Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
When you need wisdom and advice. Seek out a guru.
Speaker 2 (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 (00:22):
Talk eleven thirty wisn Nick the Construction Guru. Listen if
you haven't heard, we have a podcast on the iHeartRadio app.
Check out Nick the Construction Guru on the iHeartRadio app.
Podcast is up and rorin. So if you're in church
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review any of the episodes past episodes on the iHeart App.
(00:46):
I have a returning guest. Pretty interesting dude, Adam Kolker
from What's Up. We've had you on several times because
this is an area that a lot of people don't
really understand, and what they do understand, I think has
been tainted by a lot of bad information. So What's
Up is and Gate. Well, I'm gonna tell us about
(01:07):
your company. I'll let you you tell us about it.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Yeah, absolutely, Nick, I I appreciate it. I think I
agree with you one hundred percent. There's a lot of
information out there, a lot of it's incorrect, A lot
of people maybe have heard something through a friend of
a friend, and so solar is really an important aspect.
It's a technology, not an ideology, like I like to
tell people it is.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
That's a good point.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
Yeah, it's about saving money well, and you know.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
And not to go off on a tangent like I.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
Always do, but I love our tangent.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
It's become really a political football too. So you get
so much misinformation on alternative alternative injury. I can't talk today.
Alternative energy is something that you know, people equate with
tree huggers and the Sierra Club and stuff. But that
and and yes, part of that, but the other part
of it is it makes sense.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
Yeah, absolutely, you know. So there's there's some alternative energies
that don't make sense, you know, like getting a windmill.
I get somebody once a month to ask like, hey,
I want a wind mill. I'm like, just forget a
wind mill. There's no windmills in America that make money.
I don't care what size they are.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
You know. It's like we were talking about electric cars
the other day, and here's the deal all this technology
in twenty thirty years, maybe sooner is going to make
total sense, but it's it's just not perfected yet. But
your claim is, and I tend looking at the research
to agree with you, that solar makes perfect sense right now.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
Yeah, it's to that maturity level where in ten twenty
thirty years you're still going to see the systems we're
producing today producing energy, still being productive. And I think
when you look at an investment standpoint, it makes a
ton of sense because this isn't like a car wherein
five years are gonna be traded in. Those solar panels
going to be with you for forty or fifty years
at least. Our systems will.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
Be Yeah, and like anything you know, you and I
have discussed this that nauseam, both on and off the show.
But it's the quality of the materials. It's like anything else.
If you buy junk, you're going to have junk. If
you buy something good, you are not only going to
have something good, but you're nea a warn you to
back it up, as you brought up several times. You know,
one of the questions that I think are out there
that we really haven't discussed is, you know, we've talked
(03:08):
about residential solar, we've talked about residential generation things like that.
What we haven't really talked about is now, I assume
you guys are involved in commercial as well.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Right, that's correct. We do commercial. We do industrial, which
is considered like bigger factories. We also do municipals, so
like libraries or government buildings of that sort. So yeah,
anything in everything that's solar, we're involved.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
Now does I'm going to assume if you have a
business and you put solar on the business, there's some
tax credits.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Right, yeah, So businesses actually get two main incentives. So
one they get the tax credit, which is the thirty
percent they call it the ITC or the investment tax
credit is under section forty five the IRS Code. But
then they also get depreciation. So a lot of times
I tell businesses, will you get depreciation? You go, oh,
you know, this is going to be twenty nine or
thirty nine or whatever, ridiculous years. So it's actual considered
(04:00):
like buying a piece of equipment, So you get to
depreciate over five years, So much better depreciation schedule than
a typical building would be.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
Now it's and maybe this is a question I don't
want to mean to throw you for a loop, but
I know there's a lot of businesses out there that
are well. In general, businesses are doing better than anywhere
five years ago. Right, Okay, everybody I talked to, and
I talked to a lot of business owners in my business.
It makes sense now. So is there financing available for
(04:30):
these things?
Speaker 1 (04:30):
Yes, there's a financing program out there for businesses. Believe
it or not. Most of the customers, as you said,
they cash flow it. Right, They're doing pretty well. So
rather than going in and building a bigger building, they say,
you know, my building is adequate, I've optimized my building footprint,
I've got my trucks all squared away. So what do
I invest in next for my business? So this is
sort of that next investment, Like once you've looked at
(04:52):
your operation, you said, look, I'm doing really well, I've
got everything optimized. Where do I go next, Well, start
looking at your cost structure and that's where that energy
really to make a lot of.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
Sense as far as the infrastructure goes. Is that is
that traumatic on a building. When I'm thinking about solar,
I think about like three phase companies that are running.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
Yeah, most of the three phase.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
Yeah, yeah, so they're using a lot of electricity, correct,
So that I assume that's a lot of infrastructure for
you guys to install to support that.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
So believe it or not. Actually, if you have three
phase power, or even if you have single phase power
on your business, you're already very well situated for the
amount of solar you're going to need. Yeah, you're probably
four hundred amps, twelve hundred amps, eighteen hundred amps service,
so you've already got plenty of power through put in
and out.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
What percentage? And maybe it's an unfair question. I know
so little about this, so there's gonna be some ignorant questions,
which really happens on the construction No ignorant question. But
when you look at this, how much of an industrial
situation can you run running solely on solar? Is what
is the supplementation to that? In other words, you is
(05:56):
it twenty thirty? What do you see average?
