More Clunkers?

Yesterday Jeremy asked me if I heard about the latest Florida cash for clunkers program.  I said I had not.  Florida is rolling out another program tied into saving energy.  This time they are targeting inefficient older home AC systems.  In a typical Florida home, the central AC is by far the biggest consumer of energy so it is a good thing to target.

They are offering $1500 in rebates if you replace your system with a new efficient model. On top of this there additional federal tax savings available.  In theory, you could wind up saving approximately 50% off the cost of an average sized unit.

When I mentioned this to Ali she was very into pursuing it.  Our AC system is nearly 10 years old.  It also was installed in a haphazard fashion and has a bunch of leaks in the plenum.  You may recall the water I have sucked out of the return a couple times since the air handler was installed tilting AWAY from the drain.

So I am going to be making some phone calls today.  Getting this rebate is more involved than the appliance rebate program.  In order to qualify you have to have a test done that indicates that your ducts/vents leak no more than 15% of the air flow into the attic.  Some homes may never be able to achieve that level depending on the accessibility of the vents for repair.  I know with our vaulted ceilings I sure as hell would not want to be doing anything in that area.

We’ll see what sort of response/numbers we get.  I am sure most HVAC dealers are going to be hammered.