That time we talked about Solar Power

This is The Homeowner Show. Whether you're DIY or looking to hire, we're here to bring you the best information and options for you and your home. I'm Craig Williams. This is The Homeowner Show. Thank you guys so much for joining us today. We have a really cool episode for you guys. We're going to be talking about solar power today, and I know a lot of you guys have been hearing a lot about this. You've been thinking about it as an option for your home, and so we're excited to to bring you this information. As you may have noticed, Kevin is not with us. He is off at a football game throwing flags at children. So he'll be back with us shortly, but he's having a good time

doing some, is it reffing? I think it's called reffing. But anyway, he's not here tonight, obviously, because he usually does the intro. And, you know, so tonight the intro was just done better. But anyway, just to keep you guys up to date as to what's going on in my house, oh weird.

Oh, weird.

I gotta tell you guys, when last week when I told you guys peeling back the onion of my house, it could not have been more true. Many tears were shed this week as we peeled back some more layers. I gotta tell you, whoever built this thing, man, I mean, we found like this significant damage in between the floors. And so we're having to deal with insurance companies and warranty companies. And I'm not gonna name any of these companies. All of them have been great and kind and good to us. We just don't want you guys to get the impression that they're, they're treating us poorly. Um, but it's, it's just gonna be an expensive, expensive deal. Basically, here's what happened. Because my

house, as, as many of you guys know, is weird. Um, we were trying to redo the ceilings downstairs, and part of that was gonna have to be relocating some ductwork in the house. So we were tracking down where the ductwork was going, and we came to a board basically, and it was like the end of the line for the ductwork, and we couldn't figure out where it was going. So we took the sheetrock down and found that instead of being creative, they decided to cut a 12-inch hole through the floor joist and just continue the ductwork on through there, creating a nice structural integrity problem in my home. It was, it was quite lovely to, to find that.

So we're dealing with that. We're gonna solve it because we've got lots of good connections here at the Homeowner Show, lots of professionals just ready and willing to jump in and help solve our problems. And that's what we're here for you guys for as So if you have not yet, go ahead and hit the subscribe button, follow us on Instagram and Facebook and all those fun platforms. So, but with us today, we got David the Solar Pro from SunPro. Uh, he's gonna be talking to us about solar energy. Uh, this guy goes around and helps homeowners understand, uh, how solar works, how the financing works on that, how the taxes work on that and all that stuff.

And so we're gonna be getting down into the nitty-gritty of this stuff with you guys tonight. David, how you doing, man?

I'm doing great, Greg.

Thank you. Thank you so much for being here. This is— I think this is probably like a really timely topic for, for a lot of homeowners because they're hearing a lot about this. Absolutely.

Yes, sir.

Yeah, I mean, because I mean, there's a lot of stuff in the news about how we need to move more to solar energy, we need to move more to wind energy, we need to, you know, try and get off the grid as much as possible. Maybe not like in the woods, but like, you know, just off the the power grid.

Yeah.

Yeah. And so you guys are— explain to everybody. Well, let's, let's just back up real quick. Tell everybody how you got into this.

So back in 2010, I was a technician at a cell phone location for about 3 years.

Okay.

One of my customers that I helped several times, he was early 80s, told me that— gave me some great advice. He goes, David, I'm well off. I've been in the energy industry my whole life. I asked him what advice would you give somebody my age, 20?

Right.

At the time, what advice would you give me? He said, get into renewable energy. That's the way the world is going. At that time, me and my wife, was my girlfriend at the time, I asked her, hey, you know, there's nothing going on in Texas in case in regards to solar renewable energy. There is an institution in Colorado. How would you feel about going out there, you know, while I pursue an education for 2 years? She was against it. So, so after the cell phone location, I went into home security sales. That's where I got more familiar with in-home sales.

Okay.

After 2 years from there, I decided, you know what, I'm gonna look into how I could get into renewable energy. I got home, started Googling solar, renewable energy, found SunPro.

Okay.

SunPro needed somebody. They were going to come into the territory, new from Houston, from Louisiana. So I was one of the original guys that they hired. And that was 4 years ago.

Okay, awesome. And so you've just been doing it ever since?

Ever since. Yes.

Awesome. And you love it?

Yeah, definitely. I have about 350 homeowners that I have helped out since then. So it's very, very exciting. Love the interaction with the homeowners and really showing them the affordability and how they could eliminate their light bill initially for free, realistically.

And does it cost anything to have, you know, have you come out and do an evaluation for—

No, not at all. Well, my job description is as a senior specialist, I go out there, perform the site survey, you know, I take into consideration the trees, anything that's in the way that may prevent the production of the array, take a look at the roofline, the integrity of the home, the lifestyle habits of the homeowner. So So pretty much do a whole home energy audit, get a better understanding of what they are trying to accomplish. You know, one of the biggest questions that homeowners have is how much is it? You know, it's a very hard question for anybody to answer if they don't know your kilowatt consumption, right? You know, sometimes the homeowner will tell you, oh, my

light bill is $200, or average home, or my home's this square feet. They fail to realize that it all depends on the lifestyle habits. You know, I've been in homes that are 1,000 square feet that use 4,000 kilowatts a month. I've been in 4,000 square foot homes that use 1,000 kilowatts a month. You know, it's realistically on the type of equipment, the efficiency of the home, the lifestyle habits, if you know they're going to work during the day, or somebody's working from home, stay-at-home mom, all those things go into consideration, right, when designing the system. After that, you know, whatever the homeowner savings goal is that they're looking to accomplish, whether it's 50% savings, 75%, or, you know,

100% offset, you know, we could do whatever that they're looking to accomplish.