Speaker 1 (05:58):
Yeah? Great questions. Home owner scenario, we can usually get
about eighty percent of their usage. Yeah, it's huge. Yeah,
But on an industrial commercial residential side difference, residential is
going to be eighty percent industrial somewhere between thirty to
seventy percent, And it really depends on what your billing
structure is. So some businesses have flat rate structure so
(06:19):
they don't use a ton of energy, and then larger factories,
what we consider our industrial customers, they're on time of use,
and so time of use limits how much you can
really use the solar. So that's gonna be more that
thirty to fifty percent.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
Right. I know that it works because I know Sentas,
I think it's scentis is a huge field next to
them with solar and they've had that for years. What
do you what do you think how much is that
saving them? Do you think? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (06:46):
So for them, they're gonna be on time of use,
so they're probably gonna be in that thirty to fifty
percent savings. But you know we think, oh, well, thirty
percent is not that much. If your power bills one
hundred thousand dollars a month, thirty percent starts to be
a real number.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
It is, and that after that infrastructure is paid for,
it goes right to your bottom line.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
Absolutely, there's no fun. Yeah, if the for most businesses,
they're going to see that payback in like five years
or less. So after that it's just all pushing right
to the bottom line.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
So now a lot of my customers that we've been
talking to and I go into houses now say hey,
we heard you on the radio with the solar guy,
or we heard you on with the roofing guy. Okay,
own smaller businesses. So it's stuff like you know, one
has a bakery, another one has a convenience store. There's
several that have gas stations. Is there applications that make
(07:34):
sense for those smaller businesses.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
Yeah, it does, So we call those our commercial businesses, right,
so those will be convenience stores, bakeries, even some of
your hotels, some of your apartment complexes, those all fit in.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
That commercials never even apartment complex.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
Yeah, so apartment complexes, you're usually not able to tackle
the individual apartments, but you're able to tackle their common spaces,
right they're parking lot lights, their hallways, their community rooms,
which is not a small amount.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
And apartments absolums absolutely, yes, assisted living boy, does that
make sense?
Speaker 1 (08:03):
And the apartments in the assistant living is they already
operate on pretty thin margins, so anything can boost their margins,
which solar does is a great investment for me.
Speaker 3 (08:10):
So are you guys actively talking to these people, because
I think your biggest hurdle right now is ignorance of
the public. They're just ignorant to this and what they
have heard, like I said in the beginning of the show,
has been negative, right, it has been negative. So how
do you reach out to those people? Are you doing
reports and saying, hey, here's how much you're doing, here's
(08:32):
how much we could save you. Here's where it makes sense.
Here's where really, honestly, it doesn't make sense. Even if
you finance it. Some companies are going to have to
finance it. Even if you finance this, here's the payback.
Do you guys handle all that? Yeah, we have our
a numbers guy.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
It's certainly the hard part with commercial and industrial is
really getting that decision maker right. So when you get
into business, usually there's someone that's in the operation.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
Now, come into my company, tell me you're going to
save me thirty percent, going right to my bottom line.
I'm giving you an audience. So I can't see that
as a big problem.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
It's surprisingly is rich. So it's about competing for attention, right.
So we're all busy business owners. We've all got our customers,
we're serving We've got one hundred things that's going on.
So it's really getting that business owner's attention for that,
you know, twenty thirty minute window to say, okay, here's
what we can do for you. Okay, now let's go
do the numbers. We crush the numbers, come back and say, okay,
now this is what we can say of you. Do
(09:24):
we want to make a decision or not. It's that
sort of going through that whole process and keeping that
attention well.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
And I think the difficulty is, like you said, with windmills,
you know, we see him everywhere, and all we hear
is negative. We see a lot of solar applications, boats, RVs,
industrial complexes. You know, I started looking at solar more
and more traveling to Arizona and having a residence there.
(09:50):
It makes perfect sense there, sure you know. And so
you know I always said, well it makes sense in Arizona,
but not Wisconsin. And that's part of that ignorance that
sure you know people have heard and they said, well,
not sunny long enough. And you have all kinds of systems,
storage systems and things like that that have been I
guess perfected to the point where it now makes sense.
I mean it used to be kind of a haphazard thing, right.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
Yeah, you go back fifteen years ago. So we were
just quoting a job last week in commercial job. They
were looking at the system taken off to get it
re roofed, and I was looking through the system and
I was like, Wow, we've came a long ways in
fifteen years. It wasn't our installed, someone else's, but yeah,
we've came a long ways in just fifteen years.
Speaker 3 (10:27):
I remember the hot water systems.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
Oh yeah, they had those size fair projects.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
Yeah, I've seen these things that they mount on the
side of the house. Almost looks like a fireplace.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
Have you run into that?
Speaker 1 (10:37):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (10:37):
Oh yeah, are those still working?
Speaker 1 (10:39):
Yeah? So I have a customer right now just down
the street from here in these studios. They have one
of them. They's been operating for forty five years. And
so like the hot water systems, the fireplace type systems,
like you're talking about with your thermal mass systems, if
you have one that works, they last forever. But when
it breaks, it's pretty much garbage.
Speaker 3 (10:57):
And it's hard to find parts.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
I would assume there's just nobody doing it because it's
such a science fair project. It's literally turned this dial,
turn that knob, set this gauge to twenty seven and
it's just so difficult to figure out.
Speaker 3 (11:09):
So when you bring that up, one of the things
that I've heard from customers. I don't have a lot,
but I've had a number of customers that had the
side mounted ones. There is a tremendous amount of maintenance
with those two, keeping them clean, changing the water or
whatever they're using inside there. That just a myriad of issues,
which is I don't think it's a big deal, but
(11:30):
there was maintenance today not so much right.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
Well, so in solar panels that are electric, there's no maintenance.
In fact, we had an industrial customer recently just asked that.
They said, hey, our maintenance got left and we want
to know what maintenance we have to keep doing. You know,
we've had it for a few years. And I said
nothing and they go, nothing nothing.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
So, and this is interesting because it's just top of
mind came up. I constantly get solicitations from companies who
are in the solar panel cleaning business and this is
an Arizona and they're here too. They send it to
me and they say it will make your system more efficient.
Is that poppycock or is that Yeah?
Speaker 1 (12:08):
So a major university just did a study on this recently.
They haven't gotten the results out yet. They're saying that
they think that cleaning after fifteen years, this is an
area gets rained and he cleans them after fifteen years.
They're looking at maybe a ten percent boost. They haven't
published the final results yet, so same for us here.
Maybe in fifteen years after you have a lot of
(12:29):
accumulation of kind of contaminants, but generally speaking day to day,
there's no cleaning required. Arizona though, yeah you need to
clean those every couple of years. Oh you do, Okay, Yeah,
the dust builds up, but here we get enough rain,
the dust really doesn't build up. It's more just like
what kind of pollution is going to build up over
fifteen or twenty years?
Speaker 3 (12:45):
Gotcha?
Speaker 1 (12:45):
So we'll see. Hopefully the data comes back and says
that cleaning makes sense.
Speaker 3 (12:48):
But to dovetail, we got to take a break. But
I'm going to dovetail in that question after this, and
I'll give you a chance to at break to try
and figure out the answer to this. I think it's
a pretty simple one, but I just I want to
ask you so we're going to take a short break.
