# Payback on upgrades?



## crazyjackcsa (Aug 8, 2010)

I struggled with putting this in real estate or frugality, and settled on frugality.
What do you look for on a payback for an upgrade?

For example, there is nothing wrong with my Boiler (I have hot water heat) other than the fact it's terribly inefficient.

I thought about an upgrade, and calculated it would take me 10 years to pay off the boiler in energy usage. I decided against it.

I decided to stop renting my water heater and looked into buying one. The pay off of rent vs. own was about 3 and a half years. I decided to do it.

The payback on going to cfl lightbulbs across the house was a little more than a year. I went for it.

I decided all of this on a case by case basis of course. What about you? What do you look for on a return.

As a note, it seems that the average length of time before you pay it off in energy savings is about half the life of the product.

Also, I didn't get really hardcore about the numbers: I didn't allow for inflation to energy and product costs. And I didn't allow for putting the money I would have spent on a new product aside and invest it.


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## DanFo (Apr 9, 2011)

As my lights die I am replacing them with CFL's but it's not a big overall plan. When my appliances need replacing I'll go for more efficiant but still basic models but i won't replace them early just for the better efficiancy. I have electric baseboard heaters but for me to put in a gas furnace with the ductwork, then the drywall to cover it, I don't think I'll be in this house long enough to recover the initial costs not to mention the lost space needed for the system. I might put in another gas stove in the basement to help with the heating (replacing a wood stove i never use). I did put in new windows and it was an immediate difference in my heating costs over winter since my old windows were drafty at their best.


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## hystat (Jun 18, 2010)

My threshold is about the same - 3 to 4.5 years... Once projections extend more than 5 years, I tend to think "I could be dead by then", even though that's not likely at all...



DanFo said:


> I might put in another gas stove in the basement to help with the heating (replacing a wood stove i never use).


I did that after I upgraded my electric furnace to oil.. now, I tend to use the propane stove downstairs and propane fireplace upstairs and rarely turn the furnace on... wish I had just done the fireplace/stove first and left the electric


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## Guigz (Oct 28, 2010)

I guess one could say it also depends on the overall economy as well as your feeling of security/safety.

What I mean by that is if you are secure in your job, with no real shadow looming over you, you might want to invest to save down the line. If you dont feel so secure about your job, it might not be a good time to start pumping money into these types of modifications.

In addition, if a low risk investment is returning 1-2% one might be tempted to invest more in reducing ongoing cost than if the return on low risk investments is 5-10%.

I also believe that the lenght of time you want to stay in your house is another major factor. If you plan to sell in 2 years, it might not make sense to invest 20,000$ in a HE furnace because you probably wont get anywhere near that in increased value when you sell.

For me, anything under 100$ with a 10 year payback or less is worthwhile. When it is over 100$, I am looking at a payback less than 5 years.


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## rikk (May 28, 2012)

crazyjackcsa said:


> What do you look for on a payback for an upgrade?


Well ... I've considered 2 upgrades ... a gas clothes dryer and a gas water heater. The problem with both is that if (or more likely when) either fails, I'm not qualified to repair/replace them. Whereas I've easily replaced electric clothes dryers and electric water heaters no problem. So I'll throw in I also look for DIY maintenance versus maintenance contract ... or not.


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## hystat (Jun 18, 2010)

I was thinking gas dryer too...before ON extended the cheaper hydro on the TOU schedules, and then a friend told me he got rid of his because it shrunk a lot of clothes.


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## crazyjackcsa (Aug 8, 2010)

If you have the hookups already, a gas cheaper is far cheaper than an electric one. I've never had a shrinking problem with clothing. It might be his fridge that's responsible for that issue.


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## 44545 (Feb 14, 2012)

We replaced our fridge with a new, energy efficient model and calculated a saving of about $80/year.

The fridge only becomes revenue positive (at current energy prices) after about ten years or so but has the unintended benefit of keeping food fresh longer, resulting in less spoilage of fresh fruit and veggies. 

I don't have a way of quantifying that aside from saying it's "priceless." It's also nearly silent compared to the old one.

So, for us, the utility of the item outweighs the direct cost.



crazyjackcsa said:


> If you have the hookups already, a gas cheaper is far cheaper than an electric one. I've never had a shrinking problem with clothing. It might be his fridge that's responsible for that issue.


I laughed hard at that. XD


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