Right. And so what I hear you saying in that Somewhat is it doesn't really matter. Like if someone calls you and said, listen, my, my energy bill is only $250 a month, like that's, that's actually not really helpful information to you. What you need is like you actually need the kilowatt consumption, correct, in order to be able to generate what kind of system they need to sustain that usage.

Correct. So sometimes a homeowner would tell you, well, right now it's summertime, obviously, right? I use 3,000 kilowatts. Well, we don't design a system to give you 3,000 kilowatts every single month.

Right.

Because in the winter when you're only using 1,000 kilowatts, you're overproducing 2,000 kilowatts. So, you know, if you're using 1,500 kilowatts, actually the average in the greater Houston area is 1,200.

Okay.

Depending on what the homeowner energy rate is, true cost, that's with all membership fees, delivery fees as well, anywhere between $0.10 and $0.12 a kilowatt. That's about typically a $180, $200 light bill. And so, you know, typical systems, 30 panels, which is a 10-kilowatt system. That's what majority of the Houston homeowners get.

Okay. And so, and I would imagine, you know, when you say like, I think somebody might look, hear that and go, well, I want a 3,000-kilowatt system. I want to, like, I want to make sure that I'm always covered. Why wouldn't you want that?

So it all depends.

Other than it just being extravagantly expensive.

Yes, obviously. So I do have a homeowner in that situation where when I met him, he had the guard of it's a salesperson coming to sell me something at my home, right? He tells me, David, I use 2,000 kilowatts, 2,500 kilowatts a month. That's what I want the system for. I go, that's quite high. That's about 70 panels. He didn't want to show me his light bill. I go, look, let me show you what 70 panels cost before and after tax credits and see if it makes sense. And then from there, I'll take a look at your light bill so that way you don't think I'm manipulating pricing to your consumption.

Sure.

So fair enough. We did exactly just that. We determined his average was actually 1,900 kilowatts. So he would only need, I believe, 50 panels at that time.

So 20 less than he was thinking.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So, so he goes, David, I still want 70. Okay, he decided to go with a cash option. We're also a roofing company. So he decided to go with a metal roof as well. So we were able to do a metal roof installation and then the 70-panel system. This was September 2017. I followed up with him 3 months ago, he has a $3,000 credit with CenterPoint. I would have preferred to save him, you know, $20,000 with a smaller system, you know, because you can always add on more panels when you know you need them. You can never buy less if you don't need them.

Right.

You know, but he's happy. He loves it. It was what he's looking to accomplish.

Yeah.

So, you know, no regrets in that aspect of it. But with CenterPoint or other majority of providers do not give you money back, physical money back.

Right.

You know, the whole point is to offset your monthly average, you know, so in the wintertime or the fall time, you're overproducing, building up these $5, $20 credits. So in the summer when you use dramatically more than your average, you have about $300 worth of credits to cover the difference. Right now, it all depends on the utility provider with the buyback rate. is, you know, that the payback term is, right? You know, in Texas, the average cash flow positive, it's 7 to 9 years.

Okay.

I do see some homeowners who think it's 15 years, because that's how long the financing option is, depending if you go with that option. Or, you know, majority of companies offer a 25-year warranty, like we offer 25-year parts and labor. So, you know, we programmed that so much into the head, into the homeowner's understanding of it, that they think it takes 25 years to pay off the system.

Okay.

You know, so realistically, it's about a 7 to 8 year cash flow positive.

Okay. And so it's 7 to 8 years cash flow positive. So are you, are you breaking even for the most part over the 7 to 8 years? Is it, you know, kind of bounce back and forth for some people?

It all depends on their rate. Um, you know, we're out here in Conroe, you know, a little bit more towards Houston. There's another energy co-op company out there that when I first started 4 years ago, we're at 9.2 cents a kilowatt.

Okay.

Uh, solar wasn't as big. There's not, there wasn't as many financing options. So we had 12 years. 2.99. So for majority of the homeowners had about a $10 to a $25 out-of-pocket difference for year 1, year 2, year 3. But fast forward now, rates with the same energy company are 11.4.

Right.

So those same homeowners who were out of pocket a little bit then are in-pocket savings now. Right. Typically about 11 to 13 cents is a break-even point. You know, all depending on what you're looking to accomplish.

Right. Okay, so let me, let me ask you this, because I mean, 25 years, I mean, that, that's a pretty long time. And, you know, one of the things that I recognize is like our technology specifically in this area is incentivized to change very quickly. So, you know, over the course of 25 years, I would imagine solar technology is going to be completely different 10 years from now.

Not so much because it's not like a cell phone where, you know, every year is, you know, 9, 8, 10, 11. Right. It's not like that. Solar, the technology has been the same since the '60s, since the '50s.

Oh, really?

Yes, sir. Around 2008, that's when they introduced the grid-tied systems. That's where they got rid of the battery backup options that dropped the cost dramatically. They introduced microinverters as well. So that also dropped the cost dramatically. Since 2008, not much has changed. They're getting more efficient. You know, the technology is getting a little bit better. But the whole thing, like with us, again, it's a 25-year warranty, parts and labor, right? So, and then it comes with a 25-year power production. So we already analyze what the system is going to be producing for you in 25 years from now, right? As much as year 1. You know, there is different tiers of panels. The ones that we use deteriorate about 0.6% a year, right? So even after 25 years, they're 86% productive.

