Dandelion Energy Review From An Actual Homeowner

We bought our home in the summer of 2020 knowing it needed some updates; both cosmetically and functionally. The roof was on its last leg, the AC unit was 20 years old, there is a wood-paneled den--the list goes on.

Energy efficiency is extremely important to us, so we started researching both solar roof and geothermal heating and cooling options. The solar roof idea fell through due to dense tree coverage, but the more we researched geothermal heat pumps, the more excited we got about ground source heat pumps and the renewable energy they provide.

In the end, we chose Dandelion Energy to install our new geothermal heat pump system.

This post is NOT sponsored by Dandelion Energy, but I will receive a commission if you get a geothermal system after clicking a link here. You will also receive a $500 rebate on your installation.

Overall Dandelion Energy Review

We are extremely happy with our decision to have a Dandelion Energy geothermal system installed. The installation process went smoothly and faster than expected. Everyone we dealt with along the way was pleasant and fast to respond to our questions.

Cory, our sales rep, was both friendly and knowledgeable. He made sure we understood what was involved with having a geothermal system installed. He was also able to answer all my questions throughout the virtual design review process.

I can't remember our site planner's name, but she was equally helpful. We just had the one site planning meeting, but she walked me through how the system would be laid out on our property.

Brian, Dandelion's electrician, was really great. He did a fantastic job of explaining what he needed to do and working with me to make sure our electrical upgrade went as planned. He worked with ConEd to get us a new line from the street.

Finally, Scott, our account manager, did a great job of responding to all my inquiries and keeping us informed of the next steps as the installation went along.

We felt informed and prepared for each step including drilling the boreholes, trenching, and the actual heat pump installation. Permits were so easy; I didn't feel like I had to do anything.

I deducted a half of a star from my review due to some finishing issues with the actual heat pump installation. Our stair rail was damaged in moving the heat pump in to our basement, a hole was left open to outside after removal of the AC unit, and the condensate drain wasn't connected properly to the heat pump. These issues were dealt with quickly once I brought them to Scott, but I feel like the team could have been a bit more detail oriented.

It hasn't been a year yet, but we have already seen great energy savings and our new geothermal system has had no problems keeping our house warm during the chilly New York winters!

Why we chose a geothermal system

I did a lot of research about geothermal heat pumps and closed loop geothermal systems before contacting any contractors. In fact, I wrote a whole article about ground source heat pumps, but I won't get into the details of how they work here. Basically, these energy efficient heat pumps replace your furnace and air conditioner and use the constant temperature of the Earth's subsurface to heat and cool your home without the need for fuel oil or natural gas. Our furnace was natural gas, and I was excited to lower our dependence on fossil fuels and not have to worry about the fluctuating gas prices and high delivery costs (especially living in Westchester County, New York).

The major considerations when considering a geothermal heat pump are cost and available space for installation.

Our yard isn't huge, but it's accessible and mostly flat. I didn't think space would be an issue. I know other homeowners in our neighborhood had geothermal systems installed, but not the exact houses to go knock on doors and ask questions. While we had some open space, I assumed we would need a vertical system rather than a horizontal system.

I was a little worried about cost, but we already knew we needed a new AC unit as soon as possible, and our natural gas furnace was getting close to its end of life. Avoiding those replacement expenses helped ease the burden of geothermal's initial cost. Living in New York, we have extremely high supply and delivery costs for both electricity and natural gas, so I knew our lowered monthly utility bills would help as well.

Why we chose Dandelion Energy

I started our search for a geothermal installation company by searching local HVAC companies. I found quite a few that listed geothermal as a service they provided, but none seemed to specialize in geothermal technologies; geothermal just felt like an afterthought when looking at their services. I tried to find stories from other homeowners or geothermal system reviews, but there wasn't much out there.

I then looked to our power company (ConEd) for suggestions where I found Dandelion Energy. I was interested in Dandelion almost instantly; their website was completely geared towards geothermal--it's literally all they do. I was worried that the Google ventures start-up would be too far out of our price range (not to mention everything is just more expensive near New York City), but I went ahead and completed their quiz to see if our house qualified.

Our home ended up being a great candidate for their geothermal closed ground loop system, and we were put in touch with a representative pretty quickly. He was really friendly and knowledgeable and was able to answer all of my questions. He even advised us on how to get an extra ConEd rebate and to save a little money by having someone other than Dandelion install a new water heater. (Shout out to Cory--Thank you!)

