Well, with the housing the market the way it is (absolutely in the shitter!!) home inspections are just not cutting it right now. I will not be abandoning the inspection business altogether, but it's time to try something different. So, with the way things are in the world and having a pesident in office who is actually pushing a "greener" world I think it's time to get into something along those lines. I'm going to go back to school to get a certification so I can become a Solar Contractor!! After checking out the competition and going to a local "Solar Fair" I honestly believe I can rule the "Green" movement around here. There are only 6 certified Solar Contractors in the state and even less actual solar installation companies out there. The distributors are crying their eyes out that they need more installers, the other install companies are crying that they can't keep up, and it seems like every day there are more laws passed for "green" tax credits.
To become an installer you need a certain certification, and to own your own business you need another certification from the North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners. It just so happens that the local community college is offering courses geared towards both of these certifications. I'll be taking both of them and attempting to start another business in the Solar world by the end of the year.
So, what do you guys think? Have any of you ever thought about getting solar panels installed at your home to either reduce or totally eliminate your power bill? Do you guys think this could be a viable company? I feel that solar power is still not widely accepted, but has the potential to become so in the next few years. My hope is to get established before it does become accepted and then cash in when it gets good. In the mean time I will continue to do the home inspections and maybe that will turn into something in the future. I know I have good connections there, but the market is just not supporting the business right now. Am I up in the night??
My friend out in Victoria, BC is making a KILLING installing things like that right now. His boss actually sold him the company and decided to stick with distribution, which also seems to make him loads of money just by tacking on a bit of markup. Of course my friend (the installer) tacks on even more markup AND gets paid labor. He's hiring people to work for him as fast as possible because he can barely meet the demand.
Instead of solar panels I think what he does is heating instead. They run a bunch of pipes full of goop with a solar collector on the roof that heats up the goo, which is then circulated around the house. Something like that. Sounds a bit more complicated than adding solar panels to me, but what do I know!
I've thought of using solar panels to keep a battery bank charged in case of power outages and of course to offset my electricity costs every month. It's getting to be where solar panels are actually almost affordable so it's becoming more of a possibility every day.
Francious70 wrote:I've thought of using solar panels to keep a battery bank charged in case of power outages and of course to offset my electricity costs every month. It's getting to be where solar panels are actually almost affordable so it's becoming more of a possibility every day.
In many areas you can "sell" power back to the grid, while you produce surplus energy during the day. This offsets the amount you pay at night, in most cases breaking even, or severely reducing your power bill. That way you don't need a complex and expensive battery backup either. The benefit of the technology is that it gradually pays itself off over time.
Im starting to see more of this everywhere I turn, T.V. , News papers, billboards, you name it. It will be interesting to see what the power companies will do if this technology starts to hit the masses. The one thing wrong with society is we are alwys scared of change, instead of actually sitting back to analize it and make an educated decision based on the the floorplan that is layed down for us to embrace.
Francious70 wrote:I've thought of using solar panels to keep a battery bank charged in case of power outages and of course to offset my electricity costs every month. It's getting to be where solar panels are actually almost affordable so it's becoming more of a possibility every day.
In many areas you can "sell" power back to the grid, while you produce surplus energy during the day. This offsets the amount you pay at night, in most cases breaking even, or severely reducing your power bill. That way you don't need a complex and expensive battery backup either. The benefit of the technology is that it gradually pays itself off over time.
Yea, that's the way they do it here but I don't want to sell my surplus back to them to offset my night costs I want to use that power during the day when the electric prices are higher!
But I would still like the battery backup in case of power outages. We get a bunch of tornadoes here in Middle TN and when they come thru, the power can be out for hours at a time. With a battery backup I can at least have my computer and modem running, maybe even a TV.
Must have gotten the idea from one of yer last inspections.......... There is a ton of $$$ in it....... I've been green for years....
Those tender little burgers with them little, itty-bitty grilled onions that just explode in ya mouth like flavor crystals every time you bite into one.. just makes me want to burn this muthafuka down.... Come on, Pookie, let's burn this muthafuka down!!!
I actually looked into this a few years ago. I had some buddy's that did mortgage lending and even had them run some numbers, it looked real good. With current power prices we figured that we could see the system pay for itself in 12-13 yrs, and run a 10 finance plan so that it was almost breaking even. Be sure to check into the utility repayment plans as they are very generous here in phoenix. The dream came to an end when I did some more digging and found out I needed 2-3 yrs experience in the industry to get the certification needed to get the paybacks from the utility company.
I can't believe they have not passed a law that every house in this city needs one. With even a small percentage of the houses out here covered, we could put a significant dent in the west coasts energy problems.......
Francious70 wrote:I've thought of using solar panels to keep a battery bank charged in case of power outages and of course to offset my electricity costs every month. It's getting to be where solar panels are actually almost affordable so it's becoming more of a possibility every day.
Yep, just like mentioned you can tie into the grid (depending on where you live) and get credits from the power company. Keep in mind though that they are credits and you will never get any cash from the power company, only credits. Also, the power company will "by back" power until you are even with them (meaning you have produced as much power as you consumed) at full price, but after that they will issue you credits for only pennies on the dollar. This also all depends on where you live.
