March 21, 2025 • 39 mins
CDBIA HOUR 03/21/25. With Todd Sufferling in, for Donna.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
News Radio fifteen eighty one hundred point nine FMN on
your iHeart radio app. This is the CDBIA hour. And
and for Dona Barrett, it's Todd Sufferling. Todd, how you
doing doing good?
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Ken?
Speaker 1 (00:19):
It's been here been a minute now. We've known each
other for about twenty eight years, correct when we first
moved here. And so tell us what you're doing these
days and what's going on at the CDBIA. And you
are also you're in the solar business.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Now, I am. So the CDBI is busy as usual
taking care of contractors and homeowners here in Charlotte Cisoto County.
The business is still strong. We're still recovering from the
past hurricanes, plus adding new neighborhoods and people to the area.
So the construction business is strong and looks very strong
for the next however many years. Yeah. I've been in
the solar business since about two tenty nineteen. We have
(01:01):
a company called S seven Solar. We want to be
the local source for battery backup systems and solar systems
in the area as opposed to people coming in from
out of town.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Yeah, yeah, So tell us about it. What type of
solar panels and battery backups.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
So we sell, all sell and service all major brands
where Tesla in Phase, Solar, Edge, Solarc, iron Ridge, Franklin
Home Grid and Pipes certified, which are some of the
major players in both the solar system industry and the
battery backup systems. So we're certified in all of those,
we sell and service them. We take it from start
to finish. We're not just a sales organization. We're actually
(01:37):
a certified solar contractor registered with the state. We're a
local company and that's where in our claim to fame.
So after the storms, we've really taken pride that we've
helped out a lot of people who couldn't get service
from either out of business solar companies or out of
the area solar companies after we've had the storms come through.
So the biggest part of our business is word of
(01:59):
mouth and referral, not so much. We don't have any
door knockers. We don't have people knocking on your door,
blowing up your email inbox or your telephone line. We
have people that know us and refer us and then
that leads to another customer. So basically the old thing
where they tell two friends and they tell two friends.
So that's been how we based our business to try
to good ethical practices.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
Yeah, so what made you get into a solar?
Speaker 2 (02:22):
So we like the idea of having control of our
own power. So I've always been a technical person, having
honxmen in the marine corps. My wife was in the
commercial construction business. And you actually use take care of
Charlotte County's energy systems with updating LED lighting, insulation, more
efficient HVAC. So I wouldn't say it was green. It
(02:44):
was more of a way to take care of things
properly and to be efficient and to take advantage of
any kind of incentives that are out there from the federal, state,
local governments and power companies and make your life better.
But basically to take control of your own energy instead
of relying on a large corporation FPL or the vaguaries
of you know, another Middle East war, something that causes
(03:04):
the price of energy to spike, or if you have
your own energy, you're in control. You know, they talk
about you know, buy once, cry once. Yeah, So once
you own it, you own it, and you can you
can count on that to take care of you down
the road. And then with the advent of battery backup
systems instead of generators, especially with all the storms we've
been having, it made a lot of sense. So that's
how I kind of got into it. We saw the opportunity.
(03:26):
We had heard all the complaints from people about how
this guy's knocking on my door forty two times, or
people over promised or write out lied about what their
solar system was going to do, and we were there
to kind of pick up the pieces or to provide
a straight answer to someone that made more sense. So
that's how we've built our business.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
So you've been doing this a while now, how did
how did solar systems kind of fair? We've had several
hurricanes over the summer. How'd that go?
Speaker 2 (03:49):
That's a major concern and in a lot of ways
it's been smoothed over and a suaged I'm not just
sure have you say that word? Yes, by the fact
we've had the hurricanes and people have seen that their
neighbors solar panels have stayed on on the roof. The
older stuff, you know, ten or more years old, probably
was under different codes, didn't fare as well. But because
of experience, almost everything we provide and almost everybody in
(04:10):
the area provides meets the Miami Dade codes, which is
one hundred and eighty mile an hour plus hurricanes or
wins that they're supposed to hold up to. I think
Charlotte County is one hundred and fifty miles an hour.
Sarsoda County is the same that we have to make
it up to. They held up really really well. A
panel here and there, but no massive destruction of this stuff.
That's to the newer codes. Very comfortable having on a
roof where the ground mount it hold up extremely extremely well,
(04:34):
usually in many cases better than the roof itself because
the way it's mounted to the roof it actually provides
additional structural integrity. So very very well. And I've had
a lot of people say, hey, now that I've seen
my neighbors go through three hurricanes, I'm comfortable putting on
my roof.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
Now with a battery backup. You do get you're going
to have power if the grid goes down for a while, right.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
So what happens is, and it's a common thing, just
backing up just a second, a lot of people think
they're going to have power because they have solar panels
on their roof.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
Well, you have.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
You have to have the battery to do it. But
a lot of people have been told by those you know,
less than ethical salespeople knocking on their door, ye oh yeah,
you'll have power forever. So but you do have to
have a battery. The battery backups used to be quite
a bit more expensive than they are now they've come
down quite a bit in price and reliability. I harken
it back to the computer days when they told you
the computer in the nineteen eighties is going to do
(05:22):
everything but tie your shoes. Well, now it is, you know,
with the advent of AI and as they've progressed now
the solar energy systems have gotten better where they do
what they're supposed to do. So the concept is you
can either back up part of your house or your
whole house instead of having a backup generator, and then
as long as the sun comes back out, it can
recharge you almost indefinitely and provide power to those systems.
(05:45):
So generally after a hurricane comes through, we have nice
clear weather. So if you've got it where it can
provide it just on battery power for a day or two,
you're going to have sun come back out and recharge
your system, so you can go almost indefinitely. So God
forbid we have something more intense than a hurricane or
there's some kind of nationwide or worldwide issue that causes
power outages. You can control yourself and have power for
(06:06):
your house and your family.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
There you go. And uh, what about any safety issues
with the.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
Batteries Again, like a lot of things, they yeah, other
things have progress. They've changed the chemistry of most of
the batteries that they're putting in, where maybe the old days,
you would open up a little battery pack on some
kind of gee dunk you got from China and you
could poke a hole in the battery and would fizz
and catch on fire and scare the yes pants off you.
So they've gone to a more solid chemistry where you
(06:35):
could actually expose it to moisture and air and it
doesn't cause a fire all on its own like anything
else that's that's made by man. If it burns, it's
going to cause some issues, but nothing more so than
other systems. And they put a lot of safety into
the manufacture and also the permitting process to protect you
in your home, things like having a smoke detector in
(06:55):
your garage as part of the code.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
Now all right, Hey, we got to take our first break.
We'll be right back with more on news Radio fifteen
eighty News Radio fifteen eighty one hundred point nine f M.
This is the CDBIA Hour with Donna Barrett. And for
Donna Barrett, it's Todd Sufferling from S seven Solar, also
(07:18):
involved with the CDBIA, also involved with the FCA. So
how's that going.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
It's going really well. It's great. The FCA's the Fellowship
of Christian Athletes and I think a lot of you
your viewers may know Tom.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
Parker, yeah, and been on the show FC.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
I was an FCA as a high school kid and
through college and it really had a great impact on
my life. They say, in big part of what we
do at FCA is we work with coaches, because coaches
have an outside impact on people's lives the rest of
your life. I think most people can think back to
their coaches all the way back through little league, middle school,
and high school and college if you had the ability
(07:56):
to play sports in college. And so that's a great
thing we do in the area. We're actually had a
golf tournament on the last weekend of the month to
raise money in funds to continue the outreach.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
There as we sold out, don't you We are.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
Almost sold out, not quite, so you want to come
and attend and you can always donate. And then we
had an event at the Charlotte County Stadium two weeks
ago where we had several of the Raised players come
speak to us and had a little worship music after
after the game, and that was very enlighten. He had
about four hundred and fifty people there. Next year we're
trying to go for over a thousand.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
Awesome.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
That's a great thing.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
Awesome. So back to Solar. You don't have your marketing
team doesn't consist of a bunch of kids with clipboards
knocking on my door? Is it?
Speaker 2 (08:37):
So you're speaking to the marketing team. Actually, that's not true.
I do have a marketing assistant that assists me, but
Steve Moore is behind the scenes. No, we don't do
the door knocking. The door knockers helped me a lot
because they stir up people and there's some things they
want to verify after they've been start up, and they'll
ask around and say who you know is this true?
And someone will say, you know, Todd knows give him
(08:59):
a call, will call me up and I'll deal with
whatever that system is. So quite a bit of our
business comes from that. But we don't go knock on
people's doors. We don't bother people, we don't, we don't.
We try not to irritate anybody.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
There's enough business.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
There's enough business. We just want to provide a service
for people, both for something new and something existing as
it goes down the road.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
Excellent, excellent. So you know, it's for a lot of people.
They're starting to look at solar now because the electric
bills just seem months, you know, keep going up. What's
up with that? And I hear that FPL is looking
for another rating.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
Yeah, I saw an article the other day. They're looking
for their largest rate increase in history, just like everything else.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
Then don't they have enough new customers coming in to
make up for it.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
You would think, But what they'll say is that because
of the new customers, they have to add additional capacity
and to the system, and then that's going to cost money,
and we all get to bear the cost of that
moving forward. And then you'll also notice every time there
is a storm or something happens in the in the
world that changes things, they can add fuel charges to
the system. So that one of the big reasons we
like solar is because if you own your own power generation,
(10:03):
you know what your set cost is going to be.
