Watch the Video on Solar Power (FAFCO)
HOST: Tell us about FAFCO and just a little bit about the company and your plans for the builders' show.
VENDOR: Thank you, Scott. My company, FAFCO -- I founded it back in the late Sixties. We're the oldest and largest solar company in the United States. (HOST: You've been around) I'd like to think we've been around. We've got a few scars to show you for that. And in the initial couple of decades we focused on solar pool heating. (HOST: Right) The reason we're excited at this show is last year we introduced a hot water heating system that's novel in the industry, something that nobody's done before. And what's novel about this system is everything comes in one box: the solar collectors, the pumping module, the control and the drain back tank, everything in one box. So it can be installed by a do-it-yourselfer if you're handy, or it can be installed by the trade.
HOST: And you can do that as a remodel and new construction?
VENDOR: Excellent -- Excellent question. Yeah, I'm really excited about both markets because for the remodeler he's going out and selling doors and windows and siding and that sort of thing. This is a thirty percent Federal tax credit supported solar hot water heating system that's a very easy sale. What's attractive, I think, about what we've done is it's modular, in a box, and easy to install -- Same thing for new home construction. And all of this, actually, came from your tax dollars, because it's a collaboration with the Department of Energy over the last ten years just introduced last year. So we're pretty excited to think that after a hundred years of copper and glass we've got something new, easy to install, reliable and -- Oh, by the way, it's got my name on it. So I'm a little bit cautious about anybody's problems. So they can always give me a call.
HOST: Right. And I guess with this green building buzz and everybody's wanting to go green, you guys must have been green since, what, the late Sixties. Is this helping your business?
VENDOR: We were green before our time in the late Sixties. And then the energy crisis came along in 73/74 but oil prices settled back down. This time it's for real. So the country is running out of energy -- slowly. Prices are going up and they're going to stay up. Renewables are going to play a significant part, and within renewables there's an easy thing to do with solar and a hard thing to do with solar. And the easy thing to do with solar is to take advantage of the heat and heat your hot water. A little harder thing to do with solar is to generate electricity. But they're both good.
HOST: Right. There's something I had another builder mention to me the other day and I found it fascinating. And you can tell me a little more about it. It was a shared savings program where, basically, a solar company puts in the panels and all the workings for free and then you pay back the solar company as you would any utility company.
VENDOR: Exactly right. Shared savings is -- is coming in slowly and what it amounts to is rather than pay a dime for the system up front, you simply share the savings with me and I install the system for you at no initial cost to you. But here's the neat deal. I think a number of your viewers -- You yourself are a builder. Here's the neat thing about solar thermal. The day you install the system it's cash positive, because you've built the solar system into a twenty or a thirty year mortgage. (HOST: Right) Let's say the payment on the system is twenty bucks a month or whatever it would be. The savings are way more than twenty bucks.
HOST: (OVER) I can imagine.
VENDOR: So for a builder, in effect, the financing is already taken care of and there's no first cost problem.
HOST: Is that something you see as viable today or... something that we're looking at maybe a couple of years down the road?
VENDOR: I think today for new home construction and for your remodeling viewers it's absolutely here today. I'll tell you why: thirty percent Federal tax credit and then often state tax credits. We're in the state of Florida. There's five hundred dollars right off the top in addition to the Federal tax credit. Beyond that, again, if you can build it into the long-term financing as a builder it's great. Or your remodelers -- They always have good financing plans anyway. Either way the first cost problem goes away. But going back to your shared savings question: that generally works better for large commercial buildings.
HOST: Okay. Well as a residential builder the Green Building Program has got me really interested in solar systems, something I think that -- You know, three or four years ago we're all building and everything is happy, but now we're in this energy crunch. And it's good for you but, as a builder, I'm looking for products like what you have.
VENDOR: If I could kind of expand on that a little bit. As a builder you're also probably trying to differentiate yourself from your competition. (HOST: Exactly) And everybody's talking green. Not too many people are doing it. And then there's passive green and there's active green. (HOST: Right) Passive green is let's go from, you know, R-15 to R-25. Active green is let's put some solar panels on the roof and let's generate some energy -- completely different things. So I think what we're going to see in both the remodeling and building trade is a competitive advantage deriving to the folks that -- that see solar as a solution and do the easy thing first, which is hot water or pool heating.
HOST: Very nice. [END]
Watch the Video on Solar Power (FAFCO)
| 