When we come back, we'll talk again about where you are,
your website, all of that kind of stuff, and then
I have a couple of questions about the cleaning, and
then we'll go back on to whatever. It's just fun
(13:10):
with you because we really, we really don't have a schedule.
We just this is what I don't have a schedule, right,
all right, We will return after these messages on news
Talk eleven thirty WI SN NEHSE Talk eleven thirty w
I s N returning from break, Nick the Construction GROUI
listen if you're thinking about a remodeling project. Every single
(13:30):
time I say this, I tell you get a few opinions.
We'd love it if you make one of those ours.
Cursoner is the only company in Wisconsin when a better
business buer Tortureward for ethics and integrity three times. No
one else has done that. No one else has done
that yet in our industry. So you can check us
out on the web at Cursonerinc. Dot com. That's k
e r z N e r i NC dot com,
(13:52):
or give us a call at two six two five
six seven five hundred if you're just tuning in. I
have a returning guest. Fascinating dude. Actually, you're a fast
Have you ever been told up by another guy that
you're a fascinating dude? That's good to hear. Yeah, I have.
I have Adam Kolker from What's Up Engineering? And Uh,
you guys are as far as I know, you're the
(14:12):
premier solar people in Wisconsin. Because I don't know anybody else.
That's a big noise in the business.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
We certainly think so.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
Yeah, so tell us about your company again. Give out
your website. I know you've been on a couple of shows.
People have actually reached out and said, hey, tell us
again about the website and that so that they can
get the information.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
Absolutely. So you can find us on the web at
what's upsolar dot com or What's up engineering dot com.
Speaker 3 (14:35):
It's Watts.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
We own both, so you can just type in what Okay, ever,
how you want to spell it?
Speaker 3 (14:40):
We've got you, fascinating guy.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
Wait, wait, try and then the phone number you can
reach out to us is two six two four five
five zero zero one one. The big thing for us
is we're very engineering focused, so you're gonna come talk
to us to get the no nonsense approach, just the
numbers and the facts, and that's really what's going to
set us apart. Also, you know, we're using as much
American made products as possible. So our solar patterns come
(15:03):
from Georgia. We use American made wire, all the aluminum screws,
hardware all American made. That's really a big deal. The
other thing is we're a debt free company. So as
you see solar companies, they come and go, they perish quickly.
We're always here. And the reason why is you stay
debt free. And it's really easy.
Speaker 3 (15:21):
Absolutely we have done that as well. We are debt free.
It makes such a difference in business and it makes
a difference in your margins, and therefore it makes a
difference in the pricing. So a lot of times I
actually had a lady who did a timement materials job today.
I gave her the price and she said, oh, and
I thought, here we go. Right, She says, my husband's
going to be very happy with that, very happy. So,
(15:43):
you know, I think that's a good point that you
make with that service. Stay away from that. Too many
companies I see going you know into debt for fleets
for things for tools, and it just doesn't make sense.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
Yeah, I mean, you know, I always tell people to
hear and get a quote from someone else. Great, ask
them what their debt load is, ye, ask them do
they have solar on their own house? And if they
don't have sold in their own house and they can't
tell you how much death they have, those are not
good signs.
Speaker 3 (16:05):
I remember when my daughter started dating and she asked
me about certain guys and I'd say, well, let me
see their discretionary income state.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
I can tell you a lot about that. Right.
Speaker 3 (16:13):
So when we left for break, we were talking a
little bit. I don't want to get real in depth
with this, but the solar panels are tempered glass, which
means that they're cut first then fired, so they granulate.
If they break, they're going to granulate like your car window, right, right.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
So we've had a couple of hailstorms recently. In fact,
we've been doing a couple roof repairs for our customers.
So we've had a few that, especially in the Edgerton area,
that had softball sized hail they needed a whole new roof.
The solar panels were completely unaffected by it. So that's
one of big questions we get is well, how strong
are they? Well, so far we've seen them be pretty
darn strong.
Speaker 3 (16:48):
Yeah, you really have to hit a good piece of
tempered glass to break it.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
Yeah, and they're designed to flex some too, so it's
not like it's hitting a brick wall. You know they're
going to give and do that. And one of the
things that we've seen over the years is people ask, well,
our solar panel cant getting better, right, Like should I wait?
And so what we tell people for that is don't wait,
not because we want to sell you solar panels, because
the technology has gotten to be that mature. They've went
through every element of the solar panels, including the glass.
(17:13):
They've changed the chemistry and the glass. They've made the
glass ultra low iron, so it's got the best transmissions possible.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
Is that the transparency?
Speaker 1 (17:20):
Yeah, transparency. So if you look at glass with iron
versus low iron glass, low iron glass will be clear.
Glass with iron in it will have kind of a
blue or green hue to it. You've probably seen that
in maybe deck railings where people use lower quality glass.
So low iron is really what the industry standard is
for solar panels. So they've really optimized every single aspect
(17:41):
of the panels, every single aspect of the systems, and
so we're at a maturity level that's kind of unsurpassed
in most other alternative energies.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
Now, one of the other things that you said earlier
everything is you try and source everything from the United
States other than the see the patriotic impact of that.
Why is that important? In other words, if you're kidding
and I don't know, I assume India is involved. I
assume Pakistan's involved. Obviously, China, maybe Vietnam. A lot of
(18:14):
the Asian Asian countries are doing things with technology, sure
and have and and to their credit, have done a
good job making things that we as as Middle America
probably couldn't afford or afford as often as we do.
If that wasn't the case, why is it important that
we use American.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
Yeah, I think it comes down to, as you said,
obviously jobs helping people here keep good paying jobs, and
solar in general. The factory is, the supply chain, even
the install side. We pay above market wages throughout the
whole supply chain industry, so they're actually really great jobs
for Americans. But beyond that, it really comes down to
you know, warranties. So you may remember back in the
(18:55):
early two thousands the Chinese drawwall debacle, right, just full
of sulfur and they had to go in and just
gut all these homes that were just destroyed by the
draw wall. And they basically said, sorry, no warranty.
Speaker 3 (19:08):
And so I can't really hear that Georgian accent when
you say drywall.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
You sent drawwall, that's right, we got the drawwall. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (19:15):
But I just want to make that clear because at
first I was like, what are you talking about drywall?
