What service exactly do you provide?

In many cases, customers interested in solar power do not know which questions to ask, what pitfalls to avoid, or whether or not their PV-system is performing as expected. Anyone who has dealt with salesmen knows that the information businesses share with you is tailored specifically to encourage a sale. Rather than bias the information I provide to my customers, I prefer to separate my services and focus on guiding the customer through the solar sales and installation process as a professional advocate actively working with the customer to ensure that only good quality and practices are followed.

I provide a variety of PV-system installation-process services, such as site estimates, consultation, inspection, performance and output measurements, all of which can be used as tools to help someone interested in obtaining solar power gauge the quality and craftsmanship of their chosen contractor.

I provide a variety of PV-system maintenance services, such as periodic washing of the modules, cleaning of undergrowth/pests/etc., periodic or remote performance monitoring and even system repair. I am extremely adept at diagnosing PV system issues, and take pride in my ability to repair PV-systems and generate peak efficiency.

Lastly, my website contains articles, calculators, charts, and guides on various solar-related topics, from alternative solar technologies to DIY (Do It Yourself) articles. Feel free to check it out and hopefully it’ll be of some use.

 

How experienced are you? How long have you been working with solar?

I’ve been working with PV-solar since before I finished high-school, working as in installer throughout the summer months. After three years as a field-installer, putting myself through college, I moved up to being an electrical engineer, where I spent a few years designing PV arrays and creating full sets of plans. In 2008, I was picked up by National Semiconductor when they began to debut their SolarMagic division. There, I spent three years developing software to track the sun, and estimate the output of a PV-system annually anywhere on the planet, as well as creating other tools to simulate uncommon and exotic PV-systems, for research and industrial purposes. I even got the chance to design and construct a PV-research lab, in which a varying number of experimental arrays could be constructed and taken down on a daily basis for assisting with experimental research.

I have a unique perspective of the solar-power industry because I literally started as a day-laborer and worked myself up to Research and Development (R&D) specialist in just under a decade. I’ve gotten a taste of not only the theory, but the practical application and execution of the industry, and I’ve taken what I could from the best of both worlds and adapted those lessons to my career and engineering practices.  In the time I’ve been around this industry, I’ve seen enough change and development to know that even with all my experience and knowledge about the PV-industry, there’s always something new by the next sunrise.

 

I’m completely new to solar and I don’t know where to start…help?

You’ve come to the right place. I offer a wide base of information involved with solar-power, and cater specifically toward answering people’s questions regarding the industry. If you’re someone who is just interested in learning more about solar power and how it works, I provide a list of explanatory articles here. If you’re someone who is less interested in the hows and whys, but more interested in having an array installed on your property, then I also provide a guide for those going through the installation-customer process here. If you’re a hobbyist or someone with technical background looking for more practical application information, check out this page. If these don’t satisfy you’re curiosity, feel free to contact me and I’ll see if I can clear things up.

 

I’m a solar professional looking for a better job…any chance you know any openings in the industry.

You and me both buddy…I’ve got a page up where I post the positions I hear about here. You’ll hear about it as soon as I hear about it.

 

I’m a student at the high school/undergrad/graduate level, looking for information for a report, you got anything?

Yes, check out my page where I list and explain various aspects of solar-array design, as well as articles going over the science of collecting sunlight. You’re welcome to use whatever material you need as a reference, just make sure to properly cite the information, so others can find this site and have a chance to educate themselves about solar-power as well.

 

Can I use any of your images or content in my blog/report/presentation/movie/etc?

I’m abnormally lenient with my content, hopefully it won’t come back to bite me in the end. You are free to quote my work (text) as long as you correctly attribute the credit to this website. If you are using a web-based medium, I would appreciate having a link to the original source you’re quoting on the same page you post the quote.

You are free to re-post, edit, modify, alter, or do what you wish with my images, as long as you correctly attribute this site or link to the original page within your medium. You are granted creative freedom as long as you do not make a profit off of my work. If I catch you selling my stuff for a profit in the United States, I’m going to have your earnings taken from you and donated to charity. It’s not about money, it’s about honor. I maintain all of the originals of my work, and also include special digital security imprints into the image itself, so if it ever comes down to a court decision, you’re fighting an unwinnable battle.

As for the rest of the world, I understand that to some degree, anything I post immediately becomes publicly available worldwide. If you are in a country where this kind of information isn’t as readily available and you really feel the need to steal my content, then I’m not going to stop you. My goal is to help promote and expand the audience of people getting this information, so in essence, stealing my content is still accomplishing that goal. Just use it to help others, that’s all I really care about.

Be careful not to re-distribute the images that are of other copyrighted works, as I use a couple of them in a very specific parody context. Incorrect use of these images will land you in some legal trouble from the original creator of the content.