How To Make your Vacation Home Rental Green – Payback Estimates for Various Actions

A lot of media attention has been paid to environmental initiatives geared towards reducing resource consumption. As a homeowner and investor looking to make prudent financial decisions for payback periods of three years or less, let’s look at various greening improvements relative to their estimated payback periods for an Orlando vacation rental home:

• Conversion of incandescent lighting to compact fluorescent bulbs yields an average annual operating cost savings of $5.10 per bulb based on national averages.[1] Compare this to the cost of an 8,000 hour cfl 13 watt mini twister bulb for roughly $4.00. Based on these metrics, the payback period for cfl bulb conversion should be 1 year or less. The actual types of bulbs you install, seasonal home occupancy patterns and other factors will impact this figure.
• Front loading washers require less energy and water than the standard top loaders. National averages indicate tat this change may yield an average annual operating cost savings of $129.[2] Compare this savings to an average new large capacity washer appliance cost of $410 with installation. This yields roughly a 3 to 4 year payback period depending upon actual occupancy and usage factors.
• If you have a dishwasher older than seven years, the newer high efficiency models can save on both energy and water. National averages indicate that this type of a change could yield an annual savings of $51.[3]Compare this to the cost of a new high efficiency dishwasher that will run in excess of $300 depending upon the model you select. This yields a payback period in the neighborhood of 6 years.
• Newer high efficiency refrigerators with bottom freezers also provide significant savings. A check of national operating cost averages indicate that making a switch from an older model (15 years or more) yields an annual operating cost savings of $72.[4] Compare this to a new refrigerator price tag of $650 yields a near 9 year payback period
• New heat pump storage water heaters provide a potential savings of $310 if you are converting from a 10 year old or more model with an equivalent .9 energy factor.[5] Compare this to a medium sized water heater sized for most homes for a cost of $1,300. This yields a payback period of roughly 4 years.
• Showerheads – Green Seal, a non-profit greening organization, considers 2.2 gallons per minute (gpm) to be green. However, many newer showerheads operate efficiently at 1.6 gpm. If your showerhead is around 3-5 years old, it is probably in the neighborhood of 2.5 gpm. A gpm flow rate is normally printed on the showerhead itself. Industry experts armed with standard usage and cost metrics for water and energy indicate that a drop from 2.5 gpm to 1.75 gpm will yield a payback of roughly one year. This would be for a $30 showerhead retrofit. Savings will vary based upon local water and energy costs, but this is a good rule of thumb.

Feasible to Green Your vacation Home?

Although these examples are rough estimates for your Orlando vacation home, these give you a fair idea of what home product replacements may be feasible based on a required three year payback period. As you can see from these estimates, the compact fluorescent lighting and showerhead conversion meets these investment payback thresholds. However, there are many recommended low cost or no cost common sense actions that can be performed to your home to leverage cost efficiency. These will be covered in future articles.