Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
When you need wisdom and advice.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Seek out a guru.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
When you need wisdom and advice about remodeling and design.
Lock on and listen right now to Nick the Construction Guru.
Here is award winning remodeling expert Nick Kerzner.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
You talk eleven thirty w ice nd Nick the Construction
grew good News. You can now catch the Construction Guru
on the podcast on our Heart Radio app iHeartRadio app.
Check us out on there if you're unable to listen.
On Sunday Mornings, I have a returning guest today and
I'm excited about it because he's brought a lot of
new information to the show. Adam Koker from Watt's Up.
(00:44):
Last time we talked, we talked about solar and that
was very fascinating and we're going to talk about that
again in the future. But today you have I'm gonna
let you talk about it. You have kind of a
new program which is kind of cool for people, and
I'm gonna let you explain it. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Absolutely, I think it's for the first time anywhere in
the country that we can tell it's been offered. It's
a generator leasing program. So we're getting into that season
where it's a lot of storms coming through. If we're
going to start experiencing power outages and they start to go, boy,
I wish I had a generator to back up my house.
But they maybe don't want to put all that cash
up front. So that's where our leasing program really works
out nice. Not a lot of cash upfront, back, no
(01:21):
cash up front. You pay a monthly fee. We take
care of all the maintenance, and as long as you're
in the program, the warranty gets fully extended.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
Wow, I you know, I have a place up north
and that felt goes out occasionally. I would say, well occasionally,
maybe three, four or five times a summer. Are there
any numbers on how often we lose power here in Wisconsin?
Speaker 2 (01:42):
I think it really depends on where you're located. So
at my own personal house, I had really reliable power
for a number of years. Then we started having a
lot of overgrowth in the trees, we started getting outages,
and I didn't have a generator. So I spent a
large portion of wide adult life working in power generation
and never had a general And after throwing away multiple
(02:03):
refrigerators and freezers worth of food multiple times, my wife
looks at me she goes, well, don't you sell generators.
I said, yes, ma'am, I do. We'll get right on that.
And so that was kind of the story. That's it, right.
You know, you think how expensive could it be? Well,
when you start shopping through your refrigerator and go, well,
I need all these condiments, I need everything, everything's trash.
(02:24):
It's thousands of dollars that people have sitting and you know,
if you have a side of beef in there, now
you're got even more thousands of thousands worth of dollars.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
I never mind even the inconvenience of the whole thing. Hugually,
you can't open your garage door. You know, there's all
kinds of things that happened, and you know, I've heard
some stories over the past. I think the big thing
that keeps people away from generators is it's it's a
scary thing because it's hard to know which one how
to do it. You know what is really the cost,
because you get the cost, then you have the hookup charge,
(02:51):
then you have the and so let's talk a little
bit about that. You know, for the average guy who's
out there thinking, you know, it'd be great to have
a generator, but you know they're all thinking it's it
casts you up the price of a Bentley.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Yeah, certainly, and they can be expensive. It depends on
what your house configuration is, how many electrical appliances you have,
really the big electric appliances, and what you're looking to
back up within your house. And so certainly we sell generators,
we install them, and they're a fairly substantial upfront cost.
But the leasing program is really great because with that
program you now don't have any upfront costs. You just
(03:25):
pay your monthly payment and depending on what program you're in,
it's either a ten years one hundred and twenty month
or a twenty year two hundred and forty month program.
And the program starts as low as nine nine bucks
a month, so pretty affordable.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
Adam, ninety nine bucks a month? Is that a teaser?
Or can you really power a house at that? I
mean a small house? Can you do that? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (03:44):
It's a great question. So you absolutely can. On my
own house, I use that smaller unit, you do, I do? Yeah,
So it really depends on what you have associated with
your house. So my house has a lot of gas appliances,
gas furnace of course, and so as long as you
have all those gas appliance is running your house. Your
electric needs are pretty small because most houses have LED
(04:05):
lights and very low overall power consumption.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
You're right, So if you have a refrigerator, say a freezer,
I don't know, maybe a couple of lights and a radio,
that ninety nine dollars generator is going to do it.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
Yeah, that's the introductory package, you know it. Certainly it
depends on the complex either installed too. One of the
biggest things that drives a cost the installation is how
close your electric meter and your gas meter are to
one another. But if they're very nearby, that's that ninety
nine dollars package.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
Okay, so let's take the average there is really an
average house size anywhere. But let's take twenty five hundred
square foot ranch and they want to run the essentials?
What kind of what kind of generation are they going
to need?
Speaker 2 (04:46):
So actually you could run the whole house on that
introductory package planet you could.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
The biggest driver is going to be is if you
have two air conditioner units. Right, So at a twenty
five hundred square foot house, you probably have one air conditioner,
but you might have two air conditions if you have two,
then we have to start deciding, well can we have
both air conditioners? And that puts you into that larger pack.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
And I think, you know, do you really have to
run an air conditioner for? How long is a power
generally out? I've seen four hours?
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Yeah, so it depends. You know, in my house, I've
had outages that last three or four days. Yeah. Yeah,
and it was in the summer, right, So the air
conditioner is really important. So again, you're buying it not
just a peace of mind. You're buying it for that
continuity of your life. The comfort. No one wants to
sweat at night while they're trying to sleep.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
What happens if you overdo it, like you turned on
too much stuff? What's going to happen?
Speaker 2 (05:30):
Yeah, So worst case scenario is if you added stuff later,
So we have to size the generator up front for
what you currently have installed in your house. But let's
say you come back later and you add a second
air conditioner, you put in a car charger. Worst case scenario,
you added something later that wasn't in part of that
original install. You're going to trip the generator. It's going
to need to be a reset with the circuit. Breaker.
(05:50):
So it's a little bit of an involved process from
the homeowner.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
But you really don't have You're not going to hurt
any You're not going to hurt anything. Oh okay, and
that's what. So you're not going to blow up your generator. Now,
what kind of maintenance when you talk about maintenance on
a generator that's covered under this package, what kind of
maintenance would a person have if they just bought a generator.
Let's talk about that.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Yeah, so your typical maintenance is going to be just
like a car. Right, You're gonna have oil changes, you're
gonna have air filters, you're gonna have to do a
periodic check to make sure that the generator is not
getting fault codes, that it's working appropriately. So it's a
fairly involved process for the average homeowner. And that's one
of the biggest things that we see from people as
they're concerned with I like a generator, but it's another
thing to maintain, right. So that's the beauty of having
(06:29):
a package that's already included. You don't have to maintain it.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
I would imagine that most people that put a generator
in probably don't maintain it, am I right.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
There, that's pretty much the correct way forget about it, right. Yeah,
then the power goes out and they're surprised that after
you know, three hours, it caulks out. Yeah, that generator
is a piece of jung and it's like, well, when
did you last change the oil? And it's the same
thing with your car, right, If you don't change the
oil and tires and maintain your car, well, your car's
going to turn it into piece of rubble too.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
Yeah, yeah, I agree with you. So if someone's thinking
about putting in a generator, how does the process work? First?
