$400 an hour. Very Brief Rant

[CThomp]

Local Company wants $400 just to install a solar gable vent fan!!!. The fan is an attic breeze AB-255. It's got a solar panel, one wire, and a fan. The fan goes behind the gable vent. The solar panel on the roof. Hide the wire. F-in silly. I can do this myself in a hour.

I contacted the local company that sells these figuring that maybe if they charge just a small fee for something so simple to install that maybe i'd just hire it out.

Nope. They want a sh!t load of money that will require me a drill, some silicone, some zipties, and maybe a screw driver.

I wonder how many suckers have that put in and pay $400 for that scam.

These fans sell for around $580 or so on line with free shipping most of the time. I'm still looking for a similiar fan with equivalent output for less money.

[CThomp]

So I found one

Natural Light makes a fan that has a slightly larger solar panel and costs $100 less. I emalled them a question about metal roof installation for the solar panel.

I could likely make some brackets myself if necessary but i'd like to make it easy for myself.

[Don_P]

Sounds like you've found yourself a market niche :)

[RTF]

I love to hear somebody beating back the rip-off artists. However did you take any other prices to see how far off they were?

[DIYguy]

Wait, hold on a sec. No one here is doing the math correctly.
Do any of you run a business like I do? Have you ever sent a guy into the field to change a lightbulb and add up what it costs you to do it?
Nothing frustrates me more than a client telling me that something "only" takes an hour. Granted the part of the job that you see may "only" take an hour, but that hour costs my business about $250 between payroll, rent, transportation, worker's comp insurance, materials, benefits, utilities, self-employment tax (a BIG number), renter's insurance, warranties, bookkeeping, advertising, supplies, licensing, corporation fees, and the occasional legal matter.
Now if you're someone that can do it yourself, then you will definitely be able do to it cheaper than a business ever could. This is true for most small jobs, which truth be told are more of a hassle for a business than anything else. Unless they charge correctly for them, they are a complete waste of time and wind up costing the business a lot of time & money, not to mention taking its focus away from larger projects.
There are a lot of people who cannot do these odd jobs themselves, and so businesses do them as a service, but trust me they are not moneymakers. They are good PR (the best advertising), but they're really more of a hassle than anything else. When Mrs. Smith refuses to pay because she expected the fan to be trimmed in old growth hickory, that's when you realize as a business owner that going into the field to make $400 is a complete waste of your resources.
So before you bash a business, do the math. Then realize that the business owners themselves cannot compete with the price you can do it for because you don't have the overhead that they do. If it's so easy and so profitable, why don't you start a business doing it? You'd make a killing, wouldn't you? Try it.

[CThomp]

I'm not bashing the business i'm bashing the cost. It's silly. Yeah i'm sure that he has his overhead. But even the web site says it takes only 30 minutes to install. So i'll assume thats a professional. And a non professional will take probably an hour.

Most people probably won't even step foot in their own attic space. All of these fans require that you get in your attic. For me i'll be in the attic for about 15 mins. 5 minutes of which will be me monkeying around my big ass (6'2" 210lbs in a 4:12 attic space) to the spot where I put in the fan. It should be comedy gold watching me wade through the pink sh!t blown in my attic.

And how do I know this company doesn't use independent contractors which eliminates alot of overhead? Even electricians don't charge $400 an hour.

In the end to me as a consumer $400 is a scam. I'm not going to start a business doing it. I'm just not going to pay it. And as a consumer consuming the product and the service who has to pull out my credit card to pay I can bad mouth it all I want and noone can stop me. I emalled the guy for a quote. He gave me a quote. I thought it was insane.

If you don't like it don't buy it...so I won't.

No harm no foul against you DIYguy. I'm not starting a battle here. Just my opinion.

[RTF]

CThomp as a consumer you have the choice to be overcharged or do it yourself, and from what you have described you would have been ripped off. People can run their businesses the way they want, I don't care about the competition. The right price and professional performance gets a contractor more work, it is the best marketing tool we have. I'm glad you researched the product, you did your homework and saved yourself money.

[Adrian]

CThomp. Good rant. It always feels great to let out a nice "you know what really grinds my gears" (should be a forum topic).
This is a great example of why a consumer should always get multiple quotes for any type of services.

This is also just another example of how people are getting run over by the "green train"

[CThomp]

DIYguy had a really good point though. That it is a small job that they still have to send someone out to do and just sending someone out costs money.

BUT...it's an advertised service.

So my rant still stands as is.

[homebild]

I'm amazed that anyone would buy this fan for + or - $500 when they could install passive venting for about $100 that would do a better long term job.

PT Barnum was right.

There IS one born every minute...:)

[CThomp]

I'm not sure what passive venting I could install at this point without cutting a hole in my metal roof. I don't want to do that.

[homebild]

Well, if you don't want to cut holes in the roof, hire a professional to do it.

Considering you'll likley have to install 3 of the fan gadgets you propose over a 10 year period....for the $1500 you'd waste during that time... it would better to pay a professional 1/2 that cost now to permanently solve the problem by installing passive vents.

[CThomp]

Something tells me i'd pay more than $750 for that amount of work.

My house is L-shaped with a metal roof 2000sqft under air with probably 2700sqft total under roof.

BUT...I will research this because I'm not going to say you are wrong. That'd be silly on my part. And if I can find someone who cn do it at a reasonable price that'll likely be the route I take.

Thanks homebild.

[STDog]

Better question then, why the solar panel?

Go with a normal AC fan and wire it in.
Most of the $580 cost is for the solar panel. Even if it used the full 25W the panel puts out, how long would it take to recoup the cost of the panel in electricity savings? In reality it'll only draw 3 or 4 amps.

The fan in question is thermostatically controlled, so it won't run all the time.
So, how often and how long do you think it would run?

For $100 or so you could buy and install a fan on the gable that's wired into the house wiring.