Geothermal heating and cooling is coming to Fairfield County, with its first installation anticipated by Halloween, according to Dandelion Energy, which bills itself as “the country’s fastest-growing residential geothermal company.”
“The first and most important reason for expanding to Connecticut was DEEP (the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection) increasing the incentives for heat pump installations,” Michael Sachse, president of the New York company, said. “That really changed the economics for us, and we think for consumers in the state as well.”
DEEP originally offered rebates of $500 to $1,500 via the Connecticut Energy Efficiency Fund for qualifying geothermal systems, but that number can now go as high as $7,500 for larger systems.
A Dandelion geothermal system typically costs $18,000 to $25,000 for the installation of a 3- to 5-ton heat pump system; the sum includes all installation costs after state and federal incentives are applied, Sachse said. The company further offers zero down financing, starting at $150 per month.
Geothermal heating systems function by drawing from the Earth”™s energy absorption from the sun, which is stored in underground pipes. The energy is mixed with a water solution that carries the energy to the house”™s heat pump. Dandelion says that, on average, a typical house will spend about $150 a month for geothermal, versus $300 a month for oil heating.
Sachse said that, in addition to the financial incentives, Dandelion felt that expanding into Connecticut ”“ it will expand out from Fairfield County, he said ”“ made geographical sense.
“We can begin to service (the county) out of our warehouse in Westchester County,” he said. “There are 550,000 homes in Connecticut that use fuel oil for heat, and we believe it”™s a great opportunity for us.”
Sachse said that to date Dandelion has installed its heat pump systems in over 400 homes in New York, and that it expects to double that number in both states by the end of 2021.
“We”™ve already sold a few” in Connecticut, he said.
While most people like the idea of being more environmentally responsible, Sachse continued, Dandelion is under no illusions that that is the main reason for most consumers”™ fossil fuel-to-geothermal decisions.
“It”™s a dollar-and-cents issue for most people,” he said, “and we understand and embrace that.”
Dandelion has also had to endure some ups and downs during its relatively brief history. Originally a project at X, the research and development lab at Google”™s parent company Alphabet, Dandelion launched as an independent company in 2017 to a fair amount of fanfare.
In January of this year, co-founder and CEO Kathy Hannun stepped down to become Dandelion”™s president and focus on its product development. Sachse”™s hiring as CEO was announced at the same time; given what some saw as his sudden departure from IT firm Stardog last September, he seemed an unusual choice.
But, Sachse told the Business Journal, before Stardog he was chief marketing officer at Opower, an Saas customer engagement platform for utilities; he was given credit for guiding Opower through its $532 million acquisition by Oracle in 2016.
“I”™ve been passionate about the energy space for some time,” Sachse said.
Dandelion also had to weather a March Forbes article that detailed various customer complaints, most of them about delayed and inexpert installations, many of them due to the firm”™s reliance on subcontractors.
While those beefs arose before Sachse took the helm, he said Dandelion has “learned how to control the quality of our contractors. We now do the installations ourselves, or with several subcontractors who are heavily vetted.”
Following what Dandelion is counting on a successful expansion throughout Connecticut, Massachusetts will probably be next.
“They have some geothermal incentives in place, but they”™re on a smaller scale,” Sachse said. “But we expect that they will be expanding those.
“There”™s a huge market out there,” he added. “We feel good about where we are and where we believe we”™re headed.”
