Think Healthy's Blog

We just had a Geothermal system put in. All was fine, but after about three or four days, my wife and I started feeling sick.

I was lifgt-headed. My wife was more sensitive and had headaches, burping, nausia, upset stomach, and burning eyes.

The technicians were out but couldn’t find anything wrong.

We have it off most the time and is frustrating with high tempurtures and humidity.

We had the ductwork cleaned, vacuum serveral times and dusted to no avail. Everytime we put it back on the symtoms come back mildly in a few hours, then worst in about a day.

The company isn’t very cooperative, and it’s very frustrating. Never imagined having these problems.

If we can’t fix this fixed then what do we do? Install another regular furnace and air condictoner?

Will keep you updated on this nightmare.

8-25-08

Update we had another technician out he replaced part of the ductwork they installed that had insulation glued to the inside. Thought we were sensitive to the glue. When it was removed it did have a strong order. It will take a few days to see if that was it. As of now we still smell it.

Had our carpet cleaned just in case that may help.

8-28-08 Put in new filter, ran unit for a while, still was emitting some fumes.

8-30-08  We think ( hope) that it is finally clearing up. Will let you know. If you ever get a GeoThermal (water furnace), you may want to ask the duckwork installer to leave the insulation and glue out. We haven’t notice any increase in noise without it.

Besides this problem we think GeoThermal cooling/heating will save us quite abit even though it’s expensive to install.

09/04/08 Still having problems.

Today we paid $350.00 for an indoor air quality inspector to check out our system. He did check it out for a couple hours. He had us turn the system back on and closed the windows. We said ok, but we will have to go outside and wait so we wouldn’t get sick.

He came out after a while not looking too well. He said that he was feeling light headed and that something was definately wrong.

After a while he came back out agin and told us he believes that the paint on the condensor along with the insulation was causing this problem. He thinks that it will clear up in a few months, if we run the fan.

Well not sure how we are going to work that out.

He said it would cost thousands to run enough test to pinpoint what it actually is and advised against it. He also said to only sue the company at a last resort, since it would be very expensive for test, expert witness and a lawyer.

Well after he left we shut down the system, open all windows and had to leave for a few hours.