Solar Water Heaters have a 3-7 year ROI according to the DOE

While many of of clients are willing to make an extra investment to “help save the environment”, most of them are mainly concerned about their economic bottom line.  I don’t blame them. In these tough times, you have to make smart economic investments to make sure you actually get a good return on investment.

When it comes to new construction and renovations, we offer upgrades in several areas over “standard construction” because there is actually a good return on the extra cost of the investment.  I have been giving presentations to many of our trade partners and I get consistent feedback from them that ‘green cost more and does not work all of the time.’  This is a misconception based on people gravitating towards the more expensive items that are green that may look cool but do not perform as well as other options.

That is why I prefer to use the term building science.  When we make recomendations to our clients, we keep their investment dollars in mind.  We look at a few things for each solution:

1. How well does the technology work?
2. How long it is going to last?
3. How fast will it “pay for itself?”

Let’s look at a couple of solutions that we offer based on these questions.

Geothermal HVAC

1. How well does the technology work? A.  Geothermal works very well in all climate zones.  Since it is much more efficient than a traditional heat pump, it performs much better during extreme temperatures as well when traditional equipment has only mediocre performance.  We are a Waterfurnace dealer and they have some of the best equipment on the marketplace as well.
2. How long it is going to last? A.  While the condenser on a traditional heat pump it rated to last for about 12 years- the loop field (the condenser for geothermal) is rated to last about 55 years.   If you look at the upfront extra cost for the loop field it pays for itself very quickly when looking at the cost of maintenance and replacement cost over the life of the home.
   
3. How fast will it “pay for itself?” A. This is my favorite answer.  For most scenarios, we are seeing a 5 year payback for geothermal.  On some larger houses we are seeing an even faster payback since many of them use so much energy.  This translates to hundreds of thousands of dollars in savings over the life of the system.

So when considering a renovation or new construction, if the tern green seems a bit unclear and confusing, consider design a home using building science that is specifically engineered for your needs.

Our building performance  (Fresh World) offers green solutions for homeowners and builders, while our green building division (The Hoots Group) is Atlanta’s pioneer in residential building science.

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