You know, I kind of jumped into this because I
was excited kind of like last time about solar because
it's one of the things that I really don't have
a lot of a lot of depth of knowledge in generators.
I get I never understood as much as I do now.
(07:15):
Just talking to you at the show last time. By
the way, that's how this all got started again. We
were at the at the Realtor's show and I came
up and you had this generator sitting there and you
had this thing, and I was like, that's really cool.
I've never seen that as far as I know.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
You.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
The guys are the only ones doing this, right, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
We're the only one doing the leasing program. It's exclusive.
We create it from scratch. No one in the country
does anything like this. And so that's why we wanted
to offer, is there's a gap in the market where
people want backup power but don't want to have to
deal with it. And yeah, it's just like a car lease, right,
there's people that want to lease cars. People want to
buy cars, if people want to buy generators, and now
(07:50):
we want to see that there's people that want to
lease generators.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
The other thing I was surprised to see because when
I saw this whole thing and I'm thinking they're going
to leasse these generators that I was going to see
some Chinese name on there that I wouldn't recognize on
the generator. And I'll let you what kind of generators.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Yes, that's a great question. We do Briggs and strattons
or a Briggs and Stratton dealer. We love the Briggs
and Stratton products for the footprint size, they have the
highest power output and they have the highest power output
in the whole product line for that fan.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
You're going to be able to get parts for this thing.
You're gonna get to get parts, and it's for a
long time. Maybe still is. I'm not sure. I haven't
been in that area, but built right here.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
The generators are built in Alabama now, so they've they've
consolidated everything down in Alabama, so everything comes out of Alabama. Uh,
parts are available, generators are available, and getting things up
and going is pretty straightforward process.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
And this isn't going to be affected by the tariffs.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
Great, so tariff impact is very minimal. I think you know,
we saw the tariffs come through and it was a
couple of dollars and so every couple parts. Yeah, there's
a couple of parts.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
You know.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
I'm sure, like the air filters and stuff like that.
They're not coming from the US how often.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
Well, you know, I'm sorry, I'm jumping again. I'm fascinating.
Let's talk about Wat's up just quickly, because so people
know who you are.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
Yeah, So we're an engineering focused company. We do all
things power related, solar battery backups and generators, and then
we do integrated systems which are fully off grid capable,
which I have solar battery backup and a generator and
that's what I have on my own home, is the
ability to run off grids. If the power went out
for six months, I could run six months without ever
(09:25):
needing to be hooked up to the power.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
So I'm thinking that, you know, Adam, when you when
you put a generator in here, obviously it's going to
run a natural.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
Gas, right, most people it would be natural Gasay, but you.
Speaker 3 (09:39):
Know, like for those people that are up in the
woods where the power ordage typically goes out more often,
that's going to be propane.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
It would be a propane. Yeah. And these units are
both propane or natural gas, so we can set them
up on site depend on what they have. And that's
really where the advantage of partnering a generator with a
battery backup system is. If you're in a propane situation,
you have a limited supply, right, and so now with
a battery, the battery would back up your house. The
generator would run for a couple hours, recharge the batteries,
(10:07):
and then switch off, so you'll get a much longer
duration on your probane.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
Okay. So yeah, and you know what worries me is
not so much the refrigerators, because I've never been out
three days. But what worries me as the computers. Sure,
the surges coming in and surges going out. So you
guys do surge protection as well.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
We do surge protection. That's where the battery systems really
shine as they they've got all that built in. And
then that's the beauty of the generators. The way they
work is when the grid goes down, the generator switches
your house off the grid. It runs on the generator,
and then it watches the grid to come back, and
then once the grid comes back for a set amount
of time, it then will switch you back over to
the grid, So preventing any of those sort of surges.
(10:44):
Because I'm sure you're probably seen this. When the power
comes back on, sometimes it'll come on and flicker off
and come on and flicker off as they're trying to
reconnect everything.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
Trying to make it more fun. Right, right, Wat's up?
How long you guys been around? Talk talk a little
bit about the company? I think because you you just
kind of surprised me. You were at the show, right
and you had Solar and I like so many just
being honest, I'm like, really Solar in Wisconsin. And we
started talking and it does make sense, and I know
we're not going to talk about Solar today. But let's
(11:13):
talk about the company and why why did you guys start?
As I understand it, the lion's share of the people
that work there are engineers, and so I'm gonna let
you you tell your story here.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
Yeah, I think the story is really simple. I looked
at solar from my own home. I looked at you know,
backup power, that sort of whole industry out there, and
quite frankly, it was full of a bunch of scam artists, right.
It was people coming in from out of state that
we're trying to sell people at ten year leases. Yeah,
ten year leases and twenty year leases and thirty year
leases on solar panels, and you know, you'll never make
(11:43):
any money, but they made all the money. And I said,
this's gotta be a better way, right, And so we
started this company with just that.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
Right.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
We are focused on bringing that engineering mindset, that truth
and honesty. You know, we saw that just this past week.
We quoted a customer, a big industrial customer, for some
solar panels, and we quoted on a certain system size,
and one of our competitors quote them a system that
was twice as large, and they came back to me,
was like well, why is your competitive quoting twice as
(12:10):
large system like, Well, number one, they don't understand how
to model the energy uses correctly, and number two they're
just trying to sell you, right, And so that's the
tasing point.
Speaker 3 (12:20):
Let we'll talk about this after we've got to take
a quick break when we come back. Let's talk a
little bit about the difference between talking to somebody at
WATSOP and somebody who's basically a crafty salesperson.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
First, I think, and.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
I don't mean that in a bad way, but you know,
there's a lot more technical knowledge that you have to
be able to get across to somebody who doesn't have
the technical capabilities. We're going to talk to Adam want
Adam Colker from WATSAP right after these messages on Newstalk
eleven thirty WISN Stalk eleven thirty WISN Nick the construction
(12:55):
Guru returning from break today, I have Adam Kolker from
watts up Engineering, This gentleman I met at the show.
We had a fascinating discussion about something that I never
really believed. And I'm just being honest and I told
that I'm just at the break that but you know,
he's convinced me that there's alternative power solutions in Wisconsin
that work. I do have a solar system in Arizona
(13:17):
in one of my homes and it works well. It
cuts the bill well over in half for air conditioning.
But there's always been these things that people talk about here,
and I think on our last show we put some
of that to rest. And I just want to mention
this because you did tell me we're going to talk
about generators today and I'm good with that. I just
want people to know that you guys are also the
(13:37):
solar energy pros in Wisconsin. So now you came up
with a program. If you're just tuning in, anybody who's
ever looked at generators, and that's typically after they've been
out for three days, are like, I'm going to go
get a generator, right and so it's a big flash decision.
