Mary Yugo <[email protected]> wrote:
> > it is rather expensive. 45 kW is 150,000 BTU per hour. You can buy a > simple > > heater that produces that much for $230 > > Not when you include the cost of fuel and electricity. > That's the whole point! The Hyperion has a huge market advantage because it does not require fuel or electricity. They could jack up the price and charge a premium for this advantage, but why not sell it at the same cost as conventional heaters instead? It does not cost them much more to make than a conventional heaters so they might as well grab a huge market share with a highly competitive product, rather than factoring in the cost savings and trying to get a chunk of them. Selling them at a premium would be like selling a first-generation PC in 1980 at the same cost points as a minicomputer (per user) which would have been around $5000. It would have taken forever for the sales to take off if IBM and Apple had done that. The PC was radically cheaper per user, so sales skyrocketed, and this quickly wiped out the minicomputer makers. The first-generation cold fusion devices will require a little electricity. Later on they will be self powering. - Jed
