ODR & fuel savings... again

Chris S

I was discussing this topic this past week with my favorite supply house manager who has a long background in the trade. He was unaware of the upcoming DOE requirement for ODR on boilers, and so I sent him the article from ACHRNEWS.

The way I read it ODR will be incorporated in the boilers, which will make wiring easier than an add on control would be, obviously there will be a cost for the added board.

We are offering ODR now to our existing customer base. Unfortunately people don't get it, most opt for the cheaper out- the HW+. While it's true this product learns the system over time, the simplistic answer is that it merely widens the gap in the boiler cycle. ODR does much much more, and communicating thermostats even more for a systems efficiency, and of course post purge. The reality is that consumers (except the ones who trust implicity and say do whateever you think is best) want to know "First cost" and make their decision based on that only. A two year payback is all most people want to hear. A five year payback is so far away, people just don't consider it, even though most will certainly be keeping their boilers for much longer than that.

We did some calculations on anticipated fuel savings with ODR, even some calculations on electrical consuption savings using an ECM circulator ($ 30- 40/yr), and an assumtion that getting the delta T to where it should be will increase system efficiency ( Thank you Mark Hunt), but getting the word out is difficult.

I'm just a little guy with a limited customer base. All of our new installations incorporate all of the components mentioned above, because our customers see it is just a few dollars a month in the payment for the total project.
The reason for my post is this. Dan mentioned stimulus money to make public buildings more energy efficient which is great, we all pay for the waste in these buildings. How will the heating industry get the average homeowner to realize that the potential 15-30% savings on their home is just as important? Important not so much for our pockets to go out and sell product, but important for our nations energy future. Maybe it's not for the industry to accomplish, maybe we have to rely on government for this as well?

Robert O'Brien

Short sighted

"A two year payback is all most people want to hear. A five year payback is so far away, people just don't consider it"
A 5 year payback is 20% annually tax free.Since most mutual funds are back to where they were 10 years ago,that would look awfully good to me at this point!