They got to make it right away, and they go
out there and they look and they say, Okay, it's
going to be this much for the generators, gonna be
this much to hook it up, and you walk away
(13:58):
from there thinking, man, I don't know if I want
to do this or by a Bentley. And so you've
kind of taken all of this challenge out of it
because you guys are engineers, and we talked about just
before break the salespeople that come out our engineers, right,
and they're going to be able to tell you exactly
what you need. You gave the example of somebody who
(14:20):
had a system quoted from someone else twice the size
and why they didn't need that. The generator program's kind
of the same deal we've just been talking about. The
average home. You have a ninety nine dollars a month
introductory or that's your first tier, right, that's first here, Yeah,
first tier. So you can get a generator in your
house for under one hundred dollars a month. That's going
(14:42):
to protect you from storms, things like that, and you
do all the maintenance and it's a lease. But what
if you know, it's kind of like we had this
discussion like what about time shares? You know, how do
you get out of time? How do you get out
of a generator release? Let's talk about that.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
Yeah, so we have a cancel anytime, pol I see,
and it works really simple. We have a schedule of
how long you've been in the program.
Speaker 3 (15:04):
And it's very and I'm going to tell you it's
very transparent.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
It is absolutely yeah, yeah, yeah, you know upfront that's
part of the contract you signed. And our contract's a
really short two page contract. I purposely told our attorneys
got to keep it short. I hate contracts that are
thirty pages long. And you've got all kinds of stuff.
I designed this program just like I would have wanted
to used it, and so that's what we've designed it.
So at any time you want to cancel your base,
just buying out that generator. Now it's yours and you
(15:28):
can do with it as you see fit.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
So on the competitive market, what are you finding? Are
you finding you guys are very competitive? Are you finding
that you're a little more because of you? You know
when I talk about when somebody asked me that, I say,
you know, we're like, we're like middle to upper middle,
and we can show you why is that? How where
are you guys falling? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (15:46):
I think on the sales side. So just straight out
buying it. We're going to be on the middle to
upper middle. But the reason why is you're getting a
better value for what we're providing. So our generator comes
with a full complete cold weather kit. I have personally
ran my own huh home below zero using my generator,
So I know for a fact that col weather Kit
does function properly. We're putting in a full concrete pad.
(16:08):
So a lot of competitors either putting it directly on
the dirt, putting on a plastic pad. What happens with
the plastic or putting it on a dirt Eventually it's
going to sink and tilt and kind of get all
sideways on you.
Speaker 3 (16:18):
Certainly doesn't have to have the water hitting.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
The case, right exactly. Yeah, it's going to keep that
case in a better condition and just keep the overall
internals working better. So we're doing a comprehensive install as well.
So a lot of my competition will say, well, here's
what the cost of the generator is, and oh, by the way,
here's all the other costs, right, and so ours is
a one price, one and done.
Speaker 3 (16:39):
One and done, and that's everything.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
That's everything from there. Yeah, I mean you're basically getting
the premium product.
Speaker 3 (16:45):
How how much does the connection vary from host to
house or is it the same?
Speaker 2 (16:50):
Yeah, so it does vary. It really depends on the
proximity of your gas meter and your electric meter to
one another. You know, so the worst case scenario is
your electric meters on one side of the house gas
meters on the other side of the house. We have
to figure out how to get those two to marry
to one another.
Speaker 3 (17:03):
Because if you're using natural gas to run the channel, right,
propane or propane right, what's your circle that you cover?
Speaker 2 (17:08):
So we cover the entire state you do, we do
so entire listing area would be eligible for either program,
either purchase.
Speaker 3 (17:15):
Or least even go up where Greg's cabin is absolutely, yeah, okay,
is there is there a big up charge for that?
Speaker 2 (17:21):
So it's certainly it'll be a little additional charge, yes,
a mileage okay.
Speaker 3 (17:25):
And then what about the maintenance on those cases? I know,
I'm asking you the hard question.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
No, the maintenance is great. So a maintenance, same thing.
We travel to wherever the maintenance is located, and if
you're in the leasing program, it's all included so you
don't have to worry about any kind of extra charge.
Speaker 3 (17:38):
How often do you have to maintain? I mean, what's
the maintenance schedule?
Speaker 2 (17:41):
So it certainly depends on your usage. You know, if
you're having multi day outages every year, you're putting a
lot more hours on the unit, so it's going to
need more frequent use maintenance versus if the unit is
not running a lot. You know, if you have a
very brief outage, like you said, with a couple of hours,
your maintenance interval's gonna be a lot longer. But with
the leasing program, we do come to physically the unit
every year and give it a physical check up.
Speaker 3 (18:02):
Wow, that's awesome. It was surprising for me to learn.
And you know, it's a construction grow I hate to
admit this, but that you have to change oil and
air filters in these things. And I don't know that
the people I know that have generators, I think I
know one guy that is running it in the intervals.
You're supposed to doing all of that, But that's a
that's a problem. So I mean, is that based on ours?
Speaker 2 (18:25):
Yeah, it's certainly based on hours. That's the biggest one.
So if you have a week long outage, you're gonna
need to change that oil. If you have a couple
of hours of usage, then you're not gonna need to
change the oilscept every couple of years.
Speaker 3 (18:36):
Okay, And are the consumables included with this too?
Speaker 2 (18:39):
Everything's included in the program. Yeah, and so it's a
full warranty to.
Speaker 3 (18:43):
You're making money.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
Well, so you know, we're doing it because we want
to see customers have that power, right, We've seen too
many people. You know, last February we had that big
outage where it was really cold out. People were out
of power for a number of days. I actually have
customers that we install generators for after the fact that
inside their homes got almost a freezing and they were
nearly at a catastrophe with all their pipes bursting. And
(19:04):
it was because of the huge upfront cost. They'd never
done it, but you know, they kind of bit the
bullet and said, okay, well we're going to install this now,
we're going to spend that upfront money. So we want
to create a program that doesn't have that sort of hurdle.
So this has no money down, nothing up front. It's
literally just a monthly payment.
Speaker 3 (19:20):
Wow. And now so and if you want, you can
buy it out at any time. So if somebody's thinking
about it and you brought up a good point, you know,
it's like with with solar, if you're saving the money
or you're getting that you get a tax credit on this.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
You don't get a tax credit on this. But it
does work really well with solar because people go, they're
going to get that tax credit back that following year.
Speaker 3 (19:39):
And you want to just buy it out.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
Great, so you get in the least program for a year,
then you just buy it out and.
Speaker 3 (19:43):
You guys have no problem with that. You're good with that.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
That's the way it works.
Speaker 3 (19:46):
Or if somebody's thinking, hey, I'd like to have this now,
but I you know, I already got these this year's
tax returns already spoken for. I want to do this,
so they can lease it for as long as they want. Absolutely,
So basically it's almost like what do they call that
rent to buy thing?
