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It will be a first of its kind air conditioning system in Florida. But if the price doesn't come down considerably for the average homeowner, Coffee Talk wonders if it might be the last.
Tri County Air Conditioning and Heating, Inc., based in Laurel, is donating a state-of-the-art Lennox solar powered, three-ton air conditioning system to be installed in Florida House.
The demonstration home in Sarasota is meant to be a model of sustainable development, energy conservation and low impact landscaping. The idea is that Florida homeowners and businesses can use its building and site features to make their own buildings more environmentally and economically sustainable with lower water and energy consumption.
Florida House is in the process of being rebuilt on the site of the Sarasota County Technical Institute after being moved to a new campus location. It's a partnership of the school district, county government, the county extension office, the Southwest Florida Water Management District and the Florida House Foundation of Sarasota, Inc.
At a retail cost of $65,000 for materials and labor to cool, heat and purify the 2,200 square feet of conditioned space, its life-cycle cost would typically depend on the energy savings and the maintenance costs. But for Florida House, the hope is that it will use less energy than it produces, according to Troy Larkin, renewable energy marketing specialist with Tri County.
Larkin says the $65,000 price tag includes roughly $30,000 for installing indoor air quality products and a photovoltaic system providing most of the energy needed to operate the rest of the house.
The new system could decrease electric bills as much as 50%, says Larkin. So for an average homeowner with a $200 monthly electric bill that gets cut in half to $100 a month, it would take 28 years (using a 4% discount rate) to recoup the $35,000 investment for just the solar A/C system.
As is the case for most new technology, Larkin says, “The goal is for the price to come down for the average homeowner.”
In the meantime, it's not exactly a sustainable business model for the average Florida homeowner or a small business owner who instead could spend $8,000-$10,000 for a standard high-efficiency three-ton system.
It does demonstrate, however, that anything's possible if you have enough money, or at least patience.
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