Speaker 1 (19:20):
Okay, so yeah, it's the warranties. And then ultimate comes
down to, as you're alluding to a bit, there is
global conflict, right, So you saw Indian Pakistan having issues there,
We see issues with Israel, we see issues with Southeast
Asian countries, and that can disrupt your supply chain. So
by keeping that supply chain local, keeping it in the US,
we don't really deal with supply change disruptions like that.
Speaker 3 (19:42):
And that makes perfect sense because obviously this is it's
a substantial investment, residential or commercial, So you don't want
any downtime something's broken. I don't and I've had issues
where you know parts are something you need to order
the part. I have some Harley lights that spin and
I need the motor. Well, most people just toss it,
but not me. I'm cheap, cheap as a day is long.
(20:04):
The only person cheaper than me is my father. And
I disassembled it, looked at the part and had to
order source it from China and it worked out fine,
but it took you six eight weeks to get it.
If I have this machine on top of my house
making my energy, I don't want that down right, I
don't want it down for a day.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
Well, and it's really important too, because your tax credit,
regardless off it's for a business or for home, relies
on you completing that system in that calendar year. So
if we don't get that system completed by December thirty, first,
you don't get to count the tax credit till the
following year.
Speaker 3 (20:36):
Which may or may not go up or down or be.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
Well, and you're just having to float that money. Yeah right,
So last thing we do is have to float that
money for another twelve calendar months.
Speaker 3 (20:44):
What about quality issues, Adam, Is there a difference in
quality between let's just say everybody assumes I think it's
another misnomer that China puts out products that in many
cases are less quality than same American companies, but not
in all cases. Is there a major difference between the
panels that are coming from overseas versus the panels that
(21:06):
are being manufactured domestically other than the supply chain stuff.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
Yeah, there is. So what you're going to see is
a lot of the domestic panels, or what we call
honest panels, So they don't use any tricks, they don't
use any special coatings to try to boost their output,
boost their efficiency. So all the Chinese panels today they're
putting in a couple of technologies. One is called perk,
the other one's called top con. So basically it's a
spray on coating inside the solar cells to try to
(21:30):
boost their output. The whole coating process has only been
around for about two years. I don't know about you.
I don't really trust something that's been around just two
years and saying it's great and it's going to last forever.
I try to stick with the honest panels that you
know have improven over the last thirty or four wards.
Speaker 3 (21:46):
I think you know, in my experiences with windows with
low emissivity glass. The soft code gave a better number
in the beginning. In the beginning, but it diminishes with time, right,
it diminishes faster than the hart coach did. So you
know a lot of people were touting, oh, you can
get an r factor of this high, which after four
(22:07):
doesn't make much sense. We can talk about that in
another show. But the soft coat didn't last.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
Right, same same concept, Yeah, exact same concept.
Speaker 3 (22:17):
And you know now now that you tell me this,
I know that the people that on my solar system
leased it from a company it's called sun Run Sure
in Arizona.
Speaker 1 (22:26):
You familiar with the huge company.
Speaker 3 (22:27):
Yeah, And and they send me a report every I
had to take it. It was on the house.
Speaker 1 (22:32):
It's part of the lease.
Speaker 3 (22:33):
You yeah, you know. I don't know if I'd have
done it or not, but they did say that. You know,
eventually the lease is paid off and you own the panels.
But they're quick to tell you that they're probably going
to be at sixty fifty percent of what they were
when you bought them new. That's not just a sales play.
That's real, right, it is real.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
So depending on the technology of your panels and design
they can be as low as six chinies they have. Yeah,
they probably are. Yeah, most of the sun runs are.
So for our panels, at the end of thirty years,
you're going to will be a eighty five percent output.
So people always go, well, what do I do with
thirty years? Just keep going. They've paid for themselves.
Speaker 3 (23:07):
Even some of the old Science Fair projects, they're still working.
So I'm assuming if you're using better glass, you're using
better components on the inside. You probably are using materials
that are coded or are molecularly structured for.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
U V rays, right, that's dirrect, everything's 'V rated. Yeah,
so we're expecting our products to last forty to fifty
years or more.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
Okay, what's the warranty.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
So the warranty on hours are thirty years. I personally
own a set of panels that are thirty years old.
They produce energy every single day, so they can do it,
and we'll do it with just you know, no maintenance whatsoever.
Speaker 3 (23:46):
So just so we're clear because we're running out of
time at them. But you guys can show all of
the numbers and all of the research because the lion's
share of your people are engineers. Absolutely, they're not solar installers,
they're engineers have installers. Well, but what I'm saying is
you're going to be talking to somebody that understands this
stuff and can't explain it. You're very good at explaining it,
(24:07):
by the way. You don't talk in a lot of
industry jargon and things like that makes it and you
can show the numbers and all of that. Well, we
wanted to talk a little bit about today. It's not
just a residential thing, and it's not just a large
business thing, but there's medium and small businesses that can
benefit as well.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
Correct.
Speaker 3 (24:22):
Absolutely so, if somebody's actually thinking, hey, you know what
I just want to you're okay with just going and
talking to people. You don't have to pre qualify them
over the phone, get a credit card number, any of that.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
Right now, the easiest thing is just send us the
thing through our website What's Up Engineering dot com. We'll
go in there, We'll give you a call and say, hey,
we need some utility bills from us. You send us
the bills, we analyze it, send it back, say here's
what we think we can save you. Here's how much
it's going to cost. So it's all without having to
do really anything super involved with the owners.
Speaker 3 (24:50):
I'm thinking about that thing they used to put around
people's neck that I've fallen and I've fallen and I
can't get right that. What was it called alert something? Yeah,
but they always said no salesman will call right. So
you're going to get all this information without really having
to deal with anybody if you don't want right correct,
But if you do want to, then you can call right.
Speaker 1 (25:08):
Yeah. Absolutely, We've done quotes that are completely hands free,
where they send us the data all over the web,
We send everything back. We've signed the paperwork, closed the
whole deal all remotely.
Speaker 3 (25:17):
Adam, thanks for coming in. I want to talk to
you some more in the future about some of the
generator stuff too that you guys do, because I think
you can incorporate this all together and absolutely really almost
be off the grid. Right we have those yeah, yeah,
all right. Thanks for coming in on a Sunday spending
some time with the Guru. I appreciate it. It's always
fascinating to talk to you. All right. We will talk
again next week on News Talk eleven thirty WISN
When you need wisdom and advice. Seek out a guru.