Speaker 2 (20:00):
Yeah, it's kind of like a rent to own, but
it's it's not as actually closed in lease. So at
the end of the term of the lease, you don't
have to buy the unit. You can just say, you
know what, I had it for ten years and we
really enjoyed it, but we don't need any more. Come
get the unit, or at the end ten years because
they had one new unit, and get a new lease
and just start all over. Longevity of these so I've
personally seen generators last for forty years, so they have
(20:20):
a lot of longevity behind him. So if you if
you take care of and that's why really having that
leasing program where it gets taken care of that full
time and you know it's always going to be reliable
for you.
Speaker 3 (20:30):
I can't see why after you're done leasing, looking at
the numbers here, why you wouldn't just buy it.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
Yeah, And we've structured a leasing program where if you
lease it long enough, the buyout is zero, so it's
essentially your unit, but there's nothing says that you have
to stay and you know buy it out. You can
keep leasing, and the benefit is you're getting that warranty right.
So after the manufacturer's warranty has expired, if you're in
the leasing program, we're still covering the whole unit into.
Speaker 3 (20:55):
End, so you can go out as long as thirty years.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
And then you could go thirty forty years. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:00):
Absolutely, and you're going to watch the warranty for thirty
or four.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
Yeah, Now reality happens. If it's probably having an issue
at thirty years, we're going to put a whole new
unit in for you. But you're still getting that peace
of mind.
Speaker 3 (21:11):
Well, I think you know the thing for me, is
just getting It's so hard today, and that's what this
whole show is about. This I mean not our show.
I mean that the whole Construction Group series is about
it's so hard to get people today that last as
long as the product, or that are going to service
the product, or that you know when you get out there.
(21:32):
Scott Klein and I were just talking about, you know,
there's warranties out there, but you look at him his lifetime,
and they're pro rated, and they're pro rated to the
point where it's actually costing you more to fix it
seven to ten years. Nothing should happen to anything you
get right for the most shitn't.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
Yeah, it's quality product.
Speaker 3 (21:47):
Right if it's good. And we know everybody here that's
listening to this knows Briggs and Stratton. They know the story.
I've had lawn mowers that Briggs and Stratton made that
are antiques and they still work. Yeah, you know, so
I mean that if you take care that little engine,
it's going to run forever, right.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
Yeah, And this is the engine they use in their
large commercial products. I have a trencher that has one
of these engines in it, and it's got hundreds and
hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of hours on it, and it's.
Speaker 3 (22:10):
Just change the oil, change of filters in shape. Right,
and now we don't even have to do that as
a customer, right, you do that, So there's really you know,
one of the things I love about that, and this
is something I've preached to all my customers, is that
all the liability lies on our shoulders. The maintenance. This
that the everything right for the warranty. So it's not
like you can craftily get out of your warranty because
oh you didn't do this. You know you every every
(22:32):
third year during the leap year, you got to run
out and turn this screw four times clockwise. You guys
are taking care of everything, so there's really no excuse
for anything to go wrong that doesn't fall on your shoulders.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
Right, Yeah, as long as you haven't abused the unit
or altered in any ways, it's on us.
Speaker 3 (22:47):
So you don't even want it homeowner to touch it.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
I don't want them touch it. Yeah, don't touch it,
don't even look at it wrong?
Speaker 3 (22:53):
So how do they report to you if for maintenance?
Do I? Do you ever know? And then do I
have to call you when it gets to certain hours?
How does that work?
Speaker 2 (22:59):
No, so where I'm coming year, check that unit out,
make sure it's doing what it's going. We're gonna check
the hours, record its condition, take photos of it. If
it needs maintenance, we'll do the maintenance as it's supposed
to be scheduled. So there's literally nothing you have to do.
We'll just send you a note in advance says hey,
we're going to be there next week doing maintenance. Don't
be surprised if you see us on your property.
Speaker 3 (23:16):
The reason I keep asking you the same question on
this show today is because it really is hard to
believe that you can do this. Yeah, it's great. It's
a great, a great opportunity for a homeowner who's had
and you know, everybody who's had an outage for any
length of time knows what an inconvenience that is. People
that don't know, they say, oh, you got to light
a couple of candles for a few hours. No, that's
(23:37):
not it. Everything stops. Your computer drops. For most of us,
our computers and our phones are kind of running. If
you have a home phone, it's running some way through that.
Your routers stop. You can't open your garage, right, People say, well,
you can manually open a garage door. Okay, Mom's got
a bunch of groceries got to get out. Okay, how
does she open the door? Right? Right, that's an issue.
Another one that came up electric fences for dogs. Now
(24:00):
you're not thinking, you go, oh, the dogs got to
go bathroom. We just lost part. You open up the
door and the dog takes a flyer. Now that adds
insult to injury. Right, So there's so many things that
when you think about that, this would solve. And now
it's affordable. Anybody can afford this. It's less than twenty
five bucks a week. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
I think one of the things we really like about
this program too is it supports people want to age
in place in their home. Yeah. People say, hey, I'm
fifty years old and I don't mind plugging the lights
and the candles and doing all that. Well, that's great,
but what about when you're eighty What about when you're
eighty five or you're still don't want to do all that?
And it's just that peace of mind knowing it's fully automatic,
it's taken care of, and you can be in that
(24:38):
home for the rest of your life.
Speaker 3 (24:40):
And that's why generators are in every assisted living facility
in hospitals and things like that, because this is a
pain in the butt when you're thirty, when you're eighty,
it's a nightmare, right, and so another thing would be
a great gift for a senior parent. Absolutely, Yeah, I
think it's a great idea. Let's, uh, how do we
(25:02):
get a hold of if somebody wants to do this,
the processes, you're going to come out, You're going to
scale the house for what generator they need. You're going
to give them a very transparent price and then give
up a payment. I'm looking at this. You have the
price on here and the payment, so it's not like
there's anything to hide, right.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
This is all list on our website. So we created
this as a separate brand underneath our main brand of
What's Up Engineering. So if they go to easypspower dot com,
they can figure out all the pricing on there, they
can submit their details. We'll give them all their thing
and say this is exactly what pricing plan you're going
to fit into.
Speaker 3 (25:33):
Okay, give them the information if they want to get
hold of you.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
Yeah, So call us at two six two four five
five zero zero one one or online at easypspower dot com.
Speaker 3 (25:45):
You know, I'm looking here, looking at this again. Here's
another thing that I think needs to be mentioned. You
don't have a security deposit on this. You don't have
to pay anything for security deposit. I think that's awesome, Adam.
Thanks for coming in on a Sunday spending some time
at the Guru. This is a great program. I'm sure
we're going to talk about it again on one of
the future shows, and then maybe we could talk about
how you mix that and solder together.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
Absolutely all right, thanks for having UKs.
