The Ten Minute Window (2012~28)

It is possible that you may be new to these SkyPower blogs. Somehow, you have missed the four hundred and fifty blogs, radio shows, videos and other postings that we have put up on the web over the past couple of years. It might be the case that this article is the first one of ours that you have ever seen. If so … welcome! You are about to find out that we are solar engineers engaged in the business of putting up the finest solar electric power systems available for homes and small businesses in the sunny southwest United States. We write these blogs in an effort to document the trials and tribulations of the solar world for those that are using or thinking about using solar electricity to power their lives. For those that read this in the next year or so, it may help to understand what you are trying to do. If you are reading this sometime after 2014, then let it stand as a mark in solar history. This is how things seem to be right now.

Make no mistake, SkyPower wants to be your solar company. We want to sell you solar. We make our living selling solar and if you don’t buy into what we are saying or do agree, but go with another company … well, that’s not what we were hoping for when we offered up our knowledge. If you are reading this AND you are going to buy solar … but you are not going to do it with SkyPower … then STOP! If you are not in Arizona, then it’s okay to keep going. If you are in Arizona and you are going solar soon and you are doing it with another company, then why are you ready this? Read their stuff (as goofed up as it probably is) and buy their kool-aid. If four hundred articles about solar and SkyPower’s value proposition doesn’t win you over, then what more could we do?

We have found that the “go solar” decision happens unlike any other sale ever studied. It’s very strange that something so big and important is bought or discarded in so short a time with so little information. We call in the “Ten Minute Window.” It’s actually two five minute windows, but that doesn’t sound as cool or as easy to explain.

The first “window” is where the magic happens. Somehow, somewhere, someway a person decides that making their own power is the way they want to go. There are a million ways for this to happen and a million more places, but it almost always ends up with a “light bulb” going off in their heads (powered by coal from a big utility with a big utility bill) telling them that the time has come. It could be that you’re driving around, seeing other houses with solar. It could be just after opening a power bill. It could be after seeing a newspaper article on solar or it could be after a neighbor or friend does it. One thing we’re pretty sure of is that very little we can do here at SkyPower can make that moment happen. We simply don’t have enough marketing power. Google doesn’t have enough marketing power to make you go solar.

It happens in as flash. “Oh my. I need to go solar.”

No amount of web advertising or other media input can make this happen … actually, all of the media and advertising make this happen. The combined weight of society and all the messages that we all get each day add up to make it happen. Some are plusses … solar is cheaper. Some are negatives … solar stocks are down. Some are informative and some are just plain stupid. The oil and coal guys (through Fox “News”) tell you that solar is bad while at the same time they are buying solar companies because the see the writing on the wall. They didn’t get to own everything by passing up opportunities … especially those as easy to see as solar.

The solar guys (like us) tell you that it works … because it does. Even so, massive adoption of any new thing takes time. People are people and especially here in Arizona, nothing happens fast. It’s hard to make an important decision when it’s 115˚ outside!

Once the first half of our ten minute window happens and you’ve decided to go solar, the second one happens and that’s our one and only chance to sell you on SkyPower. It’s in that second-half of the Ten Minute Window that we are hoping you read this and decide to hire SkyPower to build your solar array. It only takes five minutes because that’s all the time you will give it. Your life is too busy and this is just not interesting enough to give it more time than that. We have five minutes to gain your trust. If we do, the deal is done. If not, then Solar City will get to build another crappy array … because you just don’t care to do it great and their green hybrid cars running around town have convinced you that they know what they are doing. (The $28million in warranty repairs they needed to perform last year did not come into your decision. Too bad!)

The “go solar” decision is made just that fast. Five minutes in … five minutes out. After that, it’s just education and overcoming buyer’s remorse that takes up a bit of time. If we didn’t want to be polite or hope for referrals that never happen, we’d instruct our sales team to say “thanks for the ice tea” and leave after five minutes when it appears that the folks in front of them are not buying what we are selling. It’s very clear. It’s also that clear when the folks are on board. We tell them stuff, but they don’t care. “Just take care of us.” is all they say as they sign on to do solar.

… and we do take care of them.

There are other sales that happen this fast … perhaps all sales, but this is solar and it’s a big deal. We are constantly amazed at how little folks care about something so important to them. Some just take electricity for granted and don’t know or care what it costs. They will be surprised soon enough and find that their attitude was very expensive. Some care about their power, but buy solar like they buy refrigerators. Too bad. It could have been done better.

We only had ten minutes and unfortunately, no solar company is big enough to do that … at least not yet. If you find this blog in that window or remember it for some reason when that window opens for you, call or email. We’ll be there to build great things and that makes these articles all worth while.

A Lifetime Commitment (2012~16)

We were sitting in sales meeting this week and talking about solar leases. As you all know, this is the hot topic for the solar world these days because the government is throwing huge tax dollars at American Energy and the banks are working as hard as they can to catch as much of them as they can. The winner in all this is the homeowner here in the desert southwest who puts solar panels on their homes. They get free energy every day and the value of their house goes way up. You can read all about these topics in other blog entries, but the word from ground zero on this is that it’s very real. Free money and free electricity … can’t beat that!