You can budget more effectively for that, and at one point,
at some point, you'll actually own it, you know, outright,
or you'll have a payback on what you did. Solar
systems take seven to nine years to pay back on average,
and that can vary depends on what you get and
how much you get, of course, but after that period
of time, you know you can Basically a lot of
people call it free solar. Well, nothing's free. But once
(10:25):
you've done that, you've at your sunk cost and you're
good to go for a long period of time.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
But yeah, the free solar. You keep hearing commercials. I
keep getting a mailer's free solar. It's free.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
Nothing in life that's it's free. It's your right, the
old thing. There is no free lunch. So basically what
the concept of that is is if you can replace
your electric bill with a solar payment that's equal to
or less in your bill, they call it free. Well
it's not, you know, because there's nothing free out there.
So you know, if somebody's saying that you know lesson,
know them for a little bit and then then give
us a call and we'll give you the straight scoop.
(10:59):
You get what you pay for in life, and it
is a good value, but it's not free. Unfortunately. It
does cost money to have energy for your home.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
And again you say the return on investment essentially about
seven and nine years.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
What it's seven to nine years is the average. I've
had businesses pay off in less than four years because
of some additional incentives with the federal taxes and depreciation
on the equipment. But for the average home owner, it's
seven to nine years to get your recoup your investment
in the solar compared to your electric bill, and after
that you move in forward. There are some additional incentives
that it does increase the value your home as well,
(11:34):
so you don't even count that into the seven to
nine years. If you might get more money for the house.
National Association of Realtors says that's about four percent of
the value your home to recruit that at the sale.
If you do get out of it, you know at
some point down the road it does provide additional value
to the next home owner.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
Yeah, yeah, I would think it would. And what about
you know the I mean, the panels have come so far,
you know, since twenty thirty years ago, and even then
they had pretty good life. How long do the new panels?
What kind of a life can people expect that?
Speaker 2 (12:09):
Well, the manufacturers on the panels, we sell warranty them
for twenty five years that they'll produce ninety two to
ninety four percent of the power they originally generated. So
I would say conservatively their lifespans at least twenty five
years of the manufacturers wereling to warranty. That. There's been
a lot of play on social media that you know
that the panels only last five ten years, that flip
(12:30):
back and then you're putting when you're an evil.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
Because homemade panels and that.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
You're providing all this heavy metals and all these dangerous
components into the landfill. No more dangerous than a flat
screen TV. You know, we would prefer not to provide
any waste in the world, but that's what happens when
you when you do things but nothing.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
And there are companies in Europe that are starting to
learn how to actually recycle.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
Recycle when they do that, and they recoup the metals
because it is worth something, So that helps down the road.
But that's a concern that you know, a lot of
solar has almost become political due to the visions in
the company. It used to be real pro and con
seem to be switching, especially watch the Elon Musk Oh.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
Yeah, oh yes, you can't buy tesla.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
Well, well, it used to be that if you were conservative.
You know, Elon Musk is, you know, promulgating green this
and green that and evs and solar panels, and now
it's flipped. Elon Musk is a is a hero of
conservatives and a demon of the left. So it's pretty
amazing the switch and how that happens, and how people
some people's opinions of what solar does or what green
energy does down the road. So I look at it
(13:38):
a more personal basis. Is going to save me money,
It's going to make my family's life better?
Speaker 1 (13:42):
Exactly? I don't and especially here after a hurricane.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
You know, it's amazing. A large part of our business
right now is adding batteries to people who already have
the sol because the solar it was pretty expensive investment.
They didn't want to provide that extra money for the batteries,
but now they're looking at it compared to the cost
of solar a generator like a full home standby system,
it's very favorable. Beside which it does get a thirty
(14:07):
percent tax credit. We have a system right now the
tax credits or solar generator on your roof for you know,
about twenty thousand dollars less a six thousand dollars federal
tax credit. So for about fourteen thousand dollars, you can
add solar panels and a backup generator or backup battery
to your house in lieu of a and lieu of
a backup generator, and then you always have power moving
forward for as long as you want to keep the home.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
Now, what about what's the warranty on the batteries.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
The batteries are ten to twenty years, depends on the
manufacturing pretty good, but usually it's based there's a time
component and there's a cycle component. So six thousand to
seventy five hundred complete cycles of the battery from start
to finish. You're not doing it every day, you're only
doing it if in the outages. So if you were
to do it just ten to twelve years, if you
used it all day, every day, but if you're only
(14:53):
using it partially, you should be expected to match up
to your solar panels in excess to twenty five years.
So the chemistry's really improved. Like a a lot of
things electronic, it's gotten better over time and it provides
a better service to you as the homeowner.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
Now we hear all the time about Tesla, but there's
other brands as well.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
There are Tesla is the big name, they're about fifty
percent of the market, and then in Phase is another manufacturer.
Solar Edge is another manufacturer, Solarc iron Ridge, So there's
any number of manufacturers, any number of rabbit holes you
can dive down. We try and to use the main
manufacturers because they are the most solid companies out there,
(15:31):
and that your warrant to be good. The warranty is
only as good as the company backing it up. So
if you have a good, solid company with plenty of money,
you can kind of hope that they'll be around for
quite a while and then made your name brand that
you recognize, especially if they're more diversified. Whatever the installer does,
you know, that's kind of problematic, so you really need
to rely on the manufacturer's warranties because that'll provide the
(15:54):
biggest chunk of costs that may be an issue down
the road, and they're relatively long warranties, much longer than
most people stay in their home.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
Hm. Well, you can, and you can also not only
get it on your roof. Say some people might have
certain kind of funky roof of their houses facing away
to where they It might be on a ground or
on a post, but you know, correct put it somewhere else.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
The most popular thing people have been doing now is
putting on outbuildings. A lot of people have those secondary
garages at their home. They'll put it on the secondary
garage or the metal building or the a frames, or
we'll do straight ground mounts if there's enough property involved
for that. So but quite a few people, because of costs,
after exploring all those, will still put it on the
roof because they get the mounting systems are so much
(16:39):
better than they were in years past. But we have
a lot of ways to do it again. The the
barns or outbuildings have been very very popular because there's
a lot of space and they're usually situated without any
trees or anything near them. And and that helps get
a lot of power generation for people at the lowest cost.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
That's awesome. How can people find you?
Speaker 2 (16:58):
Well, the easiest way is we have a website and
it's www dot S sevensolarfl dot com. So it's the
letter S. The number seven solar FL is in Florida
dot com or Todd at S sevensolarfl dot com. Or
my phone number is nine four to one three eight
zero two one two zero. So a lot of ways
(17:20):
I wish I could just be S sevensolar dot com.
But the day I provided the business, someone from Pakistan
took my website.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
That's always the way, and it's kind of always the way. Well,
we got about a minute and a half here before
we have to head up to the top of the
hour news. Today is the twenty first of March, and
we're celebrating National Future Generations Day. Okay, whatever that is?
National Memory Day, don't forget National Countdown Day? What is that?
(17:53):
National Countdown Day? Ticks down the minutes, seconds, or days
to big events in small.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
Okay, that's pretty intense.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
It's kind of vague. Really, Here we go, this is
it National French Bread Day. There we go a little
tasty tasty one. National California Strawberry Day like the Florida ones.
But I'll take California National Fragrance Day one for the ladies.
National Single Parent Day, National Common Courtesy Day. So be
(18:27):
nice to the single parents as you're enjoying strawberries and
French bread. Today.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
Sounds like a deal.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
We got to take a break. We'll be back after
the top of the hour News with more. We're talking
with Todd suffering from S seven solar, part of the FCA,
part of the cd B I A Hour. Donna is
up in Tallahassee with her daughter showing looking around.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
I guess meeting all the people there.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
I guess I'm seeing pictures of Donna's daughter with famous.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
People, so many of which are from FARNA account.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
Yes, all right, we'll be back News Radio fifteen eighty
one hundred point nine FM and on the iHeartRadio app.
(19:23):
This is the CDBI A Hour with Donna Barrett. Donna's
up in Tallahassee right now, and for Donna's Todd sufferling
with S seven solar and we're what's the whole deal
with selling my electricity back to the net metering or
(19:44):
whatever that is? Explain that explain that to people who
might not understand me being one of them.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
Oh, absolutely, So it is a little confusing, you mean
to me sometimes. So solar a lot of acronyms, a
lot of words, and net metering is one that's been
talked about and bandied about a lot. Really affects the
payback of your solar installation. So in the state of Florida,
if a power is available, you have to hook up
to the grid. It's by state law, and whoever the
(20:12):
monopoly is in the area, that's who you have to
took your power up. Our area generally is fpl out
into Soto. They have piece of Electric co Op, Lee
County Cooperative, any number duke power, that type of thing.