Okay.

So it's not a big difference. You know, it's not like a vehicle where they change the body style every 4 years and you want to upgrade or stuff like that.

Yeah, I guess where kind of my brain was going is like, let's say, you know, I've had my system for 15 years and something goes wrong with it and it breaks down. But something technologically has changed, am I gonna get brought up to date at that point, or am I gonna have to go back with the old equipment that I had before? I mean, like, I was happy with it, but like, you know, hey, there's— it's, it's changed.

Yeah, so typically systems independent, like what we use, is a microinverter system. So if something goes wrong, it may be one panel, one inverter, right? The entire system, 15 years from now, it may be just that one panel.

I mean, just, just real quick, I mean, I think that's, that's something interesting to point out that that I didn't know is that used to be the case, is like if one thing went down, like the whole system went down.

That's what a string inverter system—

That's what it used to be.

Well, there's still 2 types of systems. There's a string inverter, which is kind of like the Christmas light effect, where if one has an issue, it affects the entire production.

Yeah, everybody hates those. Yeah.

And we use a microinverter system, which each panel independently has its own microinverter underneath the panel.

Right.

So there's not one point of failure. We're going to be able to identify which one's having the issue. And the manufacturer that we use is actually batch serial number traceable. So if one ever fails with that serial number, they're going to track it down, figure out why it had the issue, and then the other microinverter that had that same serial number will be replaced.

Okay.

So, you know, that's the good thing about it. And it's smart technology, so they're constantly getting updates like your cell phone.

Right. Very cool. And so why is that such a— why have microinverters been such a big deal in solar technology? How long have those been around?

The company that we use, if I'm not mistaken, I want to say they started off in 2006, 2008, if I'm not mistaken. And now Um, realistically, there's 2 major brands out there. You know, I don't know if we can name drop, you know, manufacturers, anything like that.

You can do what you want. Yeah, so I'm not doing it.

So there's 2 different brands— excuse me— there's 2 different brands out there. They realistically own majority of the market out there. So if you're going with string inverters, you're going with that one brand. If you're going with micro, you're going with the other brand.

Okay, interesting. And is there, is there Is there a cost benefit to one versus the other?

Typically what I have seen is that a string inverter system ranges about $3,500 to $4,500 less than a microinverter system. So you can imagine, you know, these microinverters cost, you know, maybe $2 more for the installer from the vendor. You know, that's if you're doing a 30-panel system, that's a couple hundred bucks that it adds on there, as well as, you know, it's going from one device being installed to multiple devices being installed. So it's more labor, man-hours involved with that process. Okay. Recently, I became a first-time homeowner and I recently went solar. My home is 23 years old. I actually had to replace the roof as well. My system was installed 2 weeks ago. I thought I was gonna be the first person in my subdivision to go solar.

2 weeks ago, I'm driving out, I believe I'm going to a customer's appointment. And I see one of my neighbors getting their solar system installed. I missed it. So, and my car's been— It could have been me. My car is very noticeable. It's a big bright orange car.

Yeah.

You know, when If I interact with any of the homeowners here, they're going to know who that orange company is. Right. And so, so he goes, yeah, I always seen your car around because I stopped that day. You know, I knocked on his door. His name was John. He goes, yeah, man, I seen you, but I never actually stopped you. And I wasn't too sure what company you were with. He goes, I met with 3 other companies. They all offer the same panels.

Right.

And they all offer a string inverter system. He goes, what will the cost be for me to go to a microinverter system? And so that was the first for me in 4 years. So I told him honestly, I go, I don't see it being affordable, especially because you just made this investment with a 30-panel system, 28-panel system with a string inverter system, and 2 days later you want to switch it over to a microinverter system. Yeah, you know, he's happy, but he wishes he would have met me earlier. I wish I would have met him earlier, but he's happy with it. And that's really what matters because I'm also the communications director for the Houston

Renewable Energy Group.

Okay.

And there we educate people to adapt renewables through education, community engagement.

Okay.

So that way, you know, it's, it's a community of people that, you know, get involved with things that are going on in the area just so people can learn about the solar movement and renewable energy as well and everything involved, really saving energy.

Yeah. And so what do you— do you guys go into schools? Do you guys go to like chambers? What do you guys do?

So right now we're actually working on a K-12 program so we could stop at different school locations and interact with the youth because that's obviously who we want to target first.

Right.

We're actually doing a panel next Tuesday.

Okay.

At the United Greenway building over there in the Island Parkway. And so we're going to have about 4 guest speakers, all in the renewable industry. And so that way people can learn about it. If there's also people who want to be involved in getting a career in renewable, then we want to connect them with the right people as well.

Okay. Are these other solar companies or who?

No. So it's just a bunch of different renewable energy people.

Okay. You can name drop if you want.

I don't know, unfortunately. So example, the president, Angela, she works— she's, if I'm not mistaken, Correct me if I'm wrong, Angela, later on. What she does, she designs wind turbine farms.

Oh, cool.

And majority of her business is in California. Then you have Rachel, who also helps, you know, in different industries. So, you know, so it's people with different— bunch of different backgrounds.

Yeah.

All, you know, putting their free time together and just helping Houston go green.

Okay, dude, we need to gather all these people up.