Speaker 3 (26:07):
Good having you. We will talk again next week on
News Talk eleven thirty WISN
When you need wisdom and advice.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Seek out a guru.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
When you need wisdom and advice about remodeling and design.
Lock on and listen right now to Nick the Construction Guru.
Here is award winning remodeling expert Nick Kerzner.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
You talk eleven thirty w ice nd Nick the Construction
grew good News. You can now catch the Construction Guru
on the podcast on our Heart Radio app iHeartRadio app.
Check us out on there if you're unable to listen.
On Sunday Mornings, I have a returning guest today and
I'm excited about it because he's brought a lot of
new information to the show. Adam Koker from Watt's Up.
(00:44):
Last time we talked, we talked about solar and that
was very fascinating and we're going to talk about that
again in the future. But today you have I'm gonna
let you talk about it. You have kind of a
new program which is kind of cool for people, and
I'm gonna let you explain it. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Absolutely, I think it's for the first time anywhere in
the country that we can tell it's been offered. It's
a generator leasing program. So we're getting into that season
where it's a lot of storms coming through. If we're
going to start experiencing power outages and they start to go, boy,
I wish I had a generator to back up my house.
But they maybe don't want to put all that cash
up front. So that's where our leasing program really works
out nice. Not a lot of cash upfront, back, no
(01:21):
cash up front. You pay a monthly fee. We take
care of all the maintenance, and as long as you're
in the program, the warranty gets fully extended.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
Wow, I you know, I have a place up north
and that felt goes out occasionally. I would say, well occasionally,
maybe three, four or five times a summer. Are there
any numbers on how often we lose power here in Wisconsin?
Speaker 2 (01:42):
I think it really depends on where you're located. So
at my own personal house, I had really reliable power
for a number of years. Then we started having a
lot of overgrowth in the trees, we started getting outages,
and I didn't have a generator. So I spent a
large portion of wide adult life working in power generation
and never had a general And after throwing away multiple
(02:03):
refrigerators and freezers worth of food multiple times, my wife
looks at me she goes, well, don't you sell generators.
I said, yes, ma'am, I do. We'll get right on that.
And so that was kind of the story. That's it, right.
You know, you think how expensive could it be? Well,
when you start shopping through your refrigerator and go, well,
I need all these condiments, I need everything, everything's trash.
(02:24):
It's thousands of dollars that people have sitting and you know,
if you have a side of beef in there, now
you're got even more thousands of thousands worth of dollars.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
I never mind even the inconvenience of the whole thing. Hugually,
you can't open your garage door. You know, there's all
kinds of things that happened, and you know, I've heard
some stories over the past. I think the big thing
that keeps people away from generators is it's it's a
scary thing because it's hard to know which one how
to do it. You know what is really the cost,
because you get the cost, then you have the hookup charge,
(02:51):
then you have the and so let's talk a little
bit about that. You know, for the average guy who's
out there thinking, you know, it'd be great to have
a generator, but you know they're all thinking it's it
casts you up the price of a Bentley.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Yeah, certainly, and they can be expensive. It depends on
what your house configuration is, how many electrical appliances you have,
really the big electric appliances, and what you're looking to
back up within your house. And so certainly we sell generators,
we install them, and they're a fairly substantial upfront cost.
But the leasing program is really great because with that
program you now don't have any upfront costs. You just
(03:25):
pay your monthly payment and depending on what program you're in,
it's either a ten years one hundred and twenty month
or a twenty year two hundred and forty month program.
And the program starts as low as nine nine bucks
a month, so pretty affordable.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
Adam, ninety nine bucks a month? Is that a teaser?
Or can you really power a house at that? I
mean a small house? Can you do that? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (03:44):
It's a great question. So you absolutely can. On my
own house, I use that smaller unit, you do, I do? Yeah,
So it really depends on what you have associated with
your house. So my house has a lot of gas appliances,
gas furnace of course, and so as long as you
have all those gas appliance is running your house. Your
electric needs are pretty small because most houses have LED
(04:05):
lights and very low overall power consumption.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
You're right, So if you have a refrigerator, say a freezer,
I don't know, maybe a couple of lights and a radio,
that ninety nine dollars generator is going to do it.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
Yeah, that's the introductory package, you know it. Certainly it
depends on the complex either installed too. One of the
biggest things that drives a cost the installation is how
close your electric meter and your gas meter are to
one another. But if they're very nearby, that's that ninety
nine dollars package.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
Okay, so let's take the average there is really an
average house size anywhere. But let's take twenty five hundred
square foot ranch and they want to run the essentials?
What kind of what kind of generation are they going
to need?
Speaker 2 (04:46):
So actually you could run the whole house on that
introductory package planet you could.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
The biggest driver is going to be is if you
have two air conditioner units. Right, So at a twenty
five hundred square foot house, you probably have one air conditioner,
but you might have two air conditions if you have two,
then we have to start deciding, well can we have
both air conditioners? And that puts you into that larger pack.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
And I think, you know, do you really have to
run an air conditioner for? How long is a power
generally out? I've seen four hours?
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Yeah, so it depends. You know, in my house, I've
had outages that last three or four days. Yeah. Yeah,
and it was in the summer, right, So the air
conditioner is really important. So again, you're buying it not
just a peace of mind. You're buying it for that
continuity of your life. The comfort. No one wants to
sweat at night while they're trying to sleep.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
What happens if you overdo it, like you turned on
too much stuff? What's going to happen?
Speaker 2 (05:30):
Yeah, So worst case scenario is if you added stuff later,
So we have to size the generator up front for
what you currently have installed in your house. But let's
say you come back later and you add a second
air conditioner, you put in a car charger. Worst case scenario,
you added something later that wasn't in part of that
original install. You're going to trip the generator. It's going
to need to be a reset with the circuit. Breaker.
(05:50):
So it's a little bit of an involved process from
the homeowner.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
But you really don't have You're not going to hurt
any You're not going to hurt anything. Oh okay, and
that's what. So you're not going to blow up your generator. Now,
what kind of maintenance when you talk about maintenance on
a generator that's covered under this package, what kind of
maintenance would a person have if they just bought a generator.
Let's talk about that.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Yeah, so your typical maintenance is going to be just
like a car. Right, You're gonna have oil changes, you're
gonna have air filters, you're gonna have to do a
periodic check to make sure that the generator is not
getting fault codes, that it's working appropriately. So it's a
fairly involved process for the average homeowner. And that's one
of the biggest things that we see from people as
they're concerned with I like a generator, but it's another
thing to maintain, right. So that's the beauty of having
(06:29):
a package that's already included. You don't have to maintain it.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
I would imagine that most people that put a generator
in probably don't maintain it, am I right.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
There, that's pretty much the correct way forget about it, right. Yeah,
then the power goes out and they're surprised that after
you know, three hours, it caulks out. Yeah, that generator
is a piece of jung and it's like, well, when
did you last change the oil? And it's the same
thing with your car, right, If you don't change the
oil and tires and maintain your car, well, your car's
going to turn it into piece of rubble too.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
Yeah, yeah, I agree with you. So if someone's thinking
about putting in a generator, how does the process work? First?
