New product idea

[RenEnergy]

Hi Guys,

I have a new product idea for my Renewable Energy company, and I thought it best to check it with you, because you are a great group of entreprenuers.

So my idea is to sell air conditioner systems to apartments that are 20% undersized, and thus save 20% on the Capex for the install.

Of course, this would lead to dissatisfaction of the tenant, on those handful of very hot days.

So in order to take care of this problem, I will install refrigerator systems that are 20% oversized, and on hot days, just tell the tenants, that complain, to open their fridge to cool the apartment.

According to my design calculations, the undersized air conditioners save 37% over the oversized refrigerators.

Do you agree this will work ? If not, please explain why...and if I sell 10,000 of these units per year, will that be a Fastlane project...??

Any HVAC Engineers here who could check my calculation...??...I am just an entreprenuer...

 

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[Dwight Schrute]

will that be a Fastlane project...??

Release the hounds.

 

[RenEnergy]

Hey Dwight, thanks for the quick response. You may not see the potential payback. If we save $1,000 for each unit, how much will we save per year...????

 

[BigBrianC]

Why would people buy bigger refrigerators (Probably not even possible in most scenarios due to kitchen cut-out space) and smaller air conditioners? And wouldn't the food risk spoiling? It seems like you're only market is the extreme, save-money-at-any-cost crowd. But even then you couldn't close on them, because they wouldn't buy new appliances.

The real "Fastlane" product here would be if you could make the air conditioners 20% smaller and cheaper but blow 20% harder/cool 20% faster

 

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[RenEnergy]

Why would people buy bigger refrigerators (Probably not even possible in most scenarios due to kitchen cut-out space) and smaller air conditioners? And wouldn't the food risk spoiling? It seems like you're only market is the extreme, save-money-at-any-cost crowd. But even then you couldn't close on them, because they wouldn't buy new appliances.

The real "Fastlane" product here would be if you could make the air conditioners 20% smaller and cheaper but blow 20% harder/cool 20% faster

Good questions, BBrian, I can see you are a real entreprenuer.

We have looked at the scenario you describe and it works well in the case of mid-size apartment units. In this case there is sufficient space in the apartment kitchen to easily hold the slightly larger fridge. Also, if the fridge is left open all day, some of the cheese and meat products will spoil, so we would tell the tenant to close the fridge after 2 hours to let those foods cool back down.

Any mechanical engineers on the board who could verify our thermodynamic calculations...??....we have the cooling and heat loads for the a/c and fridge and even the power usages and efficiencies...!!!!.....we are ready to launch this product in a few weeks, and I just want to make sure we are not missing anything from the biz dev perspective..??

 

[Dwight Schrute]

just tell the tenants, that complain, to open their fridge to cool the apartment.

Well the fridge, if opened, doesn't radiate coolness but soaks up warmth so to speak, according to thermodynamics.
The problem is, the people that complain about these hot days are the same people that complain when their beer warms up.

 

[RenEnergy]

Well the fridge, if opened, doesn't radiate coolness but soaks up warmth so to speak, according to thermodynamics.
The problem is, the people that complain about these hot days are the same people that complain when their beer warms up.

Wow, Dwight, thanks, that's exactly the kind of feedback we are looking for. My engineers tell me when we open the fridge the cold air inside, cools the room a little.

Are you some sort of thermo expert ???

Btw, we are going to put a customized "beer sleeve" in our oversized fridge to keep our beer drinking tenants happy during those hot days....

 

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[AllenCrawley]

This is asinine. I can't believe this is a real consideration. Too hot? Hey, open your fridge but be sure to close every 2 hours so your food don't spoil. Seriously? Thermal dynamics and calculations be dammed. It's just a sucka$$ thing to do.

 

[Digamma]

Are you people seriously discussing a "install smaller AC units and if they complain tell them to open the fridge" idea?
Good trolling is good. The room would heat more, not less. No engineer would ever propose such a thing.

 

[AllenCrawley]

Are you people seriously discussing a "install smaller AC units and if they complain tell them to open the fridge" idea?
Good trolling is good. The room would heat more, not less. No engineer would ever propose such a thing.

Certainly seems like troll behavior.

 

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[RenEnergy]

This is asinine. I can't believe this is a real consideration. Too hot? Hey, open your fridge but be sure to close every 2 hours so your food don't spoil. Seriously? Thermal dynamics and calculations be dammed. It's just a sucka$$ thing to do.

Hey Allen, nice to meet you....!!!!....we've already built a prototype, and I tested it myself. When I opened the fridge it got nice and cool to my feel.

I'm new to this forum... what's not Fastlane about it...???

 

[RenEnergy]

Are you people seriously discussing a "install smaller AC units and if they complain tell them to open the fridge" idea?
Good trolling is good. The room would heat more, not less. No engineer would ever propose such a thing.

Hey Diga, why would the room heat up...???

Lets say the a/c is designed to pull 30k Btu/hr and the fridge 5k Btu/hr.

 

[Dwight Schrute]

It would be much more profitable if you got into the car tuning business.
Drill some holes into the exhaust pipe for the good sound and charge $1000 for it.
Then, when your customers want a faster car, just tell them to drive downhill.

 

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[RenEnergy]

It would be much more profitable if you got into the car tuning business.
Drill some holes into the exhaust pipe for the good sound and charge $1000 for it.
Then, when your customers want a faster car, just tell them to drive downhill.

We run an ethical business, Dwight.

 

[RenEnergy]

Certainly seems like troll behavior.

I'm an entreprenuerial business owner, Allen.

 

[Dwight Schrute]

We run an ethical business, Dwight.