Definitely.

And bring them into the Homeowners Show studio so we can just have like a panel discussion, get, get y'all's message out to everybody.

Awesome.

Yeah, definitely. I'd love to hear more about wind and what all those different people are doing. That sounds— I mean, especially for you guys can like all at the same time.

Yes.

That would be really interesting.

Definitely. So we were just at the, um, at the Houston, uh, Green Day.

Okay.

Uh, we were there and, you know, there was people for like the water, uh, Galveston Water Keepers and stuff like that.

Okay. Yeah.

The people who do, uh, water collective systems. Um, so it's a, it's a bunch of people. people that actually believe in this. And that's the best part about it.

That was a huge revelation for me this year that I thought it was illegal to collect rainwater.

That's what I thought. And I actually— yeah, in some states it is.

In some states it is. Texas, it's okay. Yeah.

So I'm actually interested in learning that for my home as well.

Well, no, I'm glad you, you mentioned your home because you said you got your roof replaced and you were talking about, I think, a customer you said that had a metal roof installed. Is, is there a better roof for solar?

As far as manufacturers or age of a roof?

Well, I'm thinking like composite, wood, not wood, but like metal, tile. And there's all these different kinds of roofs. Yeah, I would imagine I would, I'm thinking in my brain, like, is one more reflective? Is one, you know, help the system last longer? Does it make it more efficient? What are the— is there— does any of those things affect that at all?

So what I originally looked for is obviously the age and the dignity of the roof. You know, we don't want anything that's, you know, 10 years or older realistically.

You don't want to have to like go and take this solar system off. I got you.

Exactly. With that one homeowner, it was a 25-year-old roof. He knew that metal roofs last a lot longer, right? Obviously, some of the issues that come with a metal roof is the screws, right? Every once in a while, you got to go and retighten them down, but they last forever. Sure. I have several homeowners from Australia who instantly want to go with a metal roof before shingles. shingles. They tell me I don't understand Texas and shingle roofs.

Yeah.

And so me personally, I went with Owens Corning True Duration shingles, which with our warranty that we offer is a double lifetime material and labor warranty. Okay, so it's on the higher end. It's a design, if I'm not mistaken, the color that I selected is a designer color. It looks great on the roof. So, you know, it doesn't matter if it's a Spanish tile roof, it's a flat roof, if it's a metal roof, if it's a shingle roof, right? It's all able to go solar.

Very cool. Okay. But it's— but none of them really like affect how the solar functions or operates or anything like that?

Actually, last Saturday I took my thermal camera outside at 3:00 in the afternoon.

Okay.

And so my panels was 100 degrees, on my shingles was 153 degrees.

Oh, wow.

So the solar panels add an additional layer of protection against radiant heat, decreasing the heat load in the attic space. So when the AC kicks on, it's colder air running through your ducts into your home faster, which decreases the workload on your AC unit.

Okay.

So that was pretty, pretty interesting on that.

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, well, and that was something else I heard about your company is that, you know, because you, you go through and do a whole home evaluation on power consumption efficiency, and then you guys offer some solutions to those as well, right?

Yes, sir.

So what, what does all that come with?

So, uh, it starts off with a, a whole home depressurizing test. So that's where the Red Blower Door test comes in, sucks up all the air so we could see exactly what the energy reading is.

All right, back up.

What, what is It's depressurizing the entire house.

But you said red blower.

It's a red blower door test. So it's like a red door that goes around the frame of the entire door.

Okay.

It has a big fan in there.

Okay.

It either sucks in or blows out a lot of air. Okay. And so from there, it has—

I've never seen this.

Yeah, it's pretty interesting. Actually, I got a video I'll show you in a sec.

Okay.

I did a whole video testimonial of my experience.

Okay.

And so my home's 2,500 square feet, but the efficiency of the airflow is like an 1,800 square foot home. So it's a very efficient home.

home. Yeah.

As far as the airflow, they replaced all the LEDs, attic door tent, so that way the attic heat does not come into the heat space, into the living space, right? Water heater blanket, LED retrofit, a smart strip for the, for the entertainment center, because things like your DVR, your surround sound, your router, all that's pretty much an energy vampire. It's sucking up energy constantly. Exactly.

Yeah.

And so all of this They say that it could save a homeowner that's 10 years or older about 6,700 kilowatts a year, which is about a $700 savings.

Sure.

Mine was done July 22nd. And since then, every week I've been saving about $15 on energy weekly.

Okay.

So my first month I saved about $80. Again, I moved into my home June 1st, so I was using a little bit over 520 kilowatts a week. Obviously, it's getting hotter now, a little warmer. My AC unit is running less— excuse me, more. It also includes a Nest thermostat because 45% of your light bills contribute to your heating and cooling.

Right.

So I have more control over my AC unit. Right now, my AC is running about 11 hours a day. You know, I don't know if you're aware, but they send an alert to keep your thermostat at 86 degrees or 83 degrees, something crazy like that.

Yes.

And so, yeah, with all that being said and done, I saved about $80 my first month just with these energy efficiency upgrades on my home. It is a It's a 1996 build. So it's a 23-year-old home, but I saw the savings. My parents, they went solar about 3 years ago. Their home was built in 1955.

Okay.

And they're saving about $30, $40 a month going solar as well.

Oh, wow.

Excuse me, with the energy efficiency.

Energy efficiency.

Yeah.