If you're a publicly traded company in the state of Florida,
you have to provide net metering at a one to
one basis to your customers. So what that means is
(20:34):
during the day you're going to produce more power than
you're using because the sun is shining and you're pumping
power out at a greater rate than you can use
in your house. So instead of wasting it, they send
it back to the grid and it powers your neighbor's home,
and it's power that doesn't have to be generated by
the utility, So they give you a credit of a
killo wad hour. For every killer white hour you send them,
they give you a credit for that killowad hour. So
(20:56):
then at night, as the sun goes down, you don't
have to use your battery. You can drop power back
off the grid. And then if it nets out that
you used a little more than you produced, you owe
them some money. If you produce more, they owe you
a little bit of money. Now, at the end of
the year, for the publicly traded companies, they have to
pay you back only the cost of generation, which is
(21:17):
interesting because it's only about a third of what they're
charging you, so that it's not a good deal to
overpower your house. But on a month to month basis,
if you use and tech, you can bank that from
month to month until at the end of the year,
where they have to pay you back any money they
owe you on a monthly basis, Like my electric bill
is twenty seven dollars a month because I produce more
(21:37):
than I use every month, so it's only twenty seven.
That's the basic charge you have to pay. Places like
Peace River Electric co Op. They don't have to do
it quite the same. So out there it makes sense
to have a battery because they only pay you back
the cost to generate. They give you money instead of
the kilowatts. So it's not as good of a deal
for those customers unless they have a battery backup system.
Customers I have out there basically live like they're off
(22:00):
using their batteries even though they're hooked up to the grid,
and it saves some money down the road. So basically,
the FPL can serve as your battery during normal times
that you can use again at night, and that lets
you put the panels on your house and provides your
net the net zero electric bill to you other than
the minimum charge. Hope that helped a little bit.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
A little bit a little bit. Hey, So, uh, let's
and we're speaking hypothetically, because only one of those one
of these things I would have. I'm in a house
with solar and a battery backup and I have a
lucid EV marked in the driveway. That's all, you know. So, uh,
(22:39):
how's that power from the.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
Yeah, one of the most exciting things I've seen come
down the road in quite a while. Is the fact
that we might be that we can charge our home
and use our electric vehicle as a backup battery for
the home. Really the size of the elect the battery
and the electric vehicles dwarfs.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
Then you're kind of stranded, right though.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
No, well, you're gonna have a batter back up in
your home place. You have a larger mobile backup battery
on your car.
Speaker 1 (23:04):
So how long can you get at it?
Speaker 2 (23:06):
Some of them up to a week?
Speaker 1 (23:08):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (23:08):
The actually, if you put a pencil to some of
the cars out there, like the Chevy bowlt things like that,
it's cheap. They're cheaper to buy them just as a
backup battery in your home than maybe buying a backup
battery from home. And you get the addition of a
car with it. So it's it's pretty interesting.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
Do you have to re rig the house?
Speaker 2 (23:23):
You do have to have a certain type of setup
into the house. And right now what's happening. It works
with like Ford Lightnings and some other types of cars
that are specifically made for it, with specific systems.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
He might well use it as a backup.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
I have a Ford Lightning. I've put twelve thousand pounds
with it. How far so one hundred miles really, so
yes for you. I will tell you that the towing
is probably bad. I can do three hundred and twenty
miles with my truck without it about one hundred miles towing.
It's a seven thousand pound trailer. But I power my
forward lightning from my rooftop, so I'm saving about I
was spending five to six hundred dollars a month on game.
Doesn't take.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
It doesn't take any big draw.
Speaker 2 (23:59):
It does, it's a huge draw, but I have enough
panels on my roof to support my forward lightning. So
every day I start out with a full tank of gas.
I used I had some range anxiety when I started,
because like, oh my god, I can't go seven hundred miles.
But realistically I'm driving two to three hundred miles in
an average day, which is well within the thing. And
I start every day with a full tank of gas.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
So there you go.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
And I'm drinking a lot less Red Bulls because I'm
not stopping at the gas station all the time my truck.
So to help my social life, you know, you could.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
Just go in there and buy like alkaline water, do something,
but not.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
The American way. But no, it's a it is interesting.
They're they're working through all of the back and forth
between the automotive manufacturers, the gridman, the good people, and
the yeah person.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
But it's starting to become universal plugs.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
Yes, yeah, they're starting to come together. The twenty twenty
three they announce you're going to do more of the
bi directional from your truck to your home or your
car to your home. They're getting all the standards out
where they make faith with the EUL so that the
liability is attained and that it is safe to do.
And it's a it's a great deal, and almost all
the systems can be retrofitted.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
It's a great idea.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
It is an awesome idea. So I have a you know,
enough power in my home to go a day and
a half or two days with no sun and then
I can plug my truck and get another six or
seven days. So but the sun usually comes back out
during that.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
Time here it's rare.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
Get winter. I think December a year ago we had
a we had a fourteen day stretch with very very
little sun. And that's the only time I've had any
issues with the people that are trying to rely primarily
on their off off grid batteries. So in generally it's
a great place to have solar. We have more sun
than anybody, so let's put it to you.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
That's for sure. That's for sure. And I and I'm
a huge propos I'm not a big fan of the
solar farms. I'm a huge proponent of people putting it
on their homes because I think that's where it belongs,
and that's where people are going to get the most savings.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
You know, I want to I want to control my
own power exactly.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
You know.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
I have a lot of a lot of different varying
types of customers from a lot of varying different backgrounds.
The reasons they get they get solar. Some do people
do because they want to be kind of the environment
going forward, some people because they want to save money,
some people because they want to be in control of
their own power, and a mixture of all three. Because
you can accomplish more than one thing at a time
with the same system. So having your power on your home,
(26:15):
you own it, ConTroll I get notices all the time.
I can get solar from the power company if I
just want to invest in their solar farm. And I'm
like you want me to pay for your solar farm,
pay for my own solar farm. Because now I own it,
it's mine. I can do what I want to with
it and any power that's generated over time. One of
the big secrets of the solar making sense is that
power will continue to go up with inflation. Once you
(26:36):
own your system, there is no more inflation because you
own the generation plant. There's very little maintenance on a
solar farm. There's very little you have to do maintain
it to keep it going. Same with batteries. It's not
an engine that you have to keep going. One nice
thing about the batteries and the solar panels you don't
have to have someone come out and maintain it on
a weekly, monthly, quarterly, annually basis. It just works. It's electronic. Yeah,
(26:57):
flip a switch and it goes.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
I mean you're going to want to depending on what
type of situation you are. With trees, you're gonna want
to from yeah, and keep those panels clean.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
But they've actually gotten it. It's not as big of
a deal as it used to be. Solar panels used
to be like Christmas tree lights. If one had a problem,
they all had a problem. But the way they've manufactured now,
and with the voltage optimizers, it doesn't have as big
an effect on the entire strength. So if one panel
is affected by shade, the rest of its continues to
work it and.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
You can be alerted to that absolutely.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
Let you know, everything's very computerized, very smooth, and you're
you're in control of your own error. You can see
what's happening on a second. But some people live on
their app They really enjoy that. There's a lot.
Speaker 1 (27:37):
Hey look at this. Look at me, I've got to put.
Speaker 2 (27:40):
My solar end in my battery. You find yourself looking
at it all the time. This is so cool. I
like this. I'm up to eight point nine kilos cool.
It's kind of fun.
Speaker 1 (27:49):
We got to take another break. We'll be right back
on news Radio fifteen eighty News Radio fifteen eighty one
hundred point nine f MWCCF eight eighteen. Here and you're
listening to the Cdbia Hour with Donna Barrett. Donna's out
(28:11):
of town. Todd Sufferling is in in her Steed and
he's from S seven Solar been around since twenty nineteen.
Once again your info.
Speaker 2 (28:22):
Well S seven Soldar's been here since twenty nineteen. I've
been here since nineteen sixty five. Yeah, so I have
a Florida boy born in Bress. You are, and I
grew up in Saraceta County. But seven Solar has been
around since twenty nineteen, and we want to be a
local source for solar. It's working out real well because
we're a little different than the big major companies that
come in. I call them carpetbaggers because we want to
(28:45):
take care of you. We want to build our business
by word of mouth. We want to have two friends,
have a friend, tell two friends.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
Yeah, and what is that? There's so many solar companies
that start and then they go under so quick.
Speaker 2 (28:55):
Why you think it seems quick? But they come in.
They had a lot of public money that got into
the solar business. Interest rates were low, and they could
come in and tell people they are getting free solar
because they could keep their payment the same as their
electric bill. It's pretty easy sell. If I would come
to you and say, hey, I know you're paying three
hundred and fifty dollars a month for your electric bill.
For three hundred dollars a month, I can get you
solar panels and you don't have an electric bill anymore,
(29:17):
so pretty easy sell. But as the interest rates went up,
it became even or a little bit more expensive to
add the solar panels on the short term, and that
kind of fell apart, and a lot of the public
money ran out and they didn't have enough. They were
too far invested into the system, and they'd over promised,
under delivered, and they just couldn't keep up when they
ran out of money. Five of the top ten major
companies in the US went out of business in the
(29:38):
last three years. That's left a lot of people hanging.
So we're picking up a lot of service work for
people where they just need could be a minor thing
or a major thing, and the company that they originally
started with is either no longer in business or unresponsive.
So we can come in and take care of the
manufacturers warranty for you, get you back up to speed,
make you feel a little better about your system, maybe
upgrade some panels or a battery, and move on. That's
a great part of our business. Now. It's a little
(30:00):
cumbersome and a little sticky sometimes, but we get to
the bottom of it and make things better for the customer.
