Snake Oil Medicine Salesmen Coming to Your Neighborhood Soon.

I met with my neighbor last night to talk about a possible solar panel system for her house. She had gotten a quote from another guy that is trying to do the same thing as I am. The reason she had gotten a quote from another guy was because she thought that I only did wind turbines, but I don't. I started out to do solar first but just fell into the whole wind turbines by accident.

But my question to her was is this guy even qualified to do something like this? The guy was a roofing salesman for a roofing company in Traverse City. How can a roofing company install solar panels without being a licensed electrical contractor is my question. That would be like me coming over to your house and trying to sell you shingles. I'M NOT QUALIFIED AND/OR LICENSED TO DO IT!!!!

None the less I was able to beat their price by $6000, their price was for $25,000. I quoted her the a little bit smaller system (just .2kw difference) on a tracker. Which is better because it is off the roof and it moves to follow the sun giving her 25% more power. Their system mounted on the roof and faced to the West that's ok, BUT it really needs to be pointed South.

So buyer beware of the Snake Oil Salesman coming to your door. There are somethings you need to be asking these guys:

Solar installer questions:

1. Are you a licensed Electrical Contractor or who do you use and are they licensed and insured?

2. How many systems have they installed?

3. Are you insured to do this type of work?

4. Do you work with the power company?

5. Do you handle all the permits? If they ask you to get them you need to say bye bye.


Wind turbine installer questions:

1. Are you a licensed Electrical Contractor or who do you use and are they licensed and insured?

2. Are you a licensed Building Contractor or who do you use and are they licensed and insured?

3. Do you have a licensed Engineer that you use? Because wind turbines are a structure and when getting a building permit you need a stamped foundation drawing.

4. How many wind turbines have you installed?

5. Are you insured to do this type of work?

6. Do you work with the power company?

7. Do you handle all the permits? The only permit that I do not get is the zoning permit, but will supply all the paper work needed to get that permit.

These are some basic questions that you need to ask your potential renewable energy installer. This is a big investment and if it is not install correctly your going to waste a lot of hard earned money.

So many times since I have started doing this type of work so many guys have since moved on. I know of three companies that all started about the same time as me and they have since disappeared. But I'm still here. I have since taken over one of the companies customers because he is not in business.

My thing is not just the installation but it's the service after the sale. So many are about the sale and not coming back after the installation. I generally try and make two visits a year to all my installation that I have done because it is important to me that you are happy with the product you bought from me. So many of my customers have become good friends.

So beware of the Snake Oil Medicine Salesmen, one day there here, the next day their gone, never to be seen again with your hard earned money.