![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Mazoch-WhisperValley04-800x533.jpg\")
<\/p>\nBy Max Mazoch<\/p>\n
Photography By Max Mazoch<\/p>\n
Reporting Texas<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Weston Rodberry shows data from a Whisper Valley resident\u2019s coil failure on Nov. 2. Residents built a website where the community can report and track coil failures in their geothermal systems. Max Mazoch\/Reporting Texas<\/p>\n
Michelle MacAlpine knew something was wrong when white steam escaped from her home\u2019s air vents. Before long, her home in Manor lacked air conditioning in the 107-degree August heat.\u00a0<\/p>\n
MacAlpine had no cooling for nine days. During that time, her neighbors banded together, purchasing two air conditioning units and donating every portable fan they could find.<\/p>\n
It was noble. It was also the third time.<\/p>\n
\u201cTypical Whisper Valley,\u201d MacAlpine said.<\/p>\n
MacAlpine has lived in Whisper Valley, Texas\u2019s first geothermal community, for seven years.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Developers marketed the neighborhood, which completed construction of its first homes east of Austin in 2017, as having an affordable cost of living thanks to the solar-paneled roofs and a geothermal system that connects to each home to provide energy-efficient heating and cooling.<\/p>\n
But as their homes age, Whisper Valley residents report failing geothermal HVAC systems and foundations that have left them with bills in the thousands of dollars.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first couple years it was everything you would want in a place,\u201d McAlpine said, but \u201conce it starts falling apart, you realize it\u2019s a house of cards.\u201d<\/p>\n
Representatives of the developers did not respond to requests from Reporting Texas for direct comment.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Mazoch-WhisperValley01-800x533.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Whisper Rising, the original section of Whisper Valley located in Manor, is the state\u2019s first geothermal community. Homes in the development are connected by an underground geothermal loop that provides heating and cooling. Max Mazoch\/Reporting Texas<\/p>\n
More heat, more problems<\/p>\n
One of the frequent issues Whisper Valley homes face is coil failures associated with the geothermal HVAC system.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In Whisper Valley, each home has a vertical well that connects to a shallow closed-loop geothermal system<\/a> managed by the private utility company, EcoSmart Solution LLC. Fluid runs through the loop, up through the wells into the homes\u2019 HVAC system, and exchanges heat with the home.<\/p>\n When it fails, residents like MacAlpine must pay $975 to $1,500 and wait up to nine days for a replacement coil to be produced and shipped by Enertech LLC, the HVAC system\u2019s manufacturer.<\/p>\n Residents suggest coils fail because the water entering the HVAC unit from the geothermal system is too hot.<\/p>\n Residents have access to the daily water temperature of the geothermal loop and report it is typically above 85 degrees with the temperature occasionally spiking to over 100 degrees. They believe the high temperatures could be straining the HVAC systems and causing the failures.<\/p>\n The manual for the Enertech HVAC unit says the units can handle water temperatures of 25 to 120 degrees.\u00a0<\/p>\n On Aug. 3, residents said the water temperature spiked to 112 degrees, and multiple homes experienced system failures.<\/p>\n \u201cThe failures tended to be like dominoes on our street,\u201d MacAlpine said \u201cOurs went out; a few weeks later the neighbors would go out.\u201d<\/p>\n A recent investigation by an outside engineering firm suggested there is no design or operational issue with the geothermal system causing the coils to fail. That suggests, according to the report, that the cause of the failures could be attributed to structural problems with individual homes.<\/p>\n A third-party building science firm is also investigating homes in hopes to find the root of the failures.<\/p>\n Hot regions like Texas experience higher rates of coil failure regardless of whether the HVAC system is geothermal or the more common air cooled, said Jeff Hammond, executive director of the International Ground Source Heat Pump Association. The cooling process builds moisture in the coils, causing them to corrode.