Speaker 1 (30:05):
Awesome and you've been with the cd b i A
for a while.
Speaker 2 (30:09):
We are, My wife's a past president, and it's a
great organization and it's great for both the building industry
and especially the consumer because you can contact the cdbi
A if you need a referral for a contractor's that's
recognized in the area and has a good reputation providing
great work for you. If you need an electrician, a builder,
you know, you name the trade, they'll give you a referral.
(30:31):
If you have an issue or a complaint, you can
contact them. Sometimes they can cut through some of the
red tape and get you what you need when you
need and they do a good, great job for the area.
If you're a business, they're a great resource of referrals.
We like to do business with people that are part
of the cdbi A because they've been vetted and we
know that they care about the community and they can
help us all, you know, build our community stronger down
the road and take care of what we need done immediately.
Speaker 1 (30:53):
And you guys do stuff too. I mean, you have
a lot of fun like coming up April first, you
got a little get together over J and J one
stop gun shop and do some target shooting.
Speaker 2 (31:03):
My wife got to do that for the first time
and I'm a little scared of her now. She did
a great job. And they have corn hole tournaments, we
did the parade, We had the paray to homes just recently,
which I think was a big hit for people. And
they do we provide a lot of I don't know
people I don't know, but the building industry is the
major source of sales, tax revenue and tax revenue in
(31:25):
the county, so there's a big impact on what's going
on in the area. And very proud of the organization.
All they do to keep us all safe.
Speaker 1 (31:33):
Awesome. So getting back to incentives, are there still the
good tax incentives to induce somebody to buy solar? There are.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
There's a thirty percent federal tax credit for the solar industry.
So now there's you were to spend twenty thousand dollars
on a solar backup generator system, You're going to receive
back approximately six thousand dollars. It's a federal tax credit.
So that was actually dollar for dollars, not not a
write down of that amount of money where you only
stay that percentage, but you actually get that money back.
(32:04):
It makes it much more affordable for the average homeowner
and helps us to move the industry forward. Something on
the horizon, though we don't know how long that'll stay.
It's slated to stay for another great period of time,
but that's subject to change, just like anything else out there.
And also there's tariffs on a lot of the products
coming from outside the country. There's also been there's been
(32:25):
some price increases of the components that has been passed
on to us. We have not had to pass that
on to the consumer yet, but we can see that
down the road as that continues. Hopefully that's a short
term problem. And they are ramping up the domestic manufacturing,
which is awesome, so that will help us. We like
to use US made product whenever possible, and we really
(32:46):
focus in on that.
Speaker 1 (32:48):
A lot of people after you know, the hurricanes and
whatnot that we've had recently got a brand new roof,
but they're considering solar and they're worried about you know,
maybe the roof.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
Well, it's a great time to do it. The newer
the roof, the better because you don't have to worry
about taking them on and off again. If you have
to redo your roof, the technology of the roof attachments
has increased along with the code on it. That leakages
very very very very very very seldom a problem. They
actually provide additional attachment points to the roof to hold
the roof down because you have more hardware through the roof.
(33:23):
We have attachment systems from metal roofs that don't even
involve penetrating the roof the same for tile roofs. We
have attachment systems that don't penetrate the roof in any way,
shape or form. So it's a great way to do it.
And then the proofs in the pudding, you know, you
look at the fruit of what happens. And in the
less hurricanes, the newer systems have held up extremely well.
No mass amounts of panels flying all over the place.
Speaker 1 (33:41):
Yeah, there's a few that I drive by a lot
and everything was still.
Speaker 2 (33:47):
Sometimes you'll see the roof is destroyed around the panels,
but the panels were all still there, and they're still
working after the storm too. And then the way they've
been there redundant. So even if a single panel or
a couple of panels get damaged by flying debris, the
rest of the panels are still pretty and power for
the homeowner. And the system's not not like deal Christmas
tree strings where you lose one and the lights go out. Yeah,
and it's so very very redundant, very solid, very comfortable.
(34:08):
By promising that you're going to be happy with your
system after a hurricane or a major storm goes on
as well.
Speaker 1 (34:14):
And once again to give us your throw your info
out there.
Speaker 2 (34:18):
Sure, my name's Todd Sufferling, and it's like suffering with
an L in the middle. Yeah, I've said that a
few times in my life. I get mail from Todd Susserling,
you name it. But anyway, the website is www dot
the letter s the number seven Solar s O L
A R F L is in Florida dot com. So
www dot s Sevensolar fl dot com. My phone numbers
(34:40):
nine four one three eight zero two one two zero.
Speaker 1 (34:45):
And for more info on the C d b i
A just log onto c D B i A dot com.
Speaker 2 (34:50):
I'm glad you knew that.
Speaker 1 (34:54):
And there are all kinds of great links there right there.
And again, if you're if you're looking for a handyman,
or you're looking for if you want to vet someone
that you're considering using for some of the projects around
your house. Please give a call. They'll and and if
you're looking for a recommendation for one, give the CDBI.
Speaker 2 (35:13):
And if you're a local contractor there's not a member,
I suggest, yeah.
Speaker 1 (35:16):
Become a member. It's a great one. It's a great
networking and wind up building your business right off, your
contracting business or your handyman business by just being a member. Absolutely,
and I would imagine your business absolutely.
Speaker 2 (35:31):
A great part of the success of our business has
been referrals from the CDBI. We're actually doing work for
some of the home builders before or after construction and.
Speaker 1 (35:38):
H are Yeah. I was going to ask that are
some builders putting a solar on spec homes.
Speaker 2 (35:44):
They're putting them on spec homes. They're putting them on
homes that are provided custom built homes. It's a very
popular option to have the battery back up I will
imagine built in at the time and that provides a
great saving to the home runner down the road.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
So what's the biggest house you've done so far?
Speaker 2 (35:59):
Your biggest probably we did ninety one solar panels and
eighty kilowatt hours of batteries on a on a home.
They had a nine hundred dollars electric bill that we've
taken care of for them. That's a huge number of
a huge number of panels, provides a lot of power.
Very happy customer that that's a big house. And then
(36:19):
we do some like commercial, but that's a whole different ballower.
Speaker 1 (36:22):
Yeah, that is.
Speaker 2 (36:22):
Yeah, we can do businesses as well. Now the business
is what's interesting about that is not only can they
get the thirty percent federal tax credit there and some
adders to that too, there's some additional savings due to
rapid depreciation like everything else. So that's they can pay
that back very very very quickly and save a lot
of money in taxes, especially if they've had a really
good year and they need to spend some money.
Speaker 1 (36:40):
I can help them, all right, And once again, just
got a couple of minutes left, tell us a little
bit more. We got another event coming up with the FCA,
a golf.
Speaker 2 (36:50):
Turn FCIA has a golf tournament coming up at the
end of the month and we would love to have
you there. You go to the FCA website, they'll give
you all the information you need and it's for a
great We're helping young people find Jesus and uh that's
always a win for everybody.
Speaker 1 (37:05):
And yeah, there's what's their website, FCA Charlotte correct, I
think dot com? Yes, I'm trying to remember. Well, it's
a good scene again, it's been a.
Speaker 2 (37:18):
While, it has and hopefully we'll see each other sooner.
Speaker 1 (37:21):
So you watching any of the march madness at all?
Speaker 2 (37:23):
Just a little bit last night. I was kind of
find it fun and exciting. And my Gators are highly
ranked this year, so yeah, that continues.
Speaker 1 (37:31):
We had a bracket buster coming out with the number
twelve McNeese State. They beat number five Clemson. Never heard
of McNeese. See that's why I didn't fill out a bracket.
I don't know half these colleges.
Speaker 2 (37:45):
I read that the playing game costs like forty seven
percent of all the people. Oh rackets, that kind of
take away.
Speaker 1 (37:54):
Someho oh boy. Yeah, Number twelve McNeese State upset number
five Clemson. So oh it's in Lake Charles, Louisiana.
Speaker 2 (38:04):
Very interesting.
Speaker 1 (38:04):
Okay, we got an updated bracket.
Speaker 2 (38:08):
Here too, dare I look, everyone loves the Cunderella story.
Speaker 1 (38:16):
Yeah, that's true. Auburn and Creighton coming up, Michigan and
Texas coming up by you in Wisconsin, we got today
Duke mount Saint Mary's trying to look for Florida or
(38:36):
my Zags. Oh, here we are Florida and Norfolk six
point fifty tonight, number one Florida against number sixteen Norfolk.
Should be able to take them on handily. What hopes that?
All right? And then we've got my Zags are playing
Houston after beating Georgia eighty nine sixty eight.
Speaker 2 (39:03):
Here you go, Doug, he's quite.
Speaker 1 (39:07):
That was nice. So yeah, it's kind of fun. I like, uh,
you know, I'm not a big NBA fan, but I
like the I like watching the NCAA, especially my Zags
are Florida.
Speaker 2 (39:17):
Yeah. The one and done makes it very excited.
Speaker 1 (39:19):
Yeah, well, good seeing you again and once again S
seven Solar S seven Solar and the.
Speaker 2 (39:26):
Website www dot s sevensolarfl dot com.
