I wrote:
> He's going to manufacture furnaces for the home for $500 each. >> >> Sure he is, like I really believe that... >> > > On the contrary, it is quite believable. The device is only 10 kW, which > is not enough to heat an entire house. . . . > I meant the pricing is believable. The price points are reasonable. Some people may have trouble believing that it works at all, since it is cold fusion powered. Some people may doubt that he can make one cheap. I wouldn't know about that. Apart from those considerations, there is no reason why a stand-alone 10 kW device should not cost around $500. The cold fusion cell is not expensive. The rest of the machine, including the metal cabinet, the controls, the thermostat, wiring and whatnot should not be much more expensive than the 5 kW electric baseboard heater at Lowe's. Of course the machine saves a terrific amount of money over the long term because it uses much less electricity, and no gas or kerosene. It could be priced higher and still sell. However, I think that when you are breaking into an existing market with a revolutionary technology that people are not familiar with, it is better to start off with the lowest price you can. Based on the price points of the competing minicomputers, the Apple and IBM personal computers could have been sold at much higher prices. But sales would have been anemic. They would have sold only to the existing minicomputer market, which was small. It was better to undercut them, drive them out of business quickly, and at the same time attract droves of new customers. A $500 eCat stand alone heater might be a good deal even if you price it at $2000, given the lifetime savings from reduced electric power consumption. But not many people would buy it. People who can afford $2000 for a small heater are so wealthy they don't care about the money they save. A few wealthy people with isolated log cabins might buy one. The others would just go on using firewood, which saves as much energy as an eCat. (You only pay for the gasoline to cut the wood, so overall energy savings are about the same as with an eCat.) However, when you price it at $500, suddenly you have millions of potential customers. The savings are huge, and the cost is close enough to an impulse purchase, for something like a decked out backyard grill or a fancy push lawnmower. People who have perfectly good central heating will say: "Heck, why not? It pays for itself the first year." All in all, from the marketing point of view, I would say this is the perfect starting product at just the right price. - Jed