And so, so like things like the Nest, I mean, like a smart thermostat, and there's other ones out there. I mean, like we've reviewed the Ecobee, the Honeywell. I actually have Ecobee in mine. But I've seen all the different ones. They're all very cool. I'm trying to think of some other things that help with the— I mean, like, do you guys address like door sweeps?

And yes, so we also could do that, weatherstrip the house, the windows. So in certain off, off one situations, you know, our technicians do go a little bit out of their way to help a homeowner. You know, I had one in Rosenberg, Texas, where he didn't like the reading levels that he was getting, right? So he looked throughout the house, he finally found a hole behind the refrigerator in the garage. That was pretty much a window. And so he found it, he sealed it, and that made a big difference for the homeowner. You know, the guys are great. They'll do anything to help the homeowner out.

Right.

But if it's something that they don't feel comfortable with, they'll bring it to their attention. But we would never upcharge something that we find if we don't do it right.

So how much— I mean, like typical cost to get a home, you know, energy ready to start saving on that end? What does that typically cost?

Well, as far as cost, it truly is complimentary on our end.

Okay.

You know, if a homeowner says, I don't want none of that, it's not going to make it $1,000 cheaper on the solar side. It's complimentary. Everybody gets it. There are certain situations where the homeowner doesn't have the fork cable for the smart thermostat, right? It's still their thermostat. We're gonna either leave it there for you and you could use it as a gift.

Look, it's here. Yeah, we can either put it in or just leave it in the box.

Yeah. And you can use it. Yeah. And all these new builds that, you know, that they already have LEDs from the builder, but we're still gonna give you a care package for when you do need it.

Okay.

It is truly complimentary.

Oh, that's awesome.

Yeah.

And so what's the power consumption on an LED versus like an incandescent or a—

So like a 60-watt light bulb, it's about 6 watts. Again, with my thermal camera is why I know a little bit more of the readings. I had it where the standard condensing light bulb was like 280, a CFL was like 140, and then the LED was like 40 degrees. Oh, excuse me, 50 degrees. So it was, you know, it's nice and cool. And it was crazy because it was a customer's house that I was doing an audit and she had all 3 different light bulbs on the same fixture. So it was the same light lamp and it was different heat projected on each light bulb, which is awesome.

Yeah. And so that's, that's a big deal that you guys are trying to control because that's adding heat to the inside of the home. Correct. The AC has to work harder, which means that you're going to be consuming more power because that's the biggest vampire in the house is the AC system.

Absolutely. Yeah. And speaking of which, my ducts around the plenum, they were, they were not sealed. So, you know, we also seal it with the mastic seal so that way all the airflow that you're actually generating reaches where it needs to Right. So that way you don't have to worry about heat or cold spots, or, you know, over here on this side of the house is cooler than it is on this side. So we go around and make sure that the AC is working the way it's supposed to.

Awesome. Awesome. All right. So we reached out to some folks on Facebook here to get you some questions to see what people were wanting to know. So here's, here's one that I think, I think we were actually talking about this a little bit before the show, but This is Courtney, and she wanted to know, how much would solar panels— would having solar panels affect our home insurance?

So 8 out of 10 times, it doesn't affect the homeowner insurance. They changed the rules where the dwelling side of it should cover the solar side of it. There is a handful of homeowners that it's maybe $10 more to their policy, but 9 out of 10 times, if it's a well-known insurance company, they cover the solar panels.

Okay, so you don't have to— I mean, I think you were saying you have to have so much though, when it comes to a solar system now.

That's with your energy provider specifically.

Energy provider. Okay.

Yeah. So that's your specific—

And when he means me, like I, I have to have that.

So correct. And so they want you to have an umbrella policy where if something happens, they want you to be protected. Where I live in Houston with us, with CenterPoint, I don't need that insurance coverage, right? So my homeowner insurance didn't change one Awesome.

And so what do you, what do you have to have for it where you're at?

Where I'm at, standard homeowner insurance.

It doesn't matter. Correct.

Yeah. With the one that you have, they want you to have a $500 umbrella policy.

We can call them out. It's MaySouth. That's fine.

Yeah. So they do that. They say to protect you, right? Sometimes a homeowner will hear that $500,000 and it makes them afraid. They think it's going to spend a lot more on the insurance side of it.

Right.

I have one current customer actually that was ready to go solar. He called his insurance provider and it did go up. Maybe he said $300 a year.

Right.

So, you know, what's that, $4 a month or something like that?

Yeah.

Yeah. So they were like, well, this is going to affect our savings on the solar side of it. I go, yeah, but the energy— your rate's going up a little bit more than the $300 for your coverage. You're going to fade away with what you're spending on your energy provider regardless.

Right.

Would you rather put that $300 in extra coverage or throwing it away renting your electricity?

Right. It's closer to $10 a month.

Yeah.

Alright, good stuff. Here's another one from her. How much would solar panels increase the value of our home?

Typically, for every dollar of energy savings, it adds about $20 in equity. I have a homeowner out in Katy—

Not $20 in equity, $20—

$20 in equity. Every dollar you save in electricity, about $20 in equity. Okay, so if you're saving $2,000 a year, multiply that by $20. That's what the equity—

I gotcha.

Exactly is. I have several homeowners that have sold their homes within 2 years of having their solar systems. You know, one of the things that homeowners will say, oh, this is not my forever home, or I don't think I'm gonna be here more than 5 years, right? Average homeowners, they're within 7 to 9 years is a typical lifespan that they're at home. What was the question? I'm sorry.

