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Thread: Air Conditioning Load on Glassed in Lanai
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Old 06-16-2025, 05:50 PM
retiredguy123 retiredguy123 is offline
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Originally Posted by C. C. Rider View Post
None of the referenced links that I read compared the cost difference in a warm climate such as Florida. So, using my all electric home as an example, let's do some "back of the envelope" figuring.

Let's say that a house with ALL double-pane windows costs an extra $6,000 here in Florida. Now, again using my heating/cooling costs as an example, let's say that my monthly electric bill in my ALL ELECTRIC home was reduced about $30 per month if I had all double-pane windows.

OK, so $30 per month equals $360 per year. At that rate, it would take 16.7 years just to break even. I don't know about you, but if someone offered me $6,000 CASH TODAY or $30 per month for the next 16.7 years, I'm going to take the $6,000 CASH TODAY!

Further, if you studied economics and the "time value of money", you'll know that dollars "saved" at some point in the future aren't worth nearly as much as dollars saved TODAY. So, if we factored that into our "break even" point above, it would take MUCH longer to break even than 16.7 years.

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Your $6,000 estimate seems high to me, but I would just point out that the double pane windows will offer better noise control, less chance for condensation issues, more even heating and cooling, building code compliance, and most important, a higher resale value. I would not even consider buying a house that had single pane windows.
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