Dan Musicant wrote in
:

I just got a call from the guy who came over my house on Saturday.
I told him I'm investigating my options. Then I asked a few
questions:

I tried to find out what exact relationship his company has with
Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E, my utility company), and he says
that this is a state program (CA), and that it's just with PG&E
and California Energy Services, noone else, and that the contract
was awarded to CES because of their stellar record, rated A+ and
15 years without a complaint.

He says that the Trane discount on the furnaces is $2000 apiece (2
furnaces proposed for my house) for a total of $4000 and that that
discount will expire at the end of the month (i.e. end of July
2011). PG&E's rebates are $150/furnace. He says that the Trane
discounts are for this program only (I asked him that question
specifically). He said there's also a tax credit available of up
to $200/system, but in my case it probably doesn't matter. My
income was so low the last two years I paid zero federal taxes.

I asked him about permitting (I'm in Berkeley, CA) and he said the
inspector would come out and check out the furnace installation,
nothing else and that it would be part of the program, no charge
to me. If the program wasn't involved, I would be subject to a
$300-$500 permit fee.

The no interest loan for one year is just that, never pay any
interest with one catch, being that I have to pay off the loan
entirely by the end of one year or I pay plenty of interest. The
loan is through Wells Fargo. If I don't anticipate being able to
pay off by the end of a year I can get a 9% fixed interest loan,
otherwise it could be 25-26%. I have a HELOC, so I could pay off
the loan no problem before a year's up.

He says the furnaces would be 20,000 BTU apiece (he said that
since my house is almost 2000 square feet, the rule of thumb to
have 10,000 BTU/500 square feet of floor space determines that),
with 6 registers each. He said if I need a 7th register it would
be no problem, no charge. The ducts would be 6-8" R6 insulated.
They'll run flu exhaust as required, the one in the attic up
through the roof and sealed as required. The furnaces would be
suspended (i.e. in the crawl space, it would be suspended above
the ground by brackets) and would be in the center of the house to
avoid long/short runs, or at least ameliorate them.

The problem of access was another thing I brought up. I wanted to
know if I'd have to pay extra for that. He said around $150-200.
The furnaces are 95.5% efficient, dimensioned 20" x 30" x 40", so
they'd need a 20x30" hole to get them in.

Do you guys still think this is a scam or that I'm being over
charged or that they really should check out the house more
carefully?

Dan


Email: dmusicant at pacbell dot net

Make sure you can keep the humidity low in the crawl space. Someone I
know has a furnace there and had to replace it a couple of times
because it got rusty and quit working.