Speaker 2 (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 (00:22):
Talk eleven thirty wisn Nick the Construction Guru. Listen if
you haven't heard, we have a podcast on the iHeartRadio app.
Check out Nick the Construction Guru on the iHeartRadio app.
Podcast is up and rorin. So if you're in church
on Sunday mornings, or if you're out to breakfast with
the family and you can't catch a show, you can
review any of the episodes past episodes on the iHeart App.
(00:46):
I have a returning guest. Pretty interesting dude, Adam Kolker
from What's Up. We've had you on several times because
this is an area that a lot of people don't
really understand, and what they do understand, I think has
been tainted by a lot of bad information. So What's
Up is and Gate. Well, I'm gonna tell us about
(01:07):
your company. I'll let you you tell us about it.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Yeah, absolutely, Nick, I I appreciate it. I think I
agree with you one hundred percent. There's a lot of
information out there, a lot of it's incorrect, A lot
of people maybe have heard something through a friend of
a friend, and so solar is really an important aspect.
It's a technology, not an ideology, like I like to
tell people it is.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
That's a good point.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
Yeah, it's about saving money well, and you know.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
And not to go off on a tangent like I.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
Always do, but I love our tangent.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
It's become really a political football too. So you get
so much misinformation on alternative alternative injury. I can't talk today.
Alternative energy is something that you know, people equate with
tree huggers and the Sierra Club and stuff. But that
and and yes, part of that, but the other part
of it is it makes sense.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
Yeah, absolutely, you know. So there's there's some alternative energies
that don't make sense, you know, like getting a windmill.
I get somebody once a month to ask like, hey,
I want a wind mill. I'm like, just forget a
wind mill. There's no windmills in America that make money.
I don't care what size they are.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
You know. It's like we were talking about electric cars
the other day, and here's the deal all this technology
in twenty thirty years, maybe sooner is going to make
total sense, but it's it's just not perfected yet. But
your claim is, and I tend looking at the research
to agree with you, that solar makes perfect sense right now.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
Yeah, it's to that maturity level where in ten twenty
thirty years you're still going to see the systems we're
producing today producing energy, still being productive. And I think
when you look at an investment standpoint, it makes a
ton of sense because this isn't like a car wherein
five years are gonna be traded in. Those solar panels
going to be with you for forty or fifty years
at least. Our systems will.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
Be Yeah, and like anything you know, you and I
have discussed this that nauseam, both on and off the show.
But it's the quality of the materials. It's like anything else.
If you buy junk, you're going to have junk. If
you buy something good, you are not only going to
have something good, but you're nea a warn you to
back it up, as you brought up several times. You know,
one of the questions that I think are out there
that we really haven't discussed is, you know, we've talked
(03:08):
about residential solar, we've talked about residential generation things like that.
What we haven't really talked about is now, I assume
you guys are involved in commercial as well.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Right, that's correct. We do commercial. We do industrial, which
is considered like bigger factories. We also do municipals, so
like libraries or government buildings of that sort. So yeah,
anything in everything that's solar, we're involved.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
Now does I'm going to assume if you have a
business and you put solar on the business, there's some
tax credits.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Right, yeah, So businesses actually get two main incentives. So
one they get the tax credit, which is the thirty
percent they call it the ITC or the investment tax
credit is under section forty five the IRS Code. But
then they also get depreciation. So a lot of times
I tell businesses, will you get depreciation? You go, oh,
you know, this is going to be twenty nine or
thirty nine or whatever, ridiculous years. So it's actual considered
(04:00):
like buying a piece of equipment, So you get to
depreciate over five years, So much better depreciation schedule than
a typical building would be.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
Now it's and maybe this is a question I don't
want to mean to throw you for a loop, but
I know there's a lot of businesses out there that
are well. In general, businesses are doing better than anywhere
five years ago. Right, Okay, everybody I talked to, and
I talked to a lot of business owners in my business.
It makes sense now. So is there financing available for
(04:30):
these things?
Speaker 1 (04:30):
Yes, there's a financing program out there for businesses. Believe
it or not. Most of the customers, as you said,
they cash flow it. Right, They're doing pretty well. So
rather than going in and building a bigger building, they say,
you know, my building is adequate, I've optimized my building footprint,
I've got my trucks all squared away. So what do
I invest in next for my business? So this is
sort of that next investment, Like once you've looked at
(04:52):
your operation, you said, look, I'm doing really well, I've
got everything optimized. Where do I go next, Well, start
looking at your cost structure and that's where that energy
really to make a lot of.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
Sense as far as the infrastructure goes. Is that is
that traumatic on a building. When I'm thinking about solar,
I think about like three phase companies that are running.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
Yeah, most of the three phase.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
Yeah, yeah, so they're using a lot of electricity, correct,
So that I assume that's a lot of infrastructure for
you guys to install to support that.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
So believe it or not. Actually, if you have three
phase power, or even if you have single phase power
on your business, you're already very well situated for the
amount of solar you're going to need. Yeah, you're probably
four hundred amps, twelve hundred amps, eighteen hundred amps service,
so you've already got plenty of power through put in
and out.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
What percentage? And maybe it's an unfair question. I know
so little about this, so there's gonna be some ignorant questions,
which really happens on the construction No ignorant question. But
when you look at this, how much of an industrial
situation can you run running solely on solar? Is what
is the supplementation to that? In other words, you is
(05:56):
it twenty thirty? What do you see average?