Here in Utah if you are a "for profit" company you are required to let you tie into the grid, but it is totally different for any "not for profit" company. Meaning where I live right now I buy power from the city and they are "not for profit" so they might not even let me tie into the grid. It all depends on where you live, as far as I know there are no federal laws in place for this yet.
Also, the comment about the power company knowing when you are hooked to the grid for safety reasons. There are disconnects built into the inverters now that make it so they will not feed power to the grid of there is a power outage. I'm not certain how this works yet, but I'm gonna find out!
ttocs wrote:I actually looked into this a few years ago. I had some buddy's that did mortgage lending and even had them run some numbers, it looked real good. With current power prices we figured that we could see the system pay for itself in 12-13 yrs, and run a 10 finance plan so that it was almost breaking even. Be sure to check into the utility repayment plans as they are very generous here in phoenix. The dream came to an end when I did some more digging and found out I needed 2-3 yrs experience in the industry to get the certification needed to get the paybacks from the utility company.
I can't believe they have not passed a law that every house in this city needs one. With even a small percentage of the houses out here covered, we could put a significant dent in the west coasts energy problems.......
They have a law like that in place here, but I have been assured by the dept. of professional licensing that it has been put on hold. They realize that with that law in place the people that are already in the industry can monopolize who and who can not get a license. It seems that there is a window open right now until at the very least these classes are done. I'm not sure if they have created this window to get some of the "right" people in, or if they are sincere about realizing the monopolizing threat. It's soooo hard to tell around here. Either way, I'm snaking my ass through the window while it's open!
go for it. There's a lot of experience in this stuff in Germany; all the stuff mentioned above and here there's a lot of "off-grid" setups, where you'll get a summer house with a panel and a battery or five and hey presto you have light.
Grab that opportunity with both hands and hold on tight
Bfowler wrote:^long hard breaths will generate more moment then several short quick breaths.
This man speaks from experience!
Honestly, I haven't looked into the wind power too much yet. I do know that if you call up some of the manufactures of the small wind turbines they can look up the wind patterns around your area to tell you if it is a viable option for you or not. Some places just do not have the wind to sustain a wind power turbine. After that I'm kinda in the dark for now on wind. Hopefully in the next few months I can tell you more.
you can get a check from the utility companies here in the winter. Don't forget I live in the valley of the sun, we average less then 20 cloudy days a year and in the summer our electricity bills are nothing($50).
It will be huge here in the valley in another 5-10 yrs, and from what I was able to reserch they are supposed to have the production process on a larger scale, lowering the cost.
The secret from what I could tell would be in the financing. MAke sure you have some good finance guys behind you which should not be too hard with todays market.
ttocs wrote:you can get a check from the utility companies here in the winter. Don't forget I live in the valley of the sun, we average less then 20 cloudy days a year and in the summer our electricity bills are nothing($50).
It will be huge here in the valley in another 5-10 yrs, and from what I was able to reserch they are supposed to have the production process on a larger scale, lowering the cost.
The secret from what I could tell would be in the financing. MAke sure you have some good finance guys behind you which should not be too hard with todays market.
By financing do you mean financing the business, or offering financing to customers?
ttocs wrote:you can get a check from the utility companies here in the winter. Don't forget I live in the valley of the sun, we average less then 20 cloudy days a year and in the summer our electricity bills are nothing($50).
It will be huge here in the valley in another 5-10 yrs, and from what I was able to reserch they are supposed to have the production process on a larger scale, lowering the cost.
The secret from what I could tell would be in the financing. MAke sure you have some good finance guys behind you which should not be too hard with todays market.
By financing do you mean financing the business, or offering financing to customers?
Shit, either option is a bad idea in this economy.
If a customer needs financing, refer them to a bank, don't finance for yourself.
If you need to borrow money to buy the panels before you install them, rethink your business plan.
ttocs wrote:you can get a check from the utility companies here in the winter. Don't forget I live in the valley of the sun, we average less then 20 cloudy days a year and in the summer our electricity bills are nothing($50).
It will be huge here in the valley in another 5-10 yrs, and from what I was able to reserch they are supposed to have the production process on a larger scale, lowering the cost.
The secret from what I could tell would be in the financing. MAke sure you have some good finance guys behind you which should not be too hard with todays market.
By financing do you mean financing the business, or offering financing to customers?
Shit, either option is a bad idea in this economy.
If a customer needs financing, refer them to a bank, don't finance for yourself.
If you need to borrow money to buy the panels before you install them, rethink your business plan.
Financing for the company is already taken care of.
I was more concerned about the customers financing. I was not going to do it in house but had somebody that I trusted that would be on board to help.
I think this would be a great way to help people regain value in their houses. Putting $40k in solar panels on your roof is not like putting $40k into a pool. You basically planting a money tree on your roof.
I think in the next few years more and more will be considering it. If you can get up and running now there might still be time.
Yeah, there is no way I can finance people in house, nor would I ever want to. But, being able to help them find financing could be invaluable. Weather it's taking out a home equity loan, or finding other financing I can definitely see the need for something like that.
There is a ton of $$$ in it....... I've been green for years.... 
