In the New Dream Home, Majestic Boilers and Designer Pipes
Gwendolyn Bounds, Wall Street Journal, July 15, 2010
Last month, Peter and Sara Starr gave dinner guests a tour of their new Bayside, Calif., home. There's the designer kitchen fitted with free-standing ergonomic furniture. And the valley views complete with majestic redwoods. But the pièce de résistance sits just off the living room—a 100-square-foot nook otherwise known as the boiler room.
Last month, Peter and Sara Starr gave dinner guests a tour of their new Bayside, Calif., home. There's the designer kitchen fitted with free-standing ergonomic furniture. And the valley views complete with majestic redwoods. But the pièce de résistance sits just off the living room—a 100-square-foot nook otherwise known as the boiler room.
The mechanical makeovers come as the residential heating and cooling industry battles back from lean years. Home-improvement spending is expected to climb nearly 5% this year—the first increase since 2006, according to Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies. Helping sales are federal tax credits and rebates that offset outlays on certain energy-efficient equipment.
Of course, as with any trend, there are downsides to jumping on the bandwagon. Appliance styles can fall out of fashion, and updates cost money. Sears Holdings Corp. has phased out its Pacific Blue and Sedona orange-hued washers and dryers, replacing them with the more au courant Ginger and Chili Pepper.
And like a stunning pair of stiletto heels, what's fashionable might not be all that practical. Three years ago, Dirt Devil launched two cordless vacuum models called Kurv and Kone. Now those models, resembling a scepter and small megaphone, are being discontinued. "They were great looking, but from a utilitarian standpoint, they didn't meet customers' expectations," says Dirt Devil general manager Dave Chaney.
Payback time on investments such as solar panels can be 10 to 15 years in some cases,
Perhaps inevitably, some designers are trying to tap into the mania for the design flourishes of Apple's iPhones and iPods. American Hometec Inc. of Wilmington, Del., in May introduced the Everun tankless water heater, which heats hot water only as needed. The units, which cost $200 to $1,200, resemble brushed chrome-and-white wine coolers, have slide-touch controls and an optional shelf to hide wires (or hold a vase of flowers).
"It's designed to be like the iPod of water heaters," says Dave Millilo, American Hometec's vice president of marketing.
Others seek their muse in high art. Sears recently launched an in-room air-cleaner called the Kenmore PlasmaWave that takes inspiration from a Richard Serra minimalist sculpture.
"People don't want to look at things that are unpleasant," says Ellen Glassman, a Sears vice president overseeing design.
It's unclear how the interest in pricey energy-efficient appliances will hold up once certain tax credits and rebates begin to dry up at the end of 2010. Earlier this year, Sean and Grace Cunnane of Rock Tavern, N.Y., installed a Viessmann boiler and new royal blue Buderus hot-water tank. The project, which cost $17,000, was partially offset by a $1,500 federal tax credit for the boiler. "It helped," says the 45-year-old Sean Cunnane.
The retired police officer has been showing off his new stuff to family and neighbors, but he says there's more behind his latest splurge than bragging rights. With the weak housing market, he expects that he and his wife will be in the house living with—and looking at—their purchases "for a while."
See full Wall Street Journal article here.