No, it was how much—

how does it—

does it increase the value of the home?

So my coworker, Not too far from here off of Rayford. He actually got a brand new build and it went up $25,000, which is what his solar system was after tax credits.

Okay.

My homeowner out in Katy with a 28-panel system, it was like a $20,000 net investment, got $18,000 in his equity increase.

Okay.

I have one out in Magnolia that it actually sold for $392,000 compared to $360,000 in the same neighborhood, in the same block. You know, depending on these realtors that we also try to educate them because they'll tell you it's It's not going to save you that much. Or, you know, it's all depending on what the comp is. Well, how is it that a home that has a $2,000 light bill that in 10 years is going to save over $20,000, it's not going to add equity to the house? This home doesn't have a light bill. New homes being built now also are being pre-wired for solar. They're also having east and west facing roofs, minimum 600 square

feet, which is 40 panels.

Gotcha.

So that's already going on now that people don't even— aren't even aware about it.

Right. But architects and designers, correct, communities are just saying like, look, this is the way it's going. We can offer this to the people who are buying these homes as an incentive to buy our homes.

Correct.

Correct.

So, you know, with my home, you know, I purchased it 2 months ago, I did a 36-panel system, I got a brand new roof, which is a 50-square roof, which is a large roof, right? And then I decided to upgrade to a backup battery option. So, you know, I'm actually interested in seeing my exact resale value that I'm actually going to pay to get it reappraised. I'm going to raise 2 months into my house, and the only upgrade I did was going solar.

Right.

And, you know, regardless of what the cost is for me, I'm doing that more to educate people, say this is what it was for me.

Right.

And I did this 2 months into my home, and I think I'm gonna sell it in 8.

Yeah. Well, and I think, I think something interesting to point out about that, especially now, like, right, I mean, and so like, this is, what is this, August of 2019? So like, we have crazy low interest rates right now.

Correct.

So if you're adding immediate value to your home, And then you decide to refinance your home, you, you could actually capture that equity in your refinance in order to get rid of your, like, your PMI or something like that. So it could actually be like a really smart, like, financial move to add something that's going to value. And I would imagine you guys even allow— I mean, like, well, it probably wouldn't even be up to you, but like, you could roll this back into a refinance.

Yes, absolutely. I have a handful of homeowners that decide to do that. But realistically, money being so cheap on a Signature Loan, right, that is cheaper just eliminating your light bill and using that same money to pay your solar savings.

Right. Yeah, very, very cool, man. All right, let's see what we got. What else we got here? Um, uh, let's see if she's got anything else on here. So are there different package options for, for the home, or is it basically like, look, we're gonna try and match your, your kilowatt usage?

It's more—

I know we talked a little bit about inverter systems and different things like that, but like, there's, there's— I think there's other things that you can add on to a solar system, right?

So the way I'm understanding that question is a package depending on the, I guess, the specialist that's going out to your home, right? There is a few solar companies out there that talk about a Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 3 package where Tier 1 is an 18-panel starter system or 16-panel starter system. Okay, a 5-kilowatt. Tier 2 will be an 8-kilowatt system, 28 panels. Tier 3. So that's what some people may interpret as a package. But that package doesn't initially eliminate your whole light bill, right? Because I could look at 10 homes all wanting 18 panels, and some of them is going to be cash flow positive, some is going to be a 50% reduction, some of them is going to be an 80% reduction,

right? So realistically, that's why we sit during the consultation, try to figure out what is your savings goal? Do you want to offset— we typically say 90%, depending on the utility provider. Because if I tell a homeowner, hey, you're never going to get a light bill, and you get a $10 light bill in the summer, you'll be mad. But if I say, hey, you may get a $20 light bill in the summer, you get a $10 light bill, you're gonna laugh, right?

Right.

So realistically, you know, if a homeowner uses 15,000 kilowatts, watts a year. We try to design it for that, you know, but sometimes a homeowner thinks that it's unlimited power. Well, we have seen a situation where they change their lifestyle habits, or people move into the house, all of a sudden you're using double the consumption than you were previous year, right? You know, majority of the homeowners don't change their lifestyle habits. They're putting the same Christmas lights, they're running the AC the same that they usually do in the summertime.

Leaving the TV on all day.

Exactly. So that's why we designed it for 1,200 watts. month consumption. And obviously, you can always add more panels or go with a few less. In my situation, the reason why I went with 36 panels is because I was fortunate enough to get the light bill consumption from the previous sellers— excuse me, from the previous homeowners.

Okay.

And they averaged 1,800 kilowatts a month, about $210. I would need 42 panels for their consumption. At my previous rental house where it was 1,500 square feet, 1,000 square feet smaller, I was averaging energy, the little bit under 1,100 kilowatts, I will need 30 panels. So I like the way 36 looked in my house. I have a 4-year-old, it's a stay-at-home mom as well, my wife. So, and I work a lot from home. So I decided to upsize my system. Okay, you know, the previous owners, it was 2 adults, 2 teenagers. Well, my consumption, because our lifestyle habits actually line up to theirs, I only use 200-300 kilowatts less than they did the previous year. So it's right there, like, just again, because our lifestyle

habits were different than theirs.

Right. Well, I think we just mentioned something. I mean, as far as when we're talking about packages, like how do you actually pay for a solar system?