You know, I kind of jumped into this because I
was excited kind of like last time about solar because
it's one of the things that I really don't have
a lot of a lot of depth of knowledge in generators.
I get I never understood as much as I do now.
(07:15):
Just talking to you at the show last time. By
the way, that's how this all got started again. We
were at the at the Realtor's show and I came
up and you had this generator sitting there and you
had this thing, and I was like, that's really cool.
I've never seen that as far as I know.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
You.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
The guys are the only ones doing this, right, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
We're the only one doing the leasing program. It's exclusive.
We create it from scratch. No one in the country
does anything like this. And so that's why we wanted
to offer, is there's a gap in the market where
people want backup power but don't want to have to
deal with it. And yeah, it's just like a car lease, right,
there's people that want to lease cars. People want to
buy cars, if people want to buy generators, and now
(07:50):
we want to see that there's people that want to
lease generators.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
The other thing I was surprised to see because when
I saw this whole thing and I'm thinking they're going
to leasse these generators that I was going to see
some Chinese name on there that I wouldn't recognize on
the generator. And I'll let you what kind of generators.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Yes, that's a great question. We do Briggs and strattons
or a Briggs and Stratton dealer. We love the Briggs
and Stratton products for the footprint size, they have the
highest power output and they have the highest power output
in the whole product line for that fan.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
You're going to be able to get parts for this thing.
You're gonna get to get parts, and it's for a
long time. Maybe still is. I'm not sure. I haven't
been in that area, but built right here.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
The generators are built in Alabama now, so they've they've
consolidated everything down in Alabama, so everything comes out of Alabama. Uh,
parts are available, generators are available, and getting things up
and going is pretty straightforward process.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
And this isn't going to be affected by the tariffs.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
Great, so tariff impact is very minimal. I think you know,
we saw the tariffs come through and it was a
couple of dollars and so every couple parts. Yeah, there's
a couple of parts.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
You know.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
I'm sure, like the air filters and stuff like that.
They're not coming from the US how often.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
Well, you know, I'm sorry, I'm jumping again. I'm fascinating.
Let's talk about Wat's up just quickly, because so people
know who you are.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
Yeah, So we're an engineering focused company. We do all
things power related, solar battery backups and generators, and then
we do integrated systems which are fully off grid capable,
which I have solar battery backup and a generator and
that's what I have on my own home, is the
ability to run off grids. If the power went out
for six months, I could run six months without ever
(09:25):
needing to be hooked up to the power.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
So I'm thinking that, you know, Adam, when you when
you put a generator in here, obviously it's going to
run a natural.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
Gas, right, most people it would be natural Gasay, but you.
Speaker 3 (09:39):
Know, like for those people that are up in the
woods where the power ordage typically goes out more often,
that's going to be propane.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
It would be a propane. Yeah. And these units are
both propane or natural gas, so we can set them
up on site depend on what they have. And that's
really where the advantage of partnering a generator with a
battery backup system is. If you're in a propane situation,
you have a limited supply, right, and so now with
a battery, the battery would back up your house. The
generator would run for a couple hours, recharge the batteries,
(10:07):
and then switch off, so you'll get a much longer
duration on your probane.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
Okay. So yeah, and you know what worries me is
not so much the refrigerators, because I've never been out
three days. But what worries me as the computers. Sure,
the surges coming in and surges going out. So you
guys do surge protection as well.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
We do surge protection. That's where the battery systems really
shine as they they've got all that built in. And
then that's the beauty of the generators. The way they
work is when the grid goes down, the generator switches
your house off the grid. It runs on the generator,
and then it watches the grid to come back, and
then once the grid comes back for a set amount
of time, it then will switch you back over to
the grid, So preventing any of those sort of surges.
(10:44):
Because I'm sure you're probably seen this. When the power
comes back on, sometimes it'll come on and flicker off
and come on and flicker off as they're trying to
reconnect everything.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
Trying to make it more fun. Right, right, Wat's up?
How long you guys been around? Talk talk a little
bit about the company? I think because you you just
kind of surprised me. You were at the show, right
and you had Solar and I like so many just
being honest, I'm like, really Solar in Wisconsin. And we
started talking and it does make sense, and I know
we're not going to talk about Solar today. But let's
(11:13):
talk about the company and why why did you guys start?
As I understand it, the lion's share of the people
that work there are engineers, and so I'm gonna let
you you tell your story here.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
Yeah, I think the story is really simple. I looked
at solar from my own home. I looked at you know,
backup power, that sort of whole industry out there, and
quite frankly, it was full of a bunch of scam artists, right.
It was people coming in from out of state that
we're trying to sell people at ten year leases. Yeah,
ten year leases and twenty year leases and thirty year
leases on solar panels, and you know, you'll never make
(11:43):
any money, but they made all the money. And I said,
this's gotta be a better way, right, And so we
started this company with just that.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
Right.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
We are focused on bringing that engineering mindset, that truth
and honesty. You know, we saw that just this past week.
We quoted a customer, a big industrial customer, for some
solar panels, and we quoted on a certain system size,
and one of our competitors quote them a system that
was twice as large, and they came back to me,
was like well, why is your competitive quoting twice as
(12:10):
large system like, Well, number one, they don't understand how
to model the energy uses correctly, and number two they're
just trying to sell you, right, And so that's the
tasing point.
Speaker 3 (12:20):
Let we'll talk about this after we've got to take
a quick break when we come back. Let's talk a
little bit about the difference between talking to somebody at
WATSOP and somebody who's basically a crafty salesperson.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
First, I think, and.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
I don't mean that in a bad way, but you know,
there's a lot more technical knowledge that you have to
be able to get across to somebody who doesn't have
the technical capabilities. We're going to talk to Adam want
Adam Colker from WATSAP right after these messages on Newstalk
eleven thirty WISN Stalk eleven thirty WISN Nick the construction
(12:55):
Guru returning from break today, I have Adam Kolker from
watts up Engineering, This gentleman I met at the show.
We had a fascinating discussion about something that I never
really believed. And I'm just being honest and I told
that I'm just at the break that but you know,
he's convinced me that there's alternative power solutions in Wisconsin
that work. I do have a solar system in Arizona
(13:17):
in one of my homes and it works well. It
cuts the bill well over in half for air conditioning.
But there's always been these things that people talk about here,
and I think on our last show we put some
of that to rest. And I just want to mention
this because you did tell me we're going to talk
about generators today and I'm good with that. I just
want people to know that you guys are also the
(13:37):
solar energy pros in Wisconsin. So now you came up
with a program. If you're just tuning in, anybody who's
ever looked at generators, and that's typically after they've been
out for three days, are like, I'm going to go
get a generator, right and so it's a big flash decision.