Our future customer was wondering about the prudence of signing on to a twenty-year lease deal. It seemed like such a long time and to be sure, it is quite a while … until you think about how long the house will be standing and how long the owner (whether is you or the next guy) will need electricity. That’s when it hit us. The commitment to buy electricity is forever. Just like the need for water, air and food, we have decided to need electricity if we are to live in this part of the world. It’s a lifetime commitment. That’s all there is to it.

Could you live here without power? Sure. Native Americans have done so on and off for a very long time. There are places around here that could be fabulous to hang out without power even in the summer … but not for 4,000,000 people! A few hundred foraging, farming and hunting down by the Verde River in Fountain Hills is one thing (saw some wild horses over there a few weeks ago). Take this number up to 10,000 and the place won’t be pristine for very long. Ever notice the first call you make when you move to a new home or apartment? Yup … the power company.

So, get over it. We are addicted to electricity. We need it. We crave it. We can’t go fifteen minutes without it around here … especially when the Sun rises high in the sky (which is why solar panels here are so effective).

Why then, do folks get twitchy when asked to buy electricity in twenty-year chunks as they do with solar panel leases? The answer is that just like everything else with solar, this is new. Even though we are signed on for electricity for life, the purchase has always been month to month. No long term leases … just month after month after month after month … and that’s what the power company has been banking on all these years. They know that you will buy from them and that there is nothing you can do about it. They also know that if they raise the rates slowly enough, you won’t notice. And so they do and so you don’t.

Then, a couple of years ago, solar panels came along and all of the sudden you could make your own electricity, just like the power company only for a lot less. The thing is, like any machine, you need to provide a bit of up-front investment, not unlike when you buy a house or a car. Only now, you are buying an electric generator and you’ve never done that before.

Fortunately, it’s easy to do and you have zillions of options in case you don’t want it anymore. The options are not quite as simple as walking away from it as you can do with the power company, but they are pretty close and a lot less costly. So, why not?

The reasons for not going solar are clear … for some reason, you are not able to make a commitment to your current lifestyle … you need flexibility. This is true for folks who rent their homes or plan to move soon. They should hold off on going solar until their living situation is a bit more stable. For the rest of us, there is no reason to wait on solar. You have been committed to buying electricity your whole life so this twenty-year lease deal is no big thing.

One Size Fits ONE™ (2012~14)

A lot of talk this week has centered on solar customization.  Can you build the same thing for lots of folks and still do a great job? The answer is simple … no. You can build similar things and use pieces from one job on other projects, but ultimately each house is unique, sitting in a unique place with unique surroundings and unique energy requirements. It is just not true that if you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all.

Could you get good at assembling similar components in the solar world and affect a “customized” solution in an assembly-line manner? To this, we can answer … yes. As a company gets more and more experience at a thing, while creating more and more component availability connections, they inevitably arrive at a point where they “just know” what to do and have the resources to do it. This is where SkyPower is.

A “customized” solution still has a fair amount of “custom” in it. There are still a fixed number of variables and fixed number of solutions. Mixing and matching these is what makes a great answer. You don’t have to be faced with a million options before the solution is called “custom.” However, calling a product “custom” when the choice is between two or three variations isn’t correct either. Clearly then, for a solution to be “custom,” one needs to be making a considered choice that spans a range of something more than three and less than a million.

There is one more component to “custom” and this may actually be the “magic sauce” that makes the whole thing sparkle … invention. A great and creative system designer needs to be able, on occasion, go outside even the million choice barrier and come up with something never before envisioned. Not by them … not by any one. This is true customization and the fact that it could be part of the package, even if not used in every case, makes the design truly “custom.”

If you want to know what parts of the solar design process lend themselves to this “custom” approach that we are talking about here, then you will need to go back and read all of the four hundred plus articles that we have written thus far because it’s this depth of knowledge that SkyPower relies upon when we come to look at your house. It’s not just your house that we look at. We look at the neighbor’s house and the neighbor’s trees. We look for shade and water marks and tiles and foam and walls and meters and ceiling fans and cooking tops and a thousand other clues as to how you buy and use power … and how we might be able to do it better, which translates into cheaper.

Better is better, but better without cheaper may not be worth doing. Better without enough cheaper is also suspect. Much better and much cheaper is the goal … and that requires lots and lots of options … leading us to conclude that “custom” design is the only way to achieve this.

Your house may look like others and your family may be similar to others. Your neighborhood might even be the same as is your dog and car … but … put all of this together and you are unique. Your energy profile is unique (this is why the power company sends separate bills to each customer) and so is your solar profile. We see this clearly and want to get you all the power from the Sun that we can and see that as much of it reaches your home as possible. It makes a difference … One Size fits ONE™!