[54regcab]

75% of customers around here won't spend the money to go from resistance heat a heat pump, much less drop the money for a geothermal. Amazing how 75% of all electric homes around here use resistance heat...

 

[waterpirate]

So basically, it's the well diggers that are getting all the tax dollars.

Sometimes the govt. gets it right. They knew the cost was in the HX. so by offering the incentive to cover the HX, it takes away the disparity in cost between the other means to heat and cool a building. That being said, GEO is not for everbody or every place. It all boils down to the number crunching for every place on the rock, and every job on the rock. GEO is a choice, not the " end all to end all " for every envelope.
Eric

 

[ICanHas]

Simplest answer: R&D ain't free. Freq. drives aren't cheap to design or build, which is where a lot of the costs are associated with the higher EER units.

There's also a production number factor here. The manufacturers produce FAR more air to air units, than geo units - economies of scale play an important role here.

That's some of the factors. The rest is in the typical of the 21st century green marketing. The other half is in the business office and it sort of works like car dealerships. Net price point marketing is another one, but obviously the specialists like drillers who reap benefit from it are strong proponents.

i.e. if unsubsidized standard system is $10,000, installer might stack up all the incentives together...say 30% federal, 5% state, 5% misc, and they do 10,000/0.625 2.5% adjustment factor.

$16,000.
-$6,400 paid for by tax payers through state, federal tax incentives and rebate through utility public purpose charges etc
--
Your cost: $9,600***

Cheaper than standard system.


***Based on income level where your federal tax liability exceeds 30% of system purchase. Pricing calculated based on subtracting tax savings. Payment due on full price at installation........

Cash for clunkers was touted to preserve the environment, but it was also an industry supported self benefiting stimulus where car dealers used "how much can you afford?" value and present customers and showing prices with the rebate already applied (i.e. if customer can afford $10,000, apply cash for clunker, trade in etc, and sell 'em a $14,000 car) and to raise the prices on existing used cars by reducing beaters in circulation.

Absolutely. Ford makes their money from F150's, not GT40's.

Mass production reduces production cost for low profit base model, but it passes on savings to higher end related models, such as Cadillac Escalade based on GMC Yukon whose selling price is disproportionally higher than added production cost. Best Buy don't make money on BluRay players. Retailers work with manufacturers so it only comes with the bare minimum like the remote and the power cable.

Best Buy doesn't want to source a BluRay that comes with a complementary functional HDMI wire, not because it raises their wholesale procurement cost a buck. They want to make sure there's opportunity for their cord sales people to point out that they need to have one to hook it up and that they sell one starting at $50 and extended warranty for $39.99. So they might have sold the $100 BluRay almost at cost after doing a price match to $89.95, but almost pure profit on their in-house lifetime warranty hookup cords.