Tampa exec pitches product guaranteed to cut electrical bills

In the quest to curb rising energy costs, some businesses will buy a good sales pitch and try a product that promises to affect the bottom line.

So when Tampa marketing executive Mickey Owens approaches local business owners with a product that he says will make their heating and cooling equipment more efficient, their ears perk up and their curiosity is piqued.

The CEO of a Tampa marketing investment company, the avuncular Owens offers convincing information about IceCOLD, a unique catalyst applied to the synthetic oils in heating and cooling equipment.

Owens said the product, developed by a Texas inventor named David Pickett 13 years ago, has reduced air-conditioning and refrigeration costs by 25 percent in some cases.

"When energy becomes 30 percent of your home and business expenses, then we've got to do something," said Owens, 67. "Air conditioning and heat account for the majority of one's electric bill. IceCOLD makes everything run more efficiently, like the first day you bought it."

According to the company website, when IceCOLD is injected into any type of refrigeration or air-conditioning unit, it helps to blend the compressor oils by changing the molecular structure. That improves the heat transfer so the system runs more efficiently and stays cooler for longer periods of time.

IceCOLD contends that companies can save $2 million to $3 million a year on utility costs, depending on the scale of the system. It even offers a 10 percent performance guarantee.

"Generally, investing in energy conservation is a tough sell, because the investment is initially expensive and the payback is way down the road," Owens said. "But IceCOLD is a one-time installation that will last the life of the project, and the payback is often less than a year."

The company works with GE Capital to help finance IceCOLD installations, in some cases 100 percent.

Richard Conte, a longtime instructor of engineering at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville and an expert mechanical engineer, has never tested IceCOLD. But he says it appears the product is working on sound engineering principles when it comes to removing the sticky oil layer from the inside the refrigerant tubing. But he would like to test the long-term effects.

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Tampa exec pitches product guaranteed to cut electrical bills