovative.

The problem is its initial target market: The Hudson Valley. Since Dandelion is based in NYC, it makes sense. But it will only really benefit on the heating side. I've owned several homes in the Hudson Valley (Middletown, Saugerties, Goshen) and yes they used heating oil in the winter, but no -- none of them had air conditioning. Unless something has changed in the last 10 years, residential AC isn't exactly widespread in homes over 10 years old, and (last I was there) electric was displacing heating oil in new construction.

>The data collection/marketing is ground breaking for residential HVAC, but I would guess probably nothing too amazing compared to any modern web company.

Is there some way to see what data they collect/ provide? My client has been providing insight into geothermal installs for 4-5 years now: http://groundenergysupport.com/wp/ -- still the most fulfilling thing I ever built.

My understanding of their data innovation is on the marketing side. What I heard is they're narrowing their marketing to only homes on heating oil or propane, essentially not going after houses on the natural gas infrastructure. The gas distribution data at the residence level is not super public.

I moved into a new apartment last year, served by a district energy utility. My winter electric heating bill went from $180/month to $40/month.

And now I get AC too. At a similar cost.

Now, the new apartment has half the window area and is a bit closer to the ground. But still that is a huge saving.

The utility's infrastructure serves about 25 blocks in a rapidly developing area. They use the "geothermal" constant ground temperature and natural gas heating.

They've been doing this for about 6 years.

Apparently abrasive media cutting, using concrete driven by hypersonic air (? maybe)

https://spectrum.ieee.org/energywise/energy/renewables/is-go...

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