Speaker 1 (39:31):
All right, you've been listening to c dB I a
hour with Donna Barrett, who's not here because she's up
in Tallahassee with her daughter. And we'll talk to you
on the CDB I a Hour again next month. Have
a great day,
News Radio fifteen eighty one hundred point nine FMN on
your iHeart radio app. This is the CDBIA hour. And
and for Dona Barrett, it's Todd Sufferling. Todd, how you
doing doing good?
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Ken?
Speaker 1 (00:19):
It's been here been a minute now. We've known each
other for about twenty eight years, correct when we first
moved here. And so tell us what you're doing these
days and what's going on at the CDBIA. And you
are also you're in the solar business.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Now, I am. So the CDBI is busy as usual
taking care of contractors and homeowners here in Charlotte Cisoto County.
The business is still strong. We're still recovering from the
past hurricanes, plus adding new neighborhoods and people to the area.
So the construction business is strong and looks very strong
for the next however many years. Yeah. I've been in
the solar business since about two tenty nineteen. We have
(01:01):
a company called S seven Solar. We want to be
the local source for battery backup systems and solar systems
in the area as opposed to people coming in from
out of town.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Yeah, yeah, So tell us about it. What type of
solar panels and battery backups.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
So we sell, all sell and service all major brands
where Tesla in Phase, Solar, Edge, Solarc, iron Ridge, Franklin
Home Grid and Pipes certified, which are some of the
major players in both the solar system industry and the
battery backup systems. So we're certified in all of those,
we sell and service them. We take it from start
to finish. We're not just a sales organization. We're actually
(01:37):
a certified solar contractor registered with the state. We're a
local company and that's where in our claim to fame.
So after the storms, we've really taken pride that we've
helped out a lot of people who couldn't get service
from either out of business solar companies or out of
the area solar companies after we've had the storms come through.
So the biggest part of our business is word of
(01:59):
mouth and referral, not so much. We don't have any
door knockers. We don't have people knocking on your door,
blowing up your email inbox or your telephone line. We
have people that know us and refer us and then
that leads to another customer. So basically the old thing
where they tell two friends and they tell two friends.
So that's been how we based our business to try
to good ethical practices.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
Yeah, so what made you get into a solar?
Speaker 2 (02:22):
So we like the idea of having control of our
own power. So I've always been a technical person, having
honxmen in the marine corps. My wife was in the
commercial construction business. And you actually use take care of
Charlotte County's energy systems with updating LED lighting, insulation, more
efficient HVAC. So I wouldn't say it was green. It
(02:44):
was more of a way to take care of things
properly and to be efficient and to take advantage of
any kind of incentives that are out there from the federal, state,
local governments and power companies and make your life better.
But basically to take control of your own energy instead
of relying on a large corporation FPL or the vaguaries
of you know, another Middle East war, something that causes
(03:04):
the price of energy to spike, or if you have
your own energy, you're in control. You know, they talk
about you know, buy once, cry once. Yeah, So once
you own it, you own it, and you can you
can count on that to take care of you down
the road. And then with the advent of battery backup
systems instead of generators, especially with all the storms we've
been having, it made a lot of sense. So that's
how I kind of got into it. We saw the opportunity.
(03:26):
We had heard all the complaints from people about how
this guy's knocking on my door forty two times, or
people over promised or write out lied about what their
solar system was going to do, and we were there
to kind of pick up the pieces or to provide
a straight answer to someone that made more sense. So
that's how we've built our business.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
So you've been doing this a while now, how did
how did solar systems kind of fair? We've had several
hurricanes over the summer. How'd that go?
Speaker 2 (03:49):
That's a major concern and in a lot of ways
it's been smoothed over and a suaged I'm not just
sure have you say that word? Yes, by the fact
we've had the hurricanes and people have seen that their
neighbors solar panels have stayed on on the roof. The
older stuff, you know, ten or more years old, probably
was under different codes, didn't fare as well. But because
of experience, almost everything we provide and almost everybody in
(04:10):
the area provides meets the Miami Dade codes, which is
one hundred and eighty mile an hour plus hurricanes or
wins that they're supposed to hold up to. I think
Charlotte County is one hundred and fifty miles an hour.
Sarsoda County is the same that we have to make
it up to. They held up really really well. A
panel here and there, but no massive destruction of this stuff.
That's to the newer codes. Very comfortable having on a
roof where the ground mount it hold up extremely extremely well,
(04:34):
usually in many cases better than the roof itself because
the way it's mounted to the roof it actually provides
additional structural integrity. So very very well. And I've had
a lot of people say, hey, now that I've seen
my neighbors go through three hurricanes, I'm comfortable putting on
my roof.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
Now with a battery backup. You do get you're going
to have power if the grid goes down for a while, right.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
So what happens is, and it's a common thing, just
backing up just a second, a lot of people think
they're going to have power because they have solar panels
on their roof.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
Well, you have.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
You have to have the battery to do it. But
a lot of people have been told by those you know,
less than ethical salespeople knocking on their door, ye oh yeah,
you'll have power forever. So but you do have to
have a battery. The battery backups used to be quite
a bit more expensive than they are now they've come
down quite a bit in price and reliability. I harken
it back to the computer days when they told you
the computer in the nineteen eighties is going to do
(05:22):
everything but tie your shoes. Well, now it is, you know,
with the advent of AI and as they've progressed now
the solar energy systems have gotten better where they do
what they're supposed to do. So the concept is you
can either back up part of your house or your
whole house instead of having a backup generator, and then
as long as the sun comes back out, it can
recharge you almost indefinitely and provide power to those systems.
(05:45):
So generally after a hurricane comes through, we have nice
clear weather. So if you've got it where it can
provide it just on battery power for a day or two,
you're going to have sun come back out and recharge
your system, so you can go almost indefinitely. So God
forbid we have something more intense than a hurricane or
there's some kind of nationwide or worldwide issue that causes
power outages. You can control yourself and have power for
(06:06):
your house and your family.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
There you go. And uh, what about any safety issues
with the.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
Batteries Again, like a lot of things, they yeah, other
things have progress. They've changed the chemistry of most of
the batteries that they're putting in, where maybe the old days,
you would open up a little battery pack on some
kind of gee dunk you got from China and you
could poke a hole in the battery and would fizz
and catch on fire and scare the yes pants off you.
So they've gone to a more solid chemistry where you
(06:35):
could actually expose it to moisture and air and it
doesn't cause a fire all on its own like anything
else that's that's made by man. If it burns, it's
going to cause some issues, but nothing more so than
other systems. And they put a lot of safety into
the manufacture and also the permitting process to protect you
in your home, things like having a smoke detector in
(06:55):
your garage as part of the code.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
Now all right, Hey, we got to take our first break.
We'll be right back with more on news Radio fifteen
eighty News Radio fifteen eighty one hundred point nine f M.
This is the CDBIA Hour with Donna Barrett. And for
Donna Barrett, it's Todd Sufferling from S seven Solar, also
(07:18):
involved with the CDBIA, also involved with the FCA. So
how's that going.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
It's going really well. It's great. The FCA's the Fellowship
of Christian Athletes and I think a lot of you
your viewers may know Tom.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
Parker, yeah, and been on the show FC.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
I was an FCA as a high school kid and
through college and it really had a great impact on
my life. They say, in big part of what we
do at FCA is we work with coaches, because coaches
have an outside impact on people's lives the rest of
your life. I think most people can think back to
their coaches all the way back through little league, middle school,
and high school and college if you had the ability
(07:56):
to play sports in college. And so that's a great
thing we do in the area. We're actually had a
golf tournament on the last weekend of the month to
raise money in funds to continue the outreach.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
There as we sold out, don't you We are.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
Almost sold out, not quite, so you want to come
and attend and you can always donate. And then we
had an event at the Charlotte County Stadium two weeks
ago where we had several of the Raised players come
speak to us and had a little worship music after
after the game, and that was very enlighten. He had
about four hundred and fifty people there. Next year we're
trying to go for over a thousand.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
Awesome.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
That's a great thing.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
Awesome. So back to Solar. You don't have your marketing
team doesn't consist of a bunch of kids with clipboards
knocking on my door? Is it?
Speaker 2 (08:37):
So you're speaking to the marketing team. Actually, that's not true.
I do have a marketing assistant that assists me, but
Steve Moore is behind the scenes. No, we don't do
the door knocking. The door knockers helped me a lot
because they stir up people and there's some things they
want to verify after they've been start up, and they'll
ask around and say who you know is this true?
And someone will say, you know, Todd knows give him
(08:59):
a call, will call me up and I'll deal with
whatever that system is. So quite a bit of our
business comes from that. But we don't go knock on
people's doors. We don't bother people, we don't, we don't.
We try not to irritate anybody.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
There's enough business.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
There's enough business. We just want to provide a service
for people, both for something new and something existing as
it goes down the road.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
Excellent, excellent. So you know, it's for a lot of people.
They're starting to look at solar now because the electric
bills just seem months, you know, keep going up. What's
up with that? And I hear that FPL is looking
for another rating.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
Yeah, I saw an article the other day. They're looking
for their largest rate increase in history, just like everything else.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
Then don't they have enough new customers coming in to
make up for it.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
You would think, But what they'll say is that because
of the new customers, they have to add additional capacity
and to the system, and then that's going to cost money,
and we all get to bear the cost of that
moving forward. And then you'll also notice every time there
is a storm or something happens in the in the
world that changes things, they can add fuel charges to
the system. So that one of the big reasons we
like solar is because if you own your own power generation,
(10:03):
you know what your set cost is going to be.