Speaker 1 (05:58):
Yeah? Great questions. Home owner scenario, we can usually get
about eighty percent of their usage. Yeah, it's huge. Yeah,
But on an industrial commercial residential side difference, residential is
going to be eighty percent industrial somewhere between thirty to
seventy percent, And it really depends on what your billing
structure is. So some businesses have flat rate structure so
(06:19):
they don't use a ton of energy, and then larger factories,
what we consider our industrial customers, they're on time of use,
and so time of use limits how much you can
really use the solar. So that's gonna be more that
thirty to fifty percent.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
Right. I know that it works because I know Sentas,
I think it's scentis is a huge field next to
them with solar and they've had that for years. What
do you what do you think how much is that
saving them? Do you think? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (06:46):
So for them, they're gonna be on time of use,
so they're probably gonna be in that thirty to fifty
percent savings. But you know we think, oh, well, thirty
percent is not that much. If your power bills one
hundred thousand dollars a month, thirty percent starts to be
a real number.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
It is, and that after that infrastructure is paid for,
it goes right to your bottom line.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
Absolutely, there's no fun. Yeah, if the for most businesses,
they're going to see that payback in like five years
or less. So after that it's just all pushing right
to the bottom line.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
So now a lot of my customers that we've been
talking to and I go into houses now say hey,
we heard you on the radio with the solar guy,
or we heard you on with the roofing guy. Okay,
own smaller businesses. So it's stuff like you know, one
has a bakery, another one has a convenience store. There's
several that have gas stations. Is there applications that make
(07:34):
sense for those smaller businesses.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
Yeah, it does, So we call those our commercial businesses, right,
so those will be convenience stores, bakeries, even some of
your hotels, some of your apartment complexes, those all fit in.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
That commercials never even apartment complex.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
Yeah, so apartment complexes, you're usually not able to tackle
the individual apartments, but you're able to tackle their common spaces,
right they're parking lot lights, their hallways, their community rooms,
which is not a small amount.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
And apartments absolums absolutely, yes, assisted living boy, does that
make sense?
Speaker 1 (08:03):
And the apartments in the assistant living is they already
operate on pretty thin margins, so anything can boost their margins,
which solar does is a great investment for me.
Speaker 3 (08:10):
So are you guys actively talking to these people, because
I think your biggest hurdle right now is ignorance of
the public. They're just ignorant to this and what they
have heard, like I said in the beginning of the show,
has been negative, right, it has been negative. So how
do you reach out to those people? Are you doing
reports and saying, hey, here's how much you're doing, here's
(08:32):
how much we could save you. Here's where it makes sense.
Here's where really, honestly, it doesn't make sense. Even if
you finance it. Some companies are going to have to
finance it. Even if you finance this, here's the payback.
Do you guys handle all that? Yeah, we have our
a numbers guy.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
It's certainly the hard part with commercial and industrial is
really getting that decision maker right. So when you get
into business, usually there's someone that's in the operation.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
Now, come into my company, tell me you're going to
save me thirty percent, going right to my bottom line.
I'm giving you an audience. So I can't see that
as a big problem.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
It's surprisingly is rich. So it's about competing for attention, right.
So we're all busy business owners. We've all got our customers,
we're serving We've got one hundred things that's going on.
So it's really getting that business owner's attention for that,
you know, twenty thirty minute window to say, okay, here's
what we can do for you. Okay, now let's go
do the numbers. We crush the numbers, come back and say, okay,
now this is what we can say of you. Do
(09:24):
we want to make a decision or not. It's that
sort of going through that whole process and keeping that
attention well.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
And I think the difficulty is, like you said, with windmills,
you know, we see him everywhere, and all we hear
is negative. We see a lot of solar applications, boats, RVs,
industrial complexes. You know, I started looking at solar more
and more traveling to Arizona and having a residence there.
(09:50):
It makes perfect sense there, sure you know. And so
you know I always said, well it makes sense in Arizona,
but not Wisconsin. And that's part of that ignorance that
sure you know people have heard and they said, well,
not sunny long enough. And you have all kinds of systems,
storage systems and things like that that have been I
guess perfected to the point where it now makes sense.
I mean it used to be kind of a haphazard thing, right.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
Yeah, you go back fifteen years ago. So we were
just quoting a job last week in commercial job. They
were looking at the system taken off to get it
re roofed, and I was looking through the system and
I was like, Wow, we've came a long ways in
fifteen years. It wasn't our installed, someone else's, but yeah,
we've came a long ways in just fifteen years.
Speaker 3 (10:27):
I remember the hot water systems.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
Oh yeah, they had those size fair projects.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
Yeah, I've seen these things that they mount on the
side of the house. Almost looks like a fireplace.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
Have you run into that?
Speaker 1 (10:37):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (10:37):
Oh yeah, are those still working?
Speaker 1 (10:39):
Yeah? So I have a customer right now just down
the street from here in these studios. They have one
of them. They's been operating for forty five years. And
so like the hot water systems, the fireplace type systems,
like you're talking about with your thermal mass systems, if
you have one that works, they last forever. But when
it breaks, it's pretty much garbage.
Speaker 3 (10:57):
And it's hard to find parts.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
I would assume there's just nobody doing it because it's
such a science fair project. It's literally turned this dial,
turn that knob, set this gauge to twenty seven and
it's just so difficult to figure out.
Speaker 3 (11:09):
So when you bring that up, one of the things
that I've heard from customers. I don't have a lot,
but I've had a number of customers that had the
side mounted ones. There is a tremendous amount of maintenance
with those two, keeping them clean, changing the water or
whatever they're using inside there. That just a myriad of issues,
which is I don't think it's a big deal, but
(11:30):
there was maintenance today not so much right.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
Well, so in solar panels that are electric, there's no maintenance.
In fact, we had an industrial customer recently just asked that.
They said, hey, our maintenance got left and we want
to know what maintenance we have to keep doing. You know,
we've had it for a few years. And I said
nothing and they go, nothing nothing.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
So, and this is interesting because it's just top of
mind came up. I constantly get solicitations from companies who
are in the solar panel cleaning business and this is
an Arizona and they're here too. They send it to
me and they say it will make your system more efficient.
Is that poppycock or is that Yeah?
Speaker 1 (12:08):
So a major university just did a study on this recently.
They haven't gotten the results out yet. They're saying that
they think that cleaning after fifteen years, this is an
area gets rained and he cleans them after fifteen years.
They're looking at maybe a ten percent boost. They haven't
published the final results yet, so same for us here.
Maybe in fifteen years after you have a lot of
(12:29):
accumulation of kind of contaminants, but generally speaking day to day,
there's no cleaning required. Arizona though, yeah you need to
clean those every couple of years. Oh you do, Okay, Yeah,
the dust builds up, but here we get enough rain,
the dust really doesn't build up. It's more just like
what kind of pollution is going to build up over
fifteen or twenty years?
Speaker 3 (12:45):
Gotcha?
Speaker 1 (12:45):
So we'll see. Hopefully the data comes back and says
that cleaning makes sense.
Speaker 3 (12:48):
But to dovetail, we got to take a break. But
I'm going to dovetail in that question after this, and
I'll give you a chance to at break to try
and figure out the answer to this. I think it's
a pretty simple one, but I just I want to
ask you so we're going to take a short break.