So it's no money down, no upfront costs. It's a free installation. Realistically, it's a signature loan. So that way you could decide whether you want to do 0% interest for 18 months, 10 or 12 years, 2.99%, 15 years, 3.99%, which is what I selected, what majority of my homeowners selected, because, hey, you're going to spend $200 on your light bill. Doesn't it make sense to spend $190 on your solar fixed? So yeah, so initially it's a free installation, no money down. We do have a handful of homeowners who either pull from their 401s, who do an equity loan, which I don't always suggest, just because again, at 2.99%, it's cheap money.

Yeah, absolutely. And so like, are you guys— you guys gonna run like a credit check on these guys in order to get the financing?

Yes. So it is a credit check. The credit rate, the interest rate on the term doesn't matter if you're 640 or 800 credit Okay. You know, sometimes I have seen, you know, you got to be in that range. You have to be in that range. But other things go into consideration, like your debt-to-income ratio, you know, how long you've been into the home, your credit back, I already said debt-to-income ratio, and a few other things. You know, I had one guy that had an 800 credit score, made over $600,000 a year, but he had multiple rental properties, right? Well, his debt-to-income ratio was tied up that he got rejected. I have homeowners who make $40,000 a year who have great

640 credit score that get approved. So it's a per-case basis. You know, realistically, we tell the homeowner, we won't know what your payment is until you get qualified. Because in our, in our business, we have 6 lenders.

Right.

So, you know, so if the tier 1 doesn't get you, then, you know, the second one may be able to do something for you, but they're all competitive, competitive rates, right. And so, you know, that's very affordable to go solar. And obviously, with no prepayment penalties.

Right. know, just, just so everyone knows, I mean, like, having bad credit is really, really tough because it makes it difficult to make these big financial moves that you want to make for your home. It makes it difficult to just be financially viable in this market. All right, we want to give a shout out to this week's show sponsor, Impeccable Credit Services. Is your credit 700 or below? Do you have collections, late payments, or negative items on your credit such as tax liens, judgments, improvements? No worries. Just contact Impeccable Credit Services for all of your credit restoration needs. With 2 physical locations in Houston and The Woodlands, this family-owned and operated company can assist you towards success. Just give them a call at

713-378-1500. And I encourage you guys to give— if you guys are struggling with your credit, give our, give our friend Glamour a call over there and she will set you up right and get you guys back on the path to, uh, financial peace so you can, uh, you know, apply with guys like David over here to get yourself a solar system up on your house and start saving yourself some money. Wouldn't that be nice? So give him a call, 713-378-1500. Thank you, guys. David, man, uh, we, we have some, some other questions that we, that we pulled up here, and one of the ones that I was, I was interested in is I assume that there are lots of different people producing

panels and inverters and all these kinds of things. So do you guys work specifically with like a manufacturer? Are you guys pooling from like lots of different places? How does that actually come about?

So panels that we use are LG.

LG, okay.

Everybody knows LG is a big company. They stand behind their products. Not being biased because we use them. My soundbar that I bought 10 years ago still works just as good as day one. The sellers of my home actually left the washer and dryer for us, the LG. LG, the TV in our bedroom's LG. And I bought that 5 years ago. I've only been doing this for 4.

And so SunPro exclusively uses LG panels?

No. So they are the, I believe, 2 to 3 as far as the top 5 panels.

Okay.

And then we use JA Solar, which is a little bit more economical. A little bit more aggressive in pricing. But there's, you know, Mission Solar, which is out of San Antonio. You have SunPower Solar that also make great panels. So there's several brands. You have Q-Cell as well.

And you guys can pull from all these?

Correct.

Okay.

But we just use LG just because of the experience that we have been having with them.

Yeah.

And, you know, when you're talking solar to homeowners and you're comparing panels, you'll see where LG stands at.

Right.

And that's why we use them.

Okay. So what's the big standout for you with, with LG panels?

The durability.

Durability.

The durability, the efficiency of it. And it's only a 0.6% deterioration a year.

Okay.

So even after 25 years, they're 86% productive.

So are you not going to— like with another panel that's not LG, are you not going to be able to do like a 25-year warranty?

With us, we still warranty it because we calculate everything. We, we, we, uh, the deterioration on that selective panel, we factor it in, uh, when we design the production numbers. We're using 4.5 hours daily sun hours. Okay. So we are taking everything into consideration. You know, I'll give you a perfect example. My 36 panels is going to give me right under 15,000 kilowatts a year.

Okay.

I have a homeowner that went with the same 36-panel system that's going to get right under 16,000 kilowatts a year. He has better placement than I do.

Gotcha. Well, okay, and placement, that's, that's one that I've heard a little bit about. And when I, when I've had a couple of solar guys come out and look at my place, one of them was really insistent on not putting the panels on my roof. They wanted to put it out in the field up on some risers and things like that. Is there a benefit to that versus it not being on the roof? Because he could just place them just right, or maybe he was just wrong.

I don't know. Well, looking at your roof, there, there is a bunch of different trees, right, everywhere. So I could see where for him a ground mount system that's just facing due south and run some trenching, whether it's, you know, know, 200, 500, 1,500 feet away from your meter, right? Maybe a simpler installation than putting, you know, a 20-panel array on this side, a 30-panel array over here on your garage side of it, and then run the trenching. Realistically, a ground mount system is a little bit more, more expensive because of the labor involved in it, right? A roof mount system is much more affordable. But it's more of a preference. I have one guy out in Katy who's a truck

driver who wanted— he has a great tree in the backyard. backyard that does a lot of shade for it, right, for the house to keep it cool. And he was opposed to removing it, right, obviously. And so we decided to do a ground mount system. He's a truck driver. Okay, so he has a big acreage. I forgot how big his property is, where he's able to drive through the, through the backyard, through the ground mount system and back to the front yard, making his own U-turn entrance. And so it's more of a preference.