You can budget more effectively for that, and at one point,
at some point, you'll actually own it, you know, outright,
or you'll have a payback on what you did. Solar
systems take seven to nine years to pay back on average,
and that can vary depends on what you get and
how much you get, of course, but after that period
of time, you know you can Basically a lot of
people call it free solar. Well, nothing's free. But once
(10:25):
you've done that, you've at your sunk cost and you're
good to go for a long period of time.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
But yeah, the free solar. You keep hearing commercials. I
keep getting a mailer's free solar. It's free.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
Nothing in life that's it's free. It's your right, the
old thing. There is no free lunch. So basically what
the concept of that is is if you can replace
your electric bill with a solar payment that's equal to
or less in your bill, they call it free. Well
it's not, you know, because there's nothing free out there.
So you know, if somebody's saying that you know lesson,
know them for a little bit and then then give
us a call and we'll give you the straight scoop.
(10:59):
You get what you pay for in life, and it
is a good value, but it's not free. Unfortunately. It
does cost money to have energy for your home.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
And again you say the return on investment essentially about
seven and nine years.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
What it's seven to nine years is the average. I've
had businesses pay off in less than four years because
of some additional incentives with the federal taxes and depreciation
on the equipment. But for the average home owner, it's
seven to nine years to get your recoup your investment
in the solar compared to your electric bill, and after
that you move in forward. There are some additional incentives
that it does increase the value your home as well,
(11:34):
so you don't even count that into the seven to
nine years. If you might get more money for the house.
National Association of Realtors says that's about four percent of
the value your home to recruit that at the sale.
If you do get out of it, you know at
some point down the road it does provide additional value
to the next home owner.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
Yeah, yeah, I would think it would. And what about
you know the I mean, the panels have come so far,
you know, since twenty thirty years ago, and even then
they had pretty good life. How long do the new panels?
What kind of a life can people expect that?
Speaker 2 (12:09):
Well, the manufacturers on the panels, we sell warranty them
for twenty five years that they'll produce ninety two to
ninety four percent of the power they originally generated. So
I would say conservatively their lifespans at least twenty five
years of the manufacturers wereling to warranty. That. There's been
a lot of play on social media that you know
that the panels only last five ten years, that flip
(12:30):
back and then you're putting when you're an evil.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
Because homemade panels and that.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
You're providing all this heavy metals and all these dangerous
components into the landfill. No more dangerous than a flat
screen TV. You know, we would prefer not to provide
any waste in the world, but that's what happens when
you when you do things but nothing.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
And there are companies in Europe that are starting to
learn how to actually recycle.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
Recycle when they do that, and they recoup the metals
because it is worth something, So that helps down the road.
But that's a concern that you know, a lot of
solar has almost become political due to the visions in
the company. It used to be real pro and con
seem to be switching, especially watch the Elon Musk Oh.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
Yeah, oh yes, you can't buy tesla.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
Well, well, it used to be that if you were conservative.
You know, Elon Musk is, you know, promulgating green this
and green that and evs and solar panels, and now
it's flipped. Elon Musk is a is a hero of
conservatives and a demon of the left. So it's pretty
amazing the switch and how that happens, and how people
some people's opinions of what solar does or what green
energy does down the road. So I look at it
(13:38):
a more personal basis. Is going to save me money,
It's going to make my family's life better?
Speaker 1 (13:42):
Exactly? I don't and especially here after a hurricane.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
You know, it's amazing. A large part of our business
right now is adding batteries to people who already have
the sol because the solar it was pretty expensive investment.
They didn't want to provide that extra money for the batteries,
but now they're looking at it compared to the cost
of solar a generator like a full home standby system,
it's very favorable. Beside which it does get a thirty
(14:07):
percent tax credit. We have a system right now the
tax credits or solar generator on your roof for you know,
about twenty thousand dollars less a six thousand dollars federal
tax credit. So for about fourteen thousand dollars, you can
add solar panels and a backup generator or backup battery
to your house in lieu of a and lieu of
a backup generator, and then you always have power moving
forward for as long as you want to keep the home.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
Now, what about what's the warranty on the batteries.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
The batteries are ten to twenty years, depends on the
manufacturing pretty good, but usually it's based there's a time
component and there's a cycle component. So six thousand to
seventy five hundred complete cycles of the battery from start
to finish. You're not doing it every day, you're only
doing it if in the outages. So if you were
to do it just ten to twelve years, if you
used it all day, every day, but if you're only
(14:53):
using it partially, you should be expected to match up
to your solar panels in excess to twenty five years.
So the chemistry's really improved. Like a a lot of
things electronic, it's gotten better over time and it provides
a better service to you as the homeowner.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
Now we hear all the time about Tesla, but there's
other brands as well.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
There are Tesla is the big name, they're about fifty
percent of the market, and then in Phase is another manufacturer.
Solar Edge is another manufacturer, Solarc iron Ridge, So there's
any number of manufacturers, any number of rabbit holes you
can dive down. We try and to use the main
manufacturers because they are the most solid companies out there,
(15:31):
and that your warrant to be good. The warranty is
only as good as the company backing it up. So
if you have a good, solid company with plenty of money,
you can kind of hope that they'll be around for
quite a while and then made your name brand that
you recognize, especially if they're more diversified. Whatever the installer does,
you know, that's kind of problematic, so you really need
to rely on the manufacturer's warranties because that'll provide the
(15:54):
biggest chunk of costs that may be an issue down
the road, and they're relatively long warranties, much longer than
most people stay in their home.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
Hm. Well, you can, and you can also not only
get it on your roof. Say some people might have
certain kind of funky roof of their houses facing away
to where they It might be on a ground or
on a post, but you know, correct put it somewhere else.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
The most popular thing people have been doing now is
putting on outbuildings. A lot of people have those secondary
garages at their home. They'll put it on the secondary
garage or the metal building or the a frames, or
we'll do straight ground mounts if there's enough property involved
for that. So but quite a few people, because of costs,
after exploring all those, will still put it on the
roof because they get the mounting systems are so much
(16:39):
better than they were in years past. But we have
a lot of ways to do it again. The the
barns or outbuildings have been very very popular because there's
a lot of space and they're usually situated without any
trees or anything near them. And and that helps get
a lot of power generation for people at the lowest cost.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
That's awesome. How can people find you?
Speaker 2 (16:58):
Well, the easiest way is we have a website and
it's www dot S sevensolarfl dot com. So it's the
letter S. The number seven solar FL is in Florida
dot com or Todd at S sevensolarfl dot com. Or
my phone number is nine four to one three eight
zero two one two zero. So a lot of ways
(17:20):
I wish I could just be S sevensolar dot com.
But the day I provided the business, someone from Pakistan
took my website.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
That's always the way, and it's kind of always the way. Well,
we got about a minute and a half here before
we have to head up to the top of the
hour news. Today is the twenty first of March, and
we're celebrating National Future Generations Day. Okay, whatever that is?
National Memory Day, don't forget National Countdown Day? What is that?
(17:53):
National Countdown Day? Ticks down the minutes, seconds, or days
to big events in small.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
Okay, that's pretty intense.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
It's kind of vague. Really, Here we go, this is
it National French Bread Day. There we go a little
tasty tasty one. National California Strawberry Day like the Florida ones.
But I'll take California National Fragrance Day one for the ladies.
National Single Parent Day, National Common Courtesy Day. So be
(18:27):
nice to the single parents as you're enjoying strawberries and
French bread. Today.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
Sounds like a deal.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
We got to take a break. We'll be back after
the top of the hour News with more. We're talking
with Todd suffering from S seven solar, part of the FCA,
part of the cd B I A Hour. Donna is
up in Tallahassee with her daughter showing looking around.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
I guess meeting all the people there.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
I guess I'm seeing pictures of Donna's daughter with famous.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
People, so many of which are from FARNA account.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
Yes, all right, we'll be back News Radio fifteen eighty
one hundred point nine FM and on the iHeartRadio app.
(19:23):
This is the CDBI A Hour with Donna Barrett. Donna's
up in Tallahassee right now, and for Donna's Todd sufferling
with S seven solar and we're what's the whole deal
with selling my electricity back to the net metering or
(19:44):
whatever that is? Explain that explain that to people who
might not understand me being one of them.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
Oh, absolutely, So it is a little confusing, you mean
to me sometimes. So solar a lot of acronyms, a
lot of words, and net metering is one that's been
talked about and bandied about a lot. Really affects the
payback of your solar installation. So in the state of Florida,
if a power is available, you have to hook up
to the grid. It's by state law, and whoever the
(20:12):
monopoly is in the area, that's who you have to
took your power up. Our area generally is fpl out
into Soto. They have piece of Electric co Op, Lee
County Cooperative, any number duke power, that type of thing.