When we come back, we'll talk again about where you are,
your website, all of that kind of stuff, and then
I have a couple of questions about the cleaning, and
then we'll go back on to whatever. It's just fun
(13:10):
with you because we really, we really don't have a schedule.
We just this is what I don't have a schedule, right,
all right, We will return after these messages on news
Talk eleven thirty WI SN NEHSE Talk eleven thirty w
I s N returning from break, Nick the Construction GROUI
listen if you're thinking about a remodeling project. Every single
(13:30):
time I say this, I tell you get a few opinions.
We'd love it if you make one of those ours.
Cursoner is the only company in Wisconsin when a better
business buer Tortureward for ethics and integrity three times. No
one else has done that. No one else has done
that yet in our industry. So you can check us
out on the web at Cursonerinc. Dot com. That's k
e r z N e r i NC dot com,
(13:52):
or give us a call at two six two five
six seven five hundred if you're just tuning in. I
have a returning guest. Fascinating dude. Actually, you're a fast
Have you ever been told up by another guy that
you're a fascinating dude? That's good to hear. Yeah, I have.
I have Adam Kolker from What's Up Engineering? And Uh,
you guys are as far as I know, you're the
(14:12):
premier solar people in Wisconsin. Because I don't know anybody else.
That's a big noise in the business.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
We certainly think so.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
Yeah, so tell us about your company again. Give out
your website. I know you've been on a couple of shows.
People have actually reached out and said, hey, tell us
again about the website and that so that they can
get the information.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
Absolutely. So you can find us on the web at
what's upsolar dot com or What's up engineering dot com.
Speaker 3 (14:35):
It's Watts.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
We own both, so you can just type in what Okay, ever,
how you want to spell it?
Speaker 3 (14:40):
We've got you, fascinating guy.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
Wait, wait, try and then the phone number you can
reach out to us is two six two four five
five zero zero one one. The big thing for us
is we're very engineering focused, so you're gonna come talk
to us to get the no nonsense approach, just the
numbers and the facts, and that's really what's going to
set us apart. Also, you know, we're using as much
American made products as possible. So our solar patterns come
(15:03):
from Georgia. We use American made wire, all the aluminum screws,
hardware all American made. That's really a big deal. The
other thing is we're a debt free company. So as
you see solar companies, they come and go, they perish quickly.
We're always here. And the reason why is you stay
debt free. And it's really easy.
Speaker 3 (15:21):
Absolutely we have done that as well. We are debt free.
It makes such a difference in business and it makes
a difference in your margins, and therefore it makes a
difference in the pricing. So a lot of times I
actually had a lady who did a timement materials job today.
I gave her the price and she said, oh, and
I thought, here we go. Right, She says, my husband's
going to be very happy with that, very happy. So,
(15:43):
you know, I think that's a good point that you
make with that service. Stay away from that. Too many
companies I see going you know into debt for fleets
for things for tools, and it just doesn't make sense.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
Yeah, I mean, you know, I always tell people to
hear and get a quote from someone else. Great, ask
them what their debt load is, ye, ask them do
they have solar on their own house? And if they
don't have sold in their own house and they can't
tell you how much death they have, those are not
good signs.
Speaker 3 (16:05):
I remember when my daughter started dating and she asked
me about certain guys and I'd say, well, let me
see their discretionary income state.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
I can tell you a lot about that. Right.
Speaker 3 (16:13):
So when we left for break, we were talking a
little bit. I don't want to get real in depth
with this, but the solar panels are tempered glass, which
means that they're cut first then fired, so they granulate.
If they break, they're going to granulate like your car window, right, right.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
So we've had a couple of hailstorms recently. In fact,
we've been doing a couple roof repairs for our customers.
So we've had a few that, especially in the Edgerton area,
that had softball sized hail they needed a whole new roof.
The solar panels were completely unaffected by it. So that's
one of big questions we get is well, how strong
are they? Well, so far we've seen them be pretty
darn strong.
Speaker 3 (16:48):
Yeah, you really have to hit a good piece of
tempered glass to break it.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
Yeah, and they're designed to flex some too, so it's
not like it's hitting a brick wall. You know they're
going to give and do that. And one of the
things that we've seen over the years is people ask, well,
our solar panel cant getting better, right, Like should I wait?
And so what we tell people for that is don't wait,
not because we want to sell you solar panels, because
the technology has gotten to be that mature. They've went
through every element of the solar panels, including the glass.
(17:13):
They've changed the chemistry and the glass. They've made the
glass ultra low iron, so it's got the best transmissions possible.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
Is that the transparency?
Speaker 1 (17:20):
Yeah, transparency. So if you look at glass with iron
versus low iron glass, low iron glass will be clear.
Glass with iron in it will have kind of a
blue or green hue to it. You've probably seen that
in maybe deck railings where people use lower quality glass.
So low iron is really what the industry standard is
for solar panels. So they've really optimized every single aspect
(17:41):
of the panels, every single aspect of the systems, and
so we're at a maturity level that's kind of unsurpassed
in most other alternative energies.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
Now, one of the other things that you said earlier
everything is you try and source everything from the United
States other than the see the patriotic impact of that.
Why is that important? In other words, if you're kidding
and I don't know, I assume India is involved. I
assume Pakistan's involved. Obviously, China, maybe Vietnam. A lot of
(18:14):
the Asian Asian countries are doing things with technology, sure
and have and and to their credit, have done a
good job making things that we as as Middle America
probably couldn't afford or afford as often as we do.
If that wasn't the case, why is it important that
we use American.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
Yeah, I think it comes down to, as you said,
obviously jobs helping people here keep good paying jobs, and
solar in general. The factory is, the supply chain, even
the install side. We pay above market wages throughout the
whole supply chain industry, so they're actually really great jobs
for Americans. But beyond that, it really comes down to
you know, warranties. So you may remember back in the
(18:55):
early two thousands the Chinese drawwall debacle, right, just full
of sulfur and they had to go in and just
gut all these homes that were just destroyed by the
draw wall. And they basically said, sorry, no warranty.
Speaker 3 (19:08):
And so I can't really hear that Georgian accent when
you say drywall.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
You sent drawwall, that's right, we got the drawwall. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (19:15):
But I just want to make that clear because at
first I was like, what are you talking about drywall?
