01
The loop
Usually the largest single line. Depth, borehole count and ground conditions decide it, and the site decides those. A vertical field on a tight urban lot is a different animal from a horizontal field on open land.
Money
No price on this page. Here is exactly why.
A geothermal number depends on things nobody can see from a website. What we can do is tell you what moves it, how to compare two bids honestly, and where the published rebate figures are misleading.
Running cost
What geothermal displaces, on operating cost.
These three figures decide whether the capital cost is ever worth discussing. Two of them are why customers call. The third is why we say no to some jobs, and we publish it because a contractor who shows you only the flattering half has told you nothing you can use.
- 69–82%lower than propane or heating oil The two fuels most rural and lakefront properties are stuck with.
- ~71%lower than electric resistance Baseboard heaters, or the elements in an electric furnace.
- ~41%higher than natural gas On a gas line, geothermal costs more to run. If a lower heating bill is the only goal, we will say so before a site visit rather than after a proposal.
The drivers
Four things move the number, and only one is the equipment.
02
The real load
A measured heat-loss and heat-gain calculation, not a rule of thumb off floor area. Undersize it and January runs on backup resistance heat; oversize it and you bought ground you never needed.
03
The existing plant
Distribution sized for a boiler or furnace does not always suit a heat pump's temperatures and flows. Sometimes that means modifications, sometimes nothing.
04
Access
A drill rig has to physically reach the field, and spoil has to leave. Downtown and open suburban sites are different jobs with identical equipment.
How to compare two geothermal bids fairly
Ask every bidder for the heat-loss calculation, the loop design that follows from it, and the estimated annual running cost. If a bid arrives without those three, you are being sold equipment rather than a designed system, and the prices are not comparable. Ask also who carries the cost if the loop turns out undersized — that single question separates a design-build from a supply-and-pray.
Incentives
The rebate number most Ontario sites quote wrong.
Ontario's Home Renovation Savings programme is real and it is worth money. It is also narrower than almost every contractor page implies, and the caveats are the part that decides whether you get anything at all.
- It is $2,000 per ton, capped at $12,000 — not a flat $12,000. Only a 6-ton system reaches the cap; a 3-ton house gets $6,000. That rate applies to homes heated by electricity, oil, propane or wood. On natural gas the ground-source rebate is a flat $3,000.
- New builds are not eligible. The programme requires an existing home, occupied for at least six months. If you are building, this rebate is not part of your budget — and any contractor putting it in your proposal is misleading you.
- It is residential only. Commercial buildings and apartment buildings are outside this programme entirely — different streams, different caps, different arithmetic.
- Pre-approval must happen before work starts, through a participating contractor. Start first and the rebate is gone — the sequence is not a formality.
- Ask before you rely on it. Programme terms, eligible-equipment lists and contractor registration all change. We confirm in writing what a specific building qualifies for, and say plainly when the answer is nothing.
Why we lead with running cost instead
An incentive can be paused, capped or closed between your first call and your permit. The 69–82% operating-cost gap against propane and oil cannot. If a geothermal system only makes sense with the rebate attached, it does not make sense — and we would rather tell you that at the start.
Resource
The four-page brochure, including the honest economics.
What we do, how the equipment is built, both reference projects, and the off-gas arithmetic with the unflattering figure left in.
Prints straight to PDF on Letter — no navigation, no buttons.
Get the number for your building.
A site visit, a load calculation, and a range you can hold us to — with the running cost beside it, and whichever incentives are genuinely open that week.