If you're a publicly traded company in the state of Florida,
you have to provide net metering at a one to
one basis to your customers. So what that means is
(20:34):
during the day you're going to produce more power than
you're using because the sun is shining and you're pumping
power out at a greater rate than you can use
in your house. So instead of wasting it, they send
it back to the grid and it powers your neighbor's home,
and it's power that doesn't have to be generated by
the utility, So they give you a credit of a
killo wad hour. For every killer white hour you send them,
they give you a credit for that killowad hour. So
(20:56):
then at night, as the sun goes down, you don't
have to use your battery. You can drop power back
off the grid. And then if it nets out that
you used a little more than you produced, you owe
them some money. If you produce more, they owe you
a little bit of money. Now, at the end of
the year, for the publicly traded companies, they have to
pay you back only the cost of generation, which is
(21:17):
interesting because it's only about a third of what they're
charging you, so that it's not a good deal to
overpower your house. But on a month to month basis,
if you use and tech, you can bank that from
month to month until at the end of the year,
where they have to pay you back any money they
owe you on a monthly basis, Like my electric bill
is twenty seven dollars a month because I produce more
(21:37):
than I use every month, so it's only twenty seven.
That's the basic charge you have to pay. Places like
Peace River Electric co Op. They don't have to do
it quite the same. So out there it makes sense
to have a battery because they only pay you back
the cost to generate. They give you money instead of
the kilowatts. So it's not as good of a deal
for those customers unless they have a battery backup system.
Customers I have out there basically live like they're off
(22:00):
using their batteries even though they're hooked up to the grid,
and it saves some money down the road. So basically,
the FPL can serve as your battery during normal times
that you can use again at night, and that lets
you put the panels on your house and provides your
net the net zero electric bill to you other than
the minimum charge. Hope that helped a little bit.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
A little bit a little bit. Hey, So, uh, let's
and we're speaking hypothetically, because only one of those one
of these things I would have. I'm in a house
with solar and a battery backup and I have a
lucid EV marked in the driveway. That's all, you know. So, uh,
(22:39):
how's that power from the.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
Yeah, one of the most exciting things I've seen come
down the road in quite a while. Is the fact
that we might be that we can charge our home
and use our electric vehicle as a backup battery for
the home. Really the size of the elect the battery
and the electric vehicles dwarfs.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
Then you're kind of stranded, right though.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
No, well, you're gonna have a batter back up in
your home place. You have a larger mobile backup battery
on your car.
Speaker 1 (23:04):
So how long can you get at it?
Speaker 2 (23:06):
Some of them up to a week?
Speaker 1 (23:08):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (23:08):
The actually, if you put a pencil to some of
the cars out there, like the Chevy bowlt things like that,
it's cheap. They're cheaper to buy them just as a
backup battery in your home than maybe buying a backup
battery from home. And you get the addition of a
car with it. So it's it's pretty interesting.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
Do you have to re rig the house?
Speaker 2 (23:23):
You do have to have a certain type of setup
into the house. And right now what's happening. It works
with like Ford Lightnings and some other types of cars
that are specifically made for it, with specific systems.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
He might well use it as a backup.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
I have a Ford Lightning. I've put twelve thousand pounds
with it. How far so one hundred miles really, so
yes for you. I will tell you that the towing
is probably bad. I can do three hundred and twenty
miles with my truck without it about one hundred miles towing.
It's a seven thousand pound trailer. But I power my
forward lightning from my rooftop, so I'm saving about I
was spending five to six hundred dollars a month on game.
Doesn't take.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
It doesn't take any big draw.
Speaker 2 (23:59):
It does, it's a huge draw, but I have enough
panels on my roof to support my forward lightning. So
every day I start out with a full tank of gas.
I used I had some range anxiety when I started,
because like, oh my god, I can't go seven hundred miles.
But realistically I'm driving two to three hundred miles in
an average day, which is well within the thing. And
I start every day with a full tank of gas.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
So there you go.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
And I'm drinking a lot less Red Bulls because I'm
not stopping at the gas station all the time my truck.
So to help my social life, you know, you could.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
Just go in there and buy like alkaline water, do something,
but not.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
The American way. But no, it's a it is interesting.
They're they're working through all of the back and forth
between the automotive manufacturers, the gridman, the good people, and
the yeah person.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
But it's starting to become universal plugs.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
Yes, yeah, they're starting to come together. The twenty twenty
three they announce you're going to do more of the
bi directional from your truck to your home or your
car to your home. They're getting all the standards out
where they make faith with the EUL so that the
liability is attained and that it is safe to do.
And it's a it's a great deal, and almost all
the systems can be retrofitted.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
It's a great idea.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
It is an awesome idea. So I have a you know,
enough power in my home to go a day and
a half or two days with no sun and then
I can plug my truck and get another six or
seven days. So but the sun usually comes back out
during that.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
Time here it's rare.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
Get winter. I think December a year ago we had
a we had a fourteen day stretch with very very
little sun. And that's the only time I've had any
issues with the people that are trying to rely primarily
on their off off grid batteries. So in generally it's
a great place to have solar. We have more sun
than anybody, so let's put it to you.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
That's for sure. That's for sure. And I and I'm
a huge propos I'm not a big fan of the
solar farms. I'm a huge proponent of people putting it
on their homes because I think that's where it belongs,
and that's where people are going to get the most savings.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
You know, I want to I want to control my
own power exactly.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
You know.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
I have a lot of a lot of different varying
types of customers from a lot of varying different backgrounds.
The reasons they get they get solar. Some do people
do because they want to be kind of the environment
going forward, some people because they want to save money,
some people because they want to be in control of
their own power, and a mixture of all three. Because
you can accomplish more than one thing at a time
with the same system. So having your power on your home,
(26:15):
you own it, ConTroll I get notices all the time.
I can get solar from the power company if I
just want to invest in their solar farm. And I'm
like you want me to pay for your solar farm,
pay for my own solar farm. Because now I own it,
it's mine. I can do what I want to with
it and any power that's generated over time. One of
the big secrets of the solar making sense is that
power will continue to go up with inflation. Once you
(26:36):
own your system, there is no more inflation because you
own the generation plant. There's very little maintenance on a
solar farm. There's very little you have to do maintain
it to keep it going. Same with batteries. It's not
an engine that you have to keep going. One nice
thing about the batteries and the solar panels you don't
have to have someone come out and maintain it on
a weekly, monthly, quarterly, annually basis. It just works. It's electronic. Yeah,
(26:57):
flip a switch and it goes.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
I mean you're going to want to depending on what
type of situation you are. With trees, you're gonna want
to from yeah, and keep those panels clean.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
But they've actually gotten it. It's not as big of
a deal as it used to be. Solar panels used
to be like Christmas tree lights. If one had a problem,
they all had a problem. But the way they've manufactured now,
and with the voltage optimizers, it doesn't have as big
an effect on the entire strength. So if one panel
is affected by shade, the rest of its continues to
work it and.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
You can be alerted to that absolutely.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
Let you know, everything's very computerized, very smooth, and you're
you're in control of your own error. You can see
what's happening on a second. But some people live on
their app They really enjoy that. There's a lot.
Speaker 1 (27:37):
Hey look at this. Look at me, I've got to put.
Speaker 2 (27:40):
My solar end in my battery. You find yourself looking
at it all the time. This is so cool. I
like this. I'm up to eight point nine kilos cool.
It's kind of fun.
Speaker 1 (27:49):
We got to take another break. We'll be right back
on news Radio fifteen eighty News Radio fifteen eighty one
hundred point nine f MWCCF eight eighteen. Here and you're
listening to the Cdbia Hour with Donna Barrett. Donna's out
(28:11):
of town. Todd Sufferling is in in her Steed and
he's from S seven Solar been around since twenty nineteen.
Once again your info.
Speaker 2 (28:22):
Well S seven Soldar's been here since twenty nineteen. I've
been here since nineteen sixty five. Yeah, so I have
a Florida boy born in Bress. You are, and I
grew up in Saraceta County. But seven Solar has been
around since twenty nineteen, and we want to be a
local source for solar. It's working out real well because
we're a little different than the big major companies that
come in. I call them carpetbaggers because we want to
(28:45):
take care of you. We want to build our business
by word of mouth. We want to have two friends,
have a friend, tell two friends.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
Yeah, and what is that? There's so many solar companies
that start and then they go under so quick.
Speaker 2 (28:55):
Why you think it seems quick? But they come in.
They had a lot of public money that got into
the solar business. Interest rates were low, and they could
come in and tell people they are getting free solar
because they could keep their payment the same as their
electric bill. It's pretty easy sell. If I would come
to you and say, hey, I know you're paying three
hundred and fifty dollars a month for your electric bill.
For three hundred dollars a month, I can get you
solar panels and you don't have an electric bill anymore,
(29:17):
so pretty easy sell. But as the interest rates went up,
it became even or a little bit more expensive to
add the solar panels on the short term, and that
kind of fell apart, and a lot of the public
money ran out and they didn't have enough. They were
too far invested into the system, and they'd over promised,
under delivered, and they just couldn't keep up when they
ran out of money. Five of the top ten major
companies in the US went out of business in the
(29:38):
last three years. That's left a lot of people hanging.
So we're picking up a lot of service work for
people where they just need could be a minor thing
or a major thing, and the company that they originally
started with is either no longer in business or unresponsive.
So we can come in and take care of the
manufacturers warranty for you, get you back up to speed,
make you feel a little better about your system, maybe
upgrade some panels or a battery, and move on. That's
a great part of our business. Now. It's a little
(30:00):
cumbersome and a little sticky sometimes, but we get to
the bottom of it and make things better for the customer.
Speaker 1 (30:05):
Awesome and you've been with the cd b i A
for a while.