They got to make it right away, and they go
out there and they look and they say, Okay, it's
going to be this much for the generators, gonna be
this much to hook it up, and you walk away
(13:58):
from there thinking, man, I don't know if I want
to do this or by a Bentley. And so you've
kind of taken all of this challenge out of it
because you guys are engineers, and we talked about just
before break the salespeople that come out our engineers, right,
and they're going to be able to tell you exactly
what you need. You gave the example of somebody who
(14:20):
had a system quoted from someone else twice the size
and why they didn't need that. The generator program's kind
of the same deal we've just been talking about. The
average home. You have a ninety nine dollars a month
introductory or that's your first tier, right, that's first here, Yeah,
first tier. So you can get a generator in your
house for under one hundred dollars a month. That's going
(14:42):
to protect you from storms, things like that, and you
do all the maintenance and it's a lease. But what
if you know, it's kind of like we had this
discussion like what about time shares? You know, how do
you get out of time? How do you get out
of a generator release? Let's talk about that.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
Yeah, so we have a cancel anytime, pol I see,
and it works really simple. We have a schedule of
how long you've been in the program.
Speaker 3 (15:04):
And it's very and I'm going to tell you it's
very transparent.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
It is absolutely yeah, yeah, yeah, you know upfront that's
part of the contract you signed. And our contract's a
really short two page contract. I purposely told our attorneys
got to keep it short. I hate contracts that are
thirty pages long. And you've got all kinds of stuff.
I designed this program just like I would have wanted
to used it, and so that's what we've designed it.
So at any time you want to cancel your base,
just buying out that generator. Now it's yours and you
(15:28):
can do with it as you see fit.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
So on the competitive market, what are you finding? Are
you finding you guys are very competitive? Are you finding
that you're a little more because of you? You know
when I talk about when somebody asked me that, I say,
you know, we're like, we're like middle to upper middle,
and we can show you why is that? How where
are you guys falling? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (15:46):
I think on the sales side. So just straight out
buying it. We're going to be on the middle to
upper middle. But the reason why is you're getting a
better value for what we're providing. So our generator comes
with a full complete cold weather kit. I have personally
ran my own huh home below zero using my generator,
So I know for a fact that col weather Kit
does function properly. We're putting in a full concrete pad.
(16:08):
So a lot of competitors either putting it directly on
the dirt, putting on a plastic pad. What happens with
the plastic or putting it on a dirt Eventually it's
going to sink and tilt and kind of get all
sideways on you.
Speaker 3 (16:18):
Certainly doesn't have to have the water hitting.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
The case, right exactly. Yeah, it's going to keep that
case in a better condition and just keep the overall
internals working better. So we're doing a comprehensive install as well.
So a lot of my competition will say, well, here's
what the cost of the generator is, and oh, by the way,
here's all the other costs, right, and so ours is
a one price, one and done.
Speaker 3 (16:39):
One and done, and that's everything.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
That's everything from there. Yeah, I mean you're basically getting
the premium product.
Speaker 3 (16:45):
How how much does the connection vary from host to
house or is it the same?
Speaker 2 (16:50):
Yeah, so it does vary. It really depends on the
proximity of your gas meter and your electric meter to
one another. You know, so the worst case scenario is
your electric meters on one side of the house gas
meters on the other side of the house. We have
to figure out how to get those two to marry
to one another.
Speaker 3 (17:03):
Because if you're using natural gas to run the channel, right,
propane or propane right, what's your circle that you cover?
Speaker 2 (17:08):
So we cover the entire state you do, we do
so entire listing area would be eligible for either program,
either purchase.
Speaker 3 (17:15):
Or least even go up where Greg's cabin is absolutely, yeah, okay,
is there is there a big up charge for that?
Speaker 2 (17:21):
So it's certainly it'll be a little additional charge, yes,
a mileage okay.
Speaker 3 (17:25):
And then what about the maintenance on those cases? I know,
I'm asking you the hard question.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
No, the maintenance is great. So a maintenance, same thing.
We travel to wherever the maintenance is located, and if
you're in the leasing program, it's all included so you
don't have to worry about any kind of extra charge.
Speaker 3 (17:38):
How often do you have to maintain? I mean, what's
the maintenance schedule?
Speaker 2 (17:41):
So it certainly depends on your usage. You know, if
you're having multi day outages every year, you're putting a
lot more hours on the unit, so it's going to
need more frequent use maintenance versus if the unit is
not running a lot. You know, if you have a
very brief outage, like you said, with a couple of hours,
your maintenance interval's gonna be a lot longer. But with
the leasing program, we do come to physically the unit
every year and give it a physical check up.
Speaker 3 (18:02):
Wow, that's awesome. It was surprising for me to learn.
And you know, it's a construction grow I hate to
admit this, but that you have to change oil and
air filters in these things. And I don't know that
the people I know that have generators, I think I
know one guy that is running it in the intervals.
You're supposed to doing all of that, But that's a
that's a problem. So I mean, is that based on ours?
Speaker 2 (18:25):
Yeah, it's certainly based on hours. That's the biggest one.
So if you have a week long outage, you're gonna
need to change that oil. If you have a couple
of hours of usage, then you're not gonna need to
change the oilscept every couple of years.
Speaker 3 (18:36):
Okay, And are the consumables included with this too?
Speaker 2 (18:39):
Everything's included in the program. Yeah, and so it's a
full warranty to.
Speaker 3 (18:43):
You're making money.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
Well, so you know, we're doing it because we want
to see customers have that power, right, We've seen too
many people. You know, last February we had that big
outage where it was really cold out. People were out
of power for a number of days. I actually have
customers that we install generators for after the fact that
inside their homes got almost a freezing and they were
nearly at a catastrophe with all their pipes bursting. And
(19:04):
it was because of the huge upfront cost. They'd never
done it, but you know, they kind of bit the
bullet and said, okay, well we're going to install this now,
we're going to spend that upfront money. So we want
to create a program that doesn't have that sort of hurdle.
So this has no money down, nothing up front. It's
literally just a monthly payment.
Speaker 3 (19:20):
Wow. And now so and if you want, you can
buy it out at any time. So if somebody's thinking
about it and you brought up a good point, you know,
it's like with with solar, if you're saving the money
or you're getting that you get a tax credit on this.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
You don't get a tax credit on this. But it
does work really well with solar because people go, they're
going to get that tax credit back that following year.
Speaker 3 (19:39):
And you want to just buy it out.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
Great, so you get in the least program for a year,
then you just buy it out and.
Speaker 3 (19:43):
You guys have no problem with that. You're good with that.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
That's the way it works.
Speaker 3 (19:46):
Or if somebody's thinking, hey, I'd like to have this now,
but I you know, I already got these this year's
tax returns already spoken for. I want to do this,
so they can lease it for as long as they want. Absolutely,
So basically it's almost like what do they call that
rent to buy thing?