Side note - This all took place over Zoom. I'm not sure if that's how they always operate or if it was just Covid-times, but I actually really appreciated not having to go out of my way to do meetings. During our calls, our representative shared his screen and I was able to see him look over our property using Google Street View and Google Earth.

Our whole interaction with Dandelion was just so easy and informative, and the cost ended up being pretty in line what what we were expecting, so we decided to go for it!

Contract signing and site planning

This phase went pretty fast. Once we decided to go ahead with Dandelion Geothermal, we signed the contract and set a meeting time with a site planner. The site planner was also a Zoom meeting; she pulled up an overhead view of our property and we talked about what kinds of things might be an issue for getting the ground loops installed.

Their drilling rig is so heavy that it can't pass too close to any multi-story foundations, so you have to have access to the well sites that doesn't require passing too close to your house. The rig is also tall, so overhead obstructions need to be considered. Finally, the wells can only be 150 feet from where the heat pump will be installed.

We had 2 potential well sites on our property. For comparison, we have just under half of an acre in a pretty standard suburban neighborhood. I was able to watch as the site planner marked spots for the 2 wells and planned where the trenches for the ground loops would go.

One of the big advantages of Dandelion Energy is that their method for geothermal installation only uses vertical loops, which doesn't require as much open space for installation.

After the site plan was done, it was time for permits. Dandelion did all the work there; I just had to sign some things, and they took care of the rest. The permits came in pretty quickly with no issues.

Geothermal system installation

Our installation ended up happening a few months before we were scheduled. Everyone from our sales rep to our account manager let us know that during the home renovation boom that happened during COVID, Dandelion's queue filled up quickly. When we signed our contract, they told us we would probably have an installation appointment in Spring 2021.

Imagine my surprise when I got an email on 12/31/2020 that the team would arrive to drill our boreholes on 1/5/2021!

The installation took part in three phases: drilling, trenching, and heat pump installation. Each phase took a few days and there was some time between phases. The whole process took about a month.

Dandelion clearly indicated that our yard would be left as "rough grade" after the work was complete. This is what the yard looked like after the work was done.

Here is the installed heat pump. The water heater in the middle is still natural gas; the water heater on the right is the desuperheater that Dandelion added. I'm thankful to our sales rep for suggesting I wait to have someone else replace our water heater when it's time to save money.

Dandelion geothermal complaints

As I mentioned in my review above, we had a couple issues arise with some of the finishing details with the heat pump.

We ended up removing the railing completely. Dandelion sent someone the day after I let them know of the issue to fill in the holes.

This one took me a little while to find. I noticed it was colder in our basement than before the installation, but I assumed it was because they closed off an opening in the return that was there before. When I did notice it, they sent someone out right away to fix it. I'm not thrilled with the fix, but it worked.

You can see why I wasn't thrilled. I'm not sure what the wires sticking out were. This actually got cleaned up further when the workers came to fix the next issue.

See that white pipe on the right? And the hole in bottom right corner of the pump? Yeah, those are supposed to be lined up. This wasn't an issue until the first time the AC kicked on and actually created condensation. I found a big puddle of water and called Dandelion right away. I turned the unit off so we didn't create any bigger issues. They sent someone to fix it the next day.

While the work wasn't always spectacular, they did deal with each of these issues in an extremely timely manner.

Final Dandelion Geothermal Review

Despite our yard being a mess, the whole process was pretty tolerable. I would definitely do it over again if we had the chance.

I have seen some stories that people have had issues with Dandelion's scheduling and communication, but we didn't have any problems. Everyone we dealt with was easy to reach.

We haven't had to do any maintenance other than changing air filters yet, but I received a post-installation guide from Dandelion that says they will reach out when they are scheduling maintenance visits. We shouldn't need maintenance for another 4 years, so hopefully I won't need anything until then!

I hope this helps other homeowners considering going geothermal whether it's with Dandelion Energy or another company. Part of the reason I decided to share is that I couldn't find any Dandelion Energy reviews from actual Dandelion customers when I was in my research phase. Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions about the process or installation.

If you have a Dandelion system installed after clicking through one of my links, you will get $500 back!