Speaker 1 (19:20):
Okay, so yeah, it's the warranties. And then ultimate comes
down to, as you're alluding to a bit, there is
global conflict, right, So you saw Indian Pakistan having issues there,
We see issues with Israel, we see issues with Southeast
Asian countries, and that can disrupt your supply chain. So
by keeping that supply chain local, keeping it in the US,
we don't really deal with supply change disruptions like that.
Speaker 3 (19:42):
And that makes perfect sense because obviously this is it's
a substantial investment, residential or commercial, So you don't want
any downtime something's broken. I don't and I've had issues
where you know parts are something you need to order
the part. I have some Harley lights that spin and
I need the motor. Well, most people just toss it,
but not me. I'm cheap, cheap as a day is long.
(20:04):
The only person cheaper than me is my father. And
I disassembled it, looked at the part and had to
order source it from China and it worked out fine,
but it took you six eight weeks to get it.
If I have this machine on top of my house
making my energy, I don't want that down right, I
don't want it down for a day.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
Well, and it's really important too, because your tax credit,
regardless off it's for a business or for home, relies
on you completing that system in that calendar year. So
if we don't get that system completed by December thirty, first,
you don't get to count the tax credit till the
following year.
Speaker 3 (20:36):
Which may or may not go up or down or be.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
Well, and you're just having to float that money. Yeah right,
So last thing we do is have to float that
money for another twelve calendar months.
Speaker 3 (20:44):
What about quality issues, Adam, Is there a difference in
quality between let's just say everybody assumes I think it's
another misnomer that China puts out products that in many
cases are less quality than same American companies, but not
in all cases. Is there a major difference between the
panels that are coming from overseas versus the panels that
(21:06):
are being manufactured domestically other than the supply chain stuff.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
Yeah, there is. So what you're going to see is
a lot of the domestic panels, or what we call
honest panels, So they don't use any tricks, they don't
use any special coatings to try to boost their output,
boost their efficiency. So all the Chinese panels today they're
putting in a couple of technologies. One is called perk,
the other one's called top con. So basically it's a
spray on coating inside the solar cells to try to
(21:30):
boost their output. The whole coating process has only been
around for about two years. I don't know about you.
I don't really trust something that's been around just two
years and saying it's great and it's going to last forever.
I try to stick with the honest panels that you
know have improven over the last thirty or four wards.
Speaker 3 (21:46):
I think you know, in my experiences with windows with
low emissivity glass. The soft code gave a better number
in the beginning. In the beginning, but it diminishes with time, right,
it diminishes faster than the hart coach did. So you
know a lot of people were touting, oh, you can
get an r factor of this high, which after four
(22:07):
doesn't make much sense. We can talk about that in
another show. But the soft coat didn't last.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
Right, same same concept, Yeah, exact same concept.
Speaker 3 (22:17):
And you know now now that you tell me this,
I know that the people that on my solar system
leased it from a company it's called sun Run Sure
in Arizona.
Speaker 1 (22:26):
You familiar with the huge company.
Speaker 3 (22:27):
Yeah, And and they send me a report every I
had to take it. It was on the house.
Speaker 1 (22:32):
It's part of the lease.
Speaker 3 (22:33):
You yeah, you know. I don't know if I'd have
done it or not, but they did say that. You know,
eventually the lease is paid off and you own the panels.
But they're quick to tell you that they're probably going
to be at sixty fifty percent of what they were
when you bought them new. That's not just a sales play.
That's real, right, it is real.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
So depending on the technology of your panels and design
they can be as low as six chinies they have. Yeah,
they probably are. Yeah, most of the sun runs are.
So for our panels, at the end of thirty years,
you're going to will be a eighty five percent output.
So people always go, well, what do I do with
thirty years? Just keep going. They've paid for themselves.
Speaker 3 (23:07):
Even some of the old Science Fair projects, they're still working.
So I'm assuming if you're using better glass, you're using
better components on the inside. You probably are using materials
that are coded or are molecularly structured for.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
U V rays, right, that's dirrect, everything's 'V rated. Yeah,
so we're expecting our products to last forty to fifty
years or more.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
Okay, what's the warranty.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
So the warranty on hours are thirty years. I personally
own a set of panels that are thirty years old.
They produce energy every single day, so they can do it,
and we'll do it with just you know, no maintenance whatsoever.
Speaker 3 (23:46):
So just so we're clear because we're running out of
time at them. But you guys can show all of
the numbers and all of the research because the lion's
share of your people are engineers. Absolutely, they're not solar installers,
they're engineers have installers. Well, but what I'm saying is
you're going to be talking to somebody that understands this
stuff and can't explain it. You're very good at explaining it,
(24:07):
by the way. You don't talk in a lot of
industry jargon and things like that makes it and you
can show the numbers and all of that. Well, we
wanted to talk a little bit about today. It's not
just a residential thing, and it's not just a large
business thing, but there's medium and small businesses that can
benefit as well.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
Correct.
Speaker 3 (24:22):
Absolutely so, if somebody's actually thinking, hey, you know what
I just want to you're okay with just going and
talking to people. You don't have to pre qualify them
over the phone, get a credit card number, any of that.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
Right now, the easiest thing is just send us the
thing through our website What's Up Engineering dot com. We'll
go in there, We'll give you a call and say, hey,
we need some utility bills from us. You send us
the bills, we analyze it, send it back, say here's
what we think we can save you. Here's how much
it's going to cost. So it's all without having to
do really anything super involved with the owners.
Speaker 3 (24:50):
I'm thinking about that thing they used to put around
people's neck that I've fallen and I've fallen and I
can't get right that. What was it called alert something? Yeah,
but they always said no salesman will call right. So
you're going to get all this information without really having
to deal with anybody if you don't want right correct,
But if you do want to, then you can call right.
Speaker 1 (25:08):
Yeah. Absolutely, We've done quotes that are completely hands free,
where they send us the data all over the web,
We send everything back. We've signed the paperwork, closed the
whole deal all remotely.
Speaker 3 (25:17):
Adam, thanks for coming in. I want to talk to
you some more in the future about some of the
generator stuff too that you guys do, because I think
you can incorporate this all together and absolutely really almost
be off the grid. Right we have those yeah, yeah,
all right. Thanks for coming in on a Sunday spending
some time with the Guru. I appreciate it. It's always
fascinating to talk to you. All right. We will talk
again next week on News Talk eleven thirty WISN
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