<\/p>\n Residents said failures frequently occur in the summer, when the cooling use is heavy, and are less frequent in the winter.<\/p>\n The cause of the repeated coil failures remains unresolved.<\/p>\n Shifting soils<\/p>\n Residents also experience major foundation issues with their homes, particularly in Phase 1 homes, the original section of the development.<\/p>\n Residents said Whisper Valley was built on expansive clay soil with a potential for 14 inches of upward swelling when soaked by water.<\/p>\n Julie Evins\u2019 back porch cracks from the expansive clay soils below her Whisper Valley home. \u2018One day my husband and I are going to wake up; and we\u2019ll be sliding down our backyard,\u2019 Evins said.<\/p>\n Weston Rodberry, a sustainable architect living in Phase 1, said the preventative measures developer Taurus LLC took while building the homes were not enough to stop homes from suffering structural damage.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not that the houses weren\u2019t built to a high code.\u201d Rodberry said.\u00a0 \u201cThey just weren\u2019t built for this kind of soil.\u201d<\/p>\n MacAlpine\u2019s home was built with foundation piers, one of the ways Taurus LLC tried to prevent structural damage. These piers are designed to support a home\u2019s foundation by shifting the weight from the unstable soil to the piers.<\/p>\n MacAlpine paid $108,645.09 on home repairs in 2025, mostly for foundation-related problems including cracked pipes that flooded her home when the foundation shifted.<\/p>\n MacAlpine installed new, more secure piers that extended deeper than the original.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were sold this story, but nobody told us we were building on clay and our houses would be in shambles,\u201d MacAlpine said.<\/p>\n Problems without answers\u00a0<\/p>\n Residents seeking answers said the lack of transparency and responsiveness by Taurus LLC and EcoSmart Solution LLC has made it difficult to find relief.<\/p>\n \u201cWe can\u2019t get an answer unless we picket, complain or threaten legal action,\u201d MacAlpine said.<\/p>\n Whisper Valley residents met with members of the development team Sept. 10, including developer Doug Gilliland and EcoSmart Solution LLC CEO Chris Gray.<\/p>\n The developers asked the community to write and submit their concerns to be answered during the meeting \u2014 but residents left with more questions.<\/p>\n \u201cIt wasn\u2019t a town hall meeting; it was a lecture,\u201d resident Jonathan Marsh said. \u201cIt felt like they were talking down to us.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt was the same talk we are given when you buy a home in the neighborhood,\u201d Rodberry said.<\/p>\n The developers suggested creating a focus group to appease the angry residents. After the meeting, Marsh and other residents created the group to organize their concerns and work with Taurus LLC and EcoSmart Solution LLC to resolve the issues.<\/p>\n But Marsh said David Currie of Taurus LLC called to ask if he would join a separate focus group of residents chosen by the developers.<\/p>\n Marsh said he attended meetings with the developers\u2019 focus group until each resident member was sent a code of conduct with strict guidelines that said members \u201cmust not air grievances\u201d and \u201cmust assume the developer and experts act in good faith.\u201d A resident member would receive a warning on the first offense of the guidelines and receive a year suspension from the focus group after a second offense.<\/p>\n Marsh left the focus group shortly after receiving the rules.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know how anybody would agree to that,\u201d Marsh said.<\/p>\n Gilliland and Gray did not respond to requests for an interview with Reporting Texas.<\/p>\n There is little opportunity for homeowner representation outside of the focus group, residents said.<\/p>\n Whisper Valley is a City of Austin public improvement district <\/a>, an area the city has decided is key for economic development. Austin issued multiple revenue bonds to pay for city services, like building roads, for the development: including a $4,500,000 bond for Phase 1 and a $6,820,000 bond for Phase 2<\/a>.<\/p>\n The residents pay for the bond through fees based on their property\u2019s size, worth between $13,344.13 to $32,289.19<\/a>, paid either upfront or through yearly payments.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/DSC00143-210x315.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Mazoch-WhisperValley05-800x533.jpg\")
<\/p>\n