Speaker 2 (20:00):
Yeah, it's kind of like a rent to own, but
it's it's not as actually closed in lease. So at
the end of the term of the lease, you don't
have to buy the unit. You can just say, you
know what, I had it for ten years and we
really enjoyed it, but we don't need any more. Come
get the unit, or at the end ten years because
they had one new unit, and get a new lease
and just start all over. Longevity of these so I've
personally seen generators last for forty years, so they have
(20:20):
a lot of longevity behind him. So if you if
you take care of and that's why really having that
leasing program where it gets taken care of that full
time and you know it's always going to be reliable
for you.
Speaker 3 (20:30):
I can't see why after you're done leasing, looking at
the numbers here, why you wouldn't just buy it.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
Yeah, And we've structured a leasing program where if you
lease it long enough, the buyout is zero, so it's
essentially your unit, but there's nothing says that you have
to stay and you know buy it out. You can
keep leasing, and the benefit is you're getting that warranty right.
So after the manufacturer's warranty has expired, if you're in
the leasing program, we're still covering the whole unit into.
Speaker 3 (20:55):
End, so you can go out as long as thirty years.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
And then you could go thirty forty years. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:00):
Absolutely, and you're going to watch the warranty for thirty
or four.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
Yeah, Now reality happens. If it's probably having an issue
at thirty years, we're going to put a whole new
unit in for you. But you're still getting that peace
of mind.
Speaker 3 (21:11):
Well, I think you know the thing for me, is
just getting It's so hard today, and that's what this
whole show is about. This I mean not our show.
I mean that the whole Construction Group series is about
it's so hard to get people today that last as
long as the product, or that are going to service
the product, or that you know when you get out there.
(21:32):
Scott Klein and I were just talking about, you know,
there's warranties out there, but you look at him his lifetime,
and they're pro rated, and they're pro rated to the
point where it's actually costing you more to fix it
seven to ten years. Nothing should happen to anything you
get right for the most shitn't.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
Yeah, it's quality product.
Speaker 3 (21:47):
Right if it's good. And we know everybody here that's
listening to this knows Briggs and Stratton. They know the story.
I've had lawn mowers that Briggs and Stratton made that
are antiques and they still work. Yeah, you know, so
I mean that if you take care that little engine,
it's going to run forever, right.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
Yeah, And this is the engine they use in their
large commercial products. I have a trencher that has one
of these engines in it, and it's got hundreds and
hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of hours on it, and it's.
Speaker 3 (22:10):
Just change the oil, change of filters in shape. Right,
and now we don't even have to do that as
a customer, right, you do that, So there's really you know,
one of the things I love about that, and this
is something I've preached to all my customers, is that
all the liability lies on our shoulders. The maintenance. This
that the everything right for the warranty. So it's not
like you can craftily get out of your warranty because
oh you didn't do this. You know you every every
(22:32):
third year during the leap year, you got to run
out and turn this screw four times clockwise. You guys
are taking care of everything, so there's really no excuse
for anything to go wrong that doesn't fall on your shoulders.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
Right, Yeah, as long as you haven't abused the unit
or altered in any ways, it's on us.
Speaker 3 (22:47):
So you don't even want it homeowner to touch it.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
I don't want them touch it. Yeah, don't touch it,
don't even look at it wrong?
Speaker 3 (22:53):
So how do they report to you if for maintenance?
Do I? Do you ever know? And then do I
have to call you when it gets to certain hours?
How does that work?
Speaker 2 (22:59):
No, so where I'm coming year, check that unit out,
make sure it's doing what it's going. We're gonna check
the hours, record its condition, take photos of it. If
it needs maintenance, we'll do the maintenance as it's supposed
to be scheduled. So there's literally nothing you have to do.
We'll just send you a note in advance says hey,
we're going to be there next week doing maintenance. Don't
be surprised if you see us on your property.
Speaker 3 (23:16):
The reason I keep asking you the same question on
this show today is because it really is hard to
believe that you can do this. Yeah, it's great. It's
a great, a great opportunity for a homeowner who's had
and you know, everybody who's had an outage for any
length of time knows what an inconvenience that is. People
that don't know, they say, oh, you got to light
a couple of candles for a few hours. No, that's
(23:37):
not it. Everything stops. Your computer drops. For most of us,
our computers and our phones are kind of running. If
you have a home phone, it's running some way through that.
Your routers stop. You can't open your garage, right, People say, well,
you can manually open a garage door. Okay, Mom's got
a bunch of groceries got to get out. Okay, how
does she open the door? Right? Right, that's an issue.
Another one that came up electric fences for dogs. Now
(24:00):
you're not thinking, you go, oh, the dogs got to
go bathroom. We just lost part. You open up the
door and the dog takes a flyer. Now that adds
insult to injury. Right, So there's so many things that
when you think about that, this would solve. And now
it's affordable. Anybody can afford this. It's less than twenty
five bucks a week. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
I think one of the things we really like about
this program too is it supports people want to age
in place in their home. Yeah. People say, hey, I'm
fifty years old and I don't mind plugging the lights
and the candles and doing all that. Well, that's great,
but what about when you're eighty What about when you're
eighty five or you're still don't want to do all that?
And it's just that peace of mind knowing it's fully automatic,
it's taken care of, and you can be in that
(24:38):
home for the rest of your life.
Speaker 3 (24:40):
And that's why generators are in every assisted living facility
in hospitals and things like that, because this is a
pain in the butt when you're thirty, when you're eighty,
it's a nightmare, right, and so another thing would be
a great gift for a senior parent. Absolutely, Yeah, I
think it's a great idea. Let's, uh, how do we
(25:02):
get a hold of if somebody wants to do this,
the processes, you're going to come out, You're going to
scale the house for what generator they need. You're going
to give them a very transparent price and then give
up a payment. I'm looking at this. You have the
price on here and the payment, so it's not like
there's anything to hide, right.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
This is all list on our website. So we created
this as a separate brand underneath our main brand of
What's Up Engineering. So if they go to easypspower dot com,
they can figure out all the pricing on there, they
can submit their details. We'll give them all their thing
and say this is exactly what pricing plan you're going
to fit into.
Speaker 3 (25:33):
Okay, give them the information if they want to get
hold of you.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
Yeah, So call us at two six two four five
five zero zero one one or online at easypspower dot com.
Speaker 3 (25:45):
You know, I'm looking here, looking at this again. Here's
another thing that I think needs to be mentioned. You
don't have a security deposit on this. You don't have
to pay anything for security deposit. I think that's awesome, Adam.
Thanks for coming in on a Sunday spending some time
at the Guru. This is a great program. I'm sure
we're going to talk about it again on one of
the future shows, and then maybe we could talk about
how you mix that and solder together.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
Absolutely all right, thanks for having UKs.
Speaker 3 (26:07):
Good having you. We will talk again next week on
News Talk eleven thirty WISN
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