OkayBut what if you were a fitness trainer, and your clients whish to lose weight.
Would you tell them "Just eat less and shit more"??

 

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[DaRK9]

Not sure if troll or extreme lack of physics knowledge.

 

[Gsuz]

Are you having a sunstroke? Thanks for confirming why I put you on ignore.

 

[GuestUser113]

 

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[downsidesunny]

I currently work in the refrigeration business while I'm coming up with ideas for a fastlane business. The refrigerator is not going to pull enough btu's out of the area when it starts to get that hot. Not to mention areas in the house with a high heat load such as rooms with large windows or skylights. You would need at least one refrigerator in each room and depending on the square footage that may not even be enough. Air conditioners have a SEER rating that determines how efficient they are on electricity. Your better of building a new A/C with a high SEER rating at a low price point.

Sorry OP, but I just can't see that idea taking off. Customers will not be happy about there food getting warm in the fridge.

 

[RenEnergy]

OkayBut what if you were a fitness trainer, and your clients whish to lose weight.
Would you tell them "Just eat less and shit more"??

Dwight, if your clients "whish" to lose weight, you might consider giving them some spelling lessons...

 

[RenEnergy]

Not sure if troll or extreme lack of physics knowledge.

Go ahead, explain the physics to us.

 

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[Ajtothec]

Your "engineer" seriously tells you the room is cooling when the fridge is open without any consequences?
If this is for real, please stop hiring engineers on fiverr.

 

[RenEnergy]

I currently work in the refrigeration business while I'm coming up with ideas for a fastlane business. The refrigerator is not going to pull enough btu's out of the area when it starts to get that hot. Not to mention areas in the house with a high heat load such as rooms with large windows or skylights. You would need at least one refrigerator in each room and depending on the square footage that may not even be enough. Air conditioners have a SEER rating that determines how efficient they are on electricity. Your better of building a new A/C with a high SEER rating at a low price point.

Sorry OP, but I just can't see that idea taking off. Customers will not be happy about there food getting warm in the fridge.

I'm glad we have an expert HVAC guy here, with you, downside. We also considered the problem you suggest. One idea I have is to add a small blower to the fridge to blow the cool air further into the room. We might also have to tell the tenant to stay in the room adjacent to the fridge on those few scorching days every year. Do you agree this will work ?

 

[RenEnergy]

Your "engineer" seriously tells you the room is cooling when the fridge is open without any consequences?
If this is for real, please stop hiring engineers on fiverr.

Hi Ajtothec, no, my engineer said there will be a consequence. The fridge will heat up 2 degrees for every degree the room cools. Do you agree ?

 

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[downsidesunny]

I'm glad we have an expert HVAC guy here, with you, downside. We also considered the problem you suggest. One idea I have is to add a small blower to the fridge to blow the cool air further into the room. We might also have to tell the tenant to stay in the room adjacent to the fridge on those few scorching days every year. Do you agree this will work ?

RenEnergy, I'm a nice guy. I hate to let people down. However I believe your trying to solve a problem by creating a new one. If I told my customers that they would have to open up the fridge and let the contents inside warm up and that they would have to stay in a "specific" room during the day through the summer I know they would not be happy.

Your main idea is to sell undersized A/C units to apartments with large refrigerators to take care of the heat on the very hot days. I strongly believe that this idea would work better without the refrigerator. You should really look into "portable A/C units". For instance, if your really dedicated to pursuing this idea then think about packaging the undersized A/C with a portable A/C unit the tenant could keep in a closet over the winter. You can easily get a portable A/C that removes 8,000 btu's for under $300 and the tenant could move it into any room the wish to.

I wish you the best of luck.

 

[FeaRxUnLeAsHeD]

1. Calculate your risks
2. Define your fastlane roadmap / plan
3. Start taking action.

None of us here can work with telling you what is going to work and what isn't based on a few sentences written on a forum. That's nonsense.

 

[RenEnergy]

RenEnergy, I'm a nice guy. I hate to let people down. However I believe your trying to solve a problem by creating a new one. If I told my customers that they would have to open up the fridge and let the contents inside warm up and that they would have to stay in a "specific" room during the day through the summer I know they would not be happy.

Your main idea is to sell undersized A/C units to apartments with large refrigerators to take care of the heat on the very hot days. I strongly believe that this idea would work better without the refrigerator. You should really look into "portable A/C units". For instance, if your really dedicated to pursuing this idea then think about packaging the undersized A/C with a portable A/C unit the tenant could keep in a closet over the winter. You can easily get a portable A/C that removes 8,000 btu's for under $300 and the tenant could move it into any room the wish to.

I wish you the best of luck.

Thanks, downside. We looked at the design scenario you are proposing. Say the apartment has 4 rooms and we add one portable to each room. That is 4 x $300 = $1,200, which kills our economics.

We prototyped our design, like I said, and it seemed to work pretty good. We're getting ready to release an order for 1,000 units here, and I feel pretty good about it. I just wanted to check in with the business people here to make sure it's a good value proposition. I am using a "shoot, fire, aim" approach.

 

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[RenEnergy]

1. Calculate your risks
2. Define your fastlane roadmap / plan
3. Start taking action.

None of us here can work with telling you what is going to work and what isn't based on a few sentences written on a forum. That's nonsense.

Hi Chris, this is the kind of sound advice I was looking for. It matches the Fastlane book advice, so I know it's good. Our risks are moderate. I'm detailing the plan now. When I release the order, we will be in action !

 

[MJ DeMarco]

I've read enough. Not going to have you turn this forum into a mockery. Adios.

Thread closed.