Speaker 2 (30:09):
We are, My wife's a past president, and it's a
great organization and it's great for both the building industry
and especially the consumer because you can contact the cdbi
A if you need a referral for a contractor's that's
recognized in the area and has a good reputation providing
great work for you. If you need an electrician, a builder,
you know, you name the trade, they'll give you a referral.
(30:31):
If you have an issue or a complaint, you can
contact them. Sometimes they can cut through some of the
red tape and get you what you need when you
need and they do a good, great job for the area.
If you're a business, they're a great resource of referrals.
We like to do business with people that are part
of the cdbi A because they've been vetted and we
know that they care about the community and they can
help us all, you know, build our community stronger down
the road and take care of what we need done immediately.
Speaker 1 (30:53):
And you guys do stuff too. I mean, you have
a lot of fun like coming up April first, you
got a little get together over J and J one
stop gun shop and do some target shooting.
Speaker 2 (31:03):
My wife got to do that for the first time
and I'm a little scared of her now. She did
a great job. And they have corn hole tournaments, we
did the parade, We had the paray to homes just recently,
which I think was a big hit for people. And
they do we provide a lot of I don't know
people I don't know, but the building industry is the
major source of sales, tax revenue and tax revenue in
(31:25):
the county, so there's a big impact on what's going
on in the area. And very proud of the organization.
All they do to keep us all safe.
Speaker 1 (31:33):
Awesome. So getting back to incentives, are there still the
good tax incentives to induce somebody to buy solar? There are.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
There's a thirty percent federal tax credit for the solar industry.
So now there's you were to spend twenty thousand dollars
on a solar backup generator system, You're going to receive
back approximately six thousand dollars. It's a federal tax credit.
So that was actually dollar for dollars, not not a
write down of that amount of money where you only
stay that percentage, but you actually get that money back.
(32:04):
It makes it much more affordable for the average homeowner
and helps us to move the industry forward. Something on
the horizon, though we don't know how long that'll stay.
It's slated to stay for another great period of time,
but that's subject to change, just like anything else out there.
And also there's tariffs on a lot of the products
coming from outside the country. There's also been there's been
(32:25):
some price increases of the components that has been passed
on to us. We have not had to pass that
on to the consumer yet, but we can see that
down the road as that continues. Hopefully that's a short
term problem. And they are ramping up the domestic manufacturing,
which is awesome, so that will help us. We like
to use US made product whenever possible, and we really
(32:46):
focus in on that.
Speaker 1 (32:48):
A lot of people after you know, the hurricanes and
whatnot that we've had recently got a brand new roof,
but they're considering solar and they're worried about you know,
maybe the roof.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
Well, it's a great time to do it. The newer
the roof, the better because you don't have to worry
about taking them on and off again. If you have
to redo your roof, the technology of the roof attachments
has increased along with the code on it. That leakages
very very very very very very seldom a problem. They
actually provide additional attachment points to the roof to hold
the roof down because you have more hardware through the roof.
(33:23):
We have attachment systems from metal roofs that don't even
involve penetrating the roof the same for tile roofs. We
have attachment systems that don't penetrate the roof in any way,
shape or form. So it's a great way to do it.
And then the proofs in the pudding, you know, you
look at the fruit of what happens. And in the
less hurricanes, the newer systems have held up extremely well.
No mass amounts of panels flying all over the place.
Speaker 1 (33:41):
Yeah, there's a few that I drive by a lot
and everything was still.
Speaker 2 (33:47):
Sometimes you'll see the roof is destroyed around the panels,
but the panels were all still there, and they're still
working after the storm too. And then the way they've
been there redundant. So even if a single panel or
a couple of panels get damaged by flying debris, the
rest of the panels are still pretty and power for
the homeowner. And the system's not not like deal Christmas
tree strings where you lose one and the lights go out. Yeah,
and it's so very very redundant, very solid, very comfortable.
(34:08):
By promising that you're going to be happy with your
system after a hurricane or a major storm goes on
as well.
Speaker 1 (34:14):
And once again to give us your throw your info
out there.
Speaker 2 (34:18):
Sure, my name's Todd Sufferling, and it's like suffering with
an L in the middle. Yeah, I've said that a
few times in my life. I get mail from Todd Susserling,
you name it. But anyway, the website is www dot
the letter s the number seven Solar s O L
A R F L is in Florida dot com. So
www dot s Sevensolar fl dot com. My phone numbers
(34:40):
nine four one three eight zero two one two zero.
Speaker 1 (34:45):
And for more info on the C d b i
A just log onto c D B i A dot com.
Speaker 2 (34:50):
I'm glad you knew that.
Speaker 1 (34:54):
And there are all kinds of great links there right there.
And again, if you're if you're looking for a handyman,
or you're looking for if you want to vet someone
that you're considering using for some of the projects around
your house. Please give a call. They'll and and if
you're looking for a recommendation for one, give the CDBI.
Speaker 2 (35:13):
And if you're a local contractor there's not a member,
I suggest, yeah.
Speaker 1 (35:16):
Become a member. It's a great one. It's a great
networking and wind up building your business right off, your
contracting business or your handyman business by just being a member. Absolutely,
and I would imagine your business absolutely.
Speaker 2 (35:31):
A great part of the success of our business has
been referrals from the CDBI. We're actually doing work for
some of the home builders before or after construction and.
Speaker 1 (35:38):
H are Yeah. I was going to ask that are
some builders putting a solar on spec homes.
Speaker 2 (35:44):
They're putting them on spec homes. They're putting them on
homes that are provided custom built homes. It's a very
popular option to have the battery back up I will
imagine built in at the time and that provides a
great saving to the home runner down the road.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
So what's the biggest house you've done so far?
Speaker 2 (35:59):
Your biggest probably we did ninety one solar panels and
eighty kilowatt hours of batteries on a on a home.
They had a nine hundred dollars electric bill that we've
taken care of for them. That's a huge number of
a huge number of panels, provides a lot of power.
Very happy customer that that's a big house. And then
(36:19):
we do some like commercial, but that's a whole different ballower.
Speaker 1 (36:22):
Yeah, that is.
Speaker 2 (36:22):
Yeah, we can do businesses as well. Now the business
is what's interesting about that is not only can they
get the thirty percent federal tax credit there and some
adders to that too, there's some additional savings due to
rapid depreciation like everything else. So that's they can pay
that back very very very quickly and save a lot
of money in taxes, especially if they've had a really
good year and they need to spend some money.
Speaker 1 (36:40):
I can help them, all right, And once again, just
got a couple of minutes left, tell us a little
bit more. We got another event coming up with the FCA,
a golf.
Speaker 2 (36:50):
Turn FCIA has a golf tournament coming up at the
end of the month and we would love to have
you there. You go to the FCA website, they'll give
you all the information you need and it's for a
great We're helping young people find Jesus and uh that's
always a win for everybody.
Speaker 1 (37:05):
And yeah, there's what's their website, FCA Charlotte correct, I
think dot com? Yes, I'm trying to remember. Well, it's
a good scene again, it's been a.
Speaker 2 (37:18):
While, it has and hopefully we'll see each other sooner.
Speaker 1 (37:21):
So you watching any of the march madness at all?
Speaker 2 (37:23):
Just a little bit last night. I was kind of
find it fun and exciting. And my Gators are highly
ranked this year, so yeah, that continues.
Speaker 1 (37:31):
We had a bracket buster coming out with the number
twelve McNeese State. They beat number five Clemson. Never heard
of McNeese. See that's why I didn't fill out a bracket.
I don't know half these colleges.
Speaker 2 (37:45):
I read that the playing game costs like forty seven
percent of all the people. Oh rackets, that kind of
take away.
Speaker 1 (37:54):
Someho oh boy. Yeah, Number twelve McNeese State upset number
five Clemson. So oh it's in Lake Charles, Louisiana.
Speaker 2 (38:04):
Very interesting.
Speaker 1 (38:04):
Okay, we got an updated bracket.
Speaker 2 (38:08):
Here too, dare I look, everyone loves the Cunderella story.
Speaker 1 (38:16):
Yeah, that's true. Auburn and Creighton coming up, Michigan and
Texas coming up by you in Wisconsin, we got today
Duke mount Saint Mary's trying to look for Florida or
(38:36):
my Zags. Oh, here we are Florida and Norfolk six
point fifty tonight, number one Florida against number sixteen Norfolk.
Should be able to take them on handily. What hopes that?
All right? And then we've got my Zags are playing
Houston after beating Georgia eighty nine sixty eight.
Speaker 2 (39:03):
Here you go, Doug, he's quite.
Speaker 1 (39:07):
That was nice. So yeah, it's kind of fun. I like, uh,
you know, I'm not a big NBA fan, but I
like the I like watching the NCAA, especially my Zags
are Florida.
Speaker 2 (39:17):
Yeah. The one and done makes it very excited.
Speaker 1 (39:19):
Yeah, well, good seeing you again and once again S
seven Solar S seven Solar and the.
Speaker 2 (39:26):
Website www dot s sevensolarfl dot com.
Speaker 1 (39:31):
All right, you've been listening to c dB I a
hour with Donna Barrett, who's not here because she's up
in Tallahassee with her daughter. And we'll talk to you
on the CDB I a Hour again next month. Have
a great day,
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