Sure.

I do have, I have one homeowner who, it was an older roof, he didn't want to replace it yet, because the structure of the home wasn't the best. But obviously, he still has a bill. So he decided to do a ground mount system.

Okay.

I have some homeowners who have property who know that they're gonna build a new home later on in the future. Like one guy in Dallas had a camp, a summer camp or day camp, if I'm not mistaken. And so he wanted to put the ground mount system in the front entrance where the parents will come by and check them out, because we have a great referral program. So he was doing his own marketing, another source of income with his own system in the front of the property. So it's more of a preference, realistically.

Okay, very cool. Well, so, and what we haven't talked about yet is probably the thing that I think most people have been hearing a lot about, and that's the taxes. What's going on with the taxes on solar? I mean, like, this— taxes in general can be confusing. You're not a CPA.

Thank you for that, by the way.

But you probably have, you know, some knowledge as to the way that this works for the homeowner. You're obviously taking advantage of it yourself. So you have a little bit of knowledge going What— how does this work? Right off the bat, are we dealing with a credit?

It's a tax credit. It's a tax credit, 100% tax credit.

So again, I know you're not a CPA, but can you tell people what that is?

Absolutely. So the way it's set up is where you're putting money into the ecosystem. When you go solar, first of all, you're breaking money away from the utility company. And when you go solar, the solar contractor that you're using is able to pay their employees, be in business. The vendors that they're buying their material from is able to be in business. is the financing institution that you're using is able to pay their employees. A lot of new solar financing is popping up because of that. So it adds a lot of money to the ecosystem.

Right.

And because of that, 30% of the investment cost of the system, dollar for dollar, you will get back when you file your taxes.

Right.

Obviously, it's a tax credit, not a refund. So in my parents' situation, my mom and dad are 65, 66. They went solar 3 years ago. My dad retired about 3 years ago. Right. So he doesn't pay any Social Security taxes, anything like that. My mom's the only one working. So in 2016, she paid rough— when they went solar with their 40-panel system, they had about a $13,000 tax credit.

Okay.

Well, she only paid about $6,000 through her withholding. So the $6,000 that she paid through her withholding was refunded to her. Well, she was supposed to pay throughout the year, throughout her withholding, was released from the credit, the tax credit portion of it. So year 1, she got $6,000. She applied it to the loan. Okay, year 2, she paid the same, she made the same, she got the remaining balance and applied it to the loan. Well, I'm the youngest out of 6. And I've been— the house that we grew up, my parents been there for 22 years. So they instantly loved the idea of going solar. They saw the financial benefit of it. It was a way to invest money that they were

spending somewhere else. In the next 10 years, they have control over it, right? So when I presented to them, they went to do it. I told them, look, I'm the youngest out of 6, talk to everybody first. I don't want nobody looking at me sideways. So my sister decided the next day that they were ready to to go solar. And they were only in their house for a year. They— it's her and my brother-in-law. He's a constable at Precinct 4. And so they went with an 18-panel system, obviously smaller. That tax credit was like $6,500. Well, her and my brother-in-law made more than that and paid more than that in taxes that they got all that back year one.

Okay.

I have a homeowner with a $65,000 system. I believe it was like 70 panels, had a $21,000 tax credit. He called me in January of this year. Hey, David, I got all my money back. How do I apply the loan, right? So in my situation, with my system, I'm getting more of a tax credit than what I pay in taxes. So my situation is gonna get split. You have up to 5 years to use up that whole tax credit.

Okay.

And then after 2022, it drops. But majority of my homeowners take advantage of it the first year. Majority of the financing, the way it's set up is they know you're gonna get that tax credit, they want you to apply it. So your monthly payments only based on 70% of the investment, not the full 100%.

Because they fully expect you to use that money to apply for Correct.

That's why it's cheaper than an equity loan or rolling it into some kind of other, you know, anywhere else you could pull money from.

Right. So what happens if you don't apply that money to the loan?

So the financing company that we use, any balance from the, from the tax credit that doesn't get applied, it's on 18 months, 0% interest. So you have 2 tax seasons pretty much to apply it over. Gotcha. Anything that you don't apply rolls over to the principal balance at about $7 a $1,000 is typically what the financing rate is.

Right.

So, you know, they have a $10,000 tax credit, they decide to upgrade their house or do something else with it, then their money solar financing goes up about $70. Okay, so, you know, but we always recommend to apply it back. That's why you're getting it. That's why your monthly payment is the way it is. But you have that option.

Okay. And, and so I don't know. So what I understand is like over the next 4 years, they're stepping down, correct, the amount. So what is it right now?

So since 2015, 2016, it's been 30%. Okay. This is the last year, the 30% 30%, it's going to drop down to 26%. Okay, the following year drops down to 22%. If I'm not mistaken, I think by then we're in 2022, which that's when it goes away.

So, and this, this may be a little technical, but like, so if I do, if I get it now, and I can't get the full credit back this year, does it step me down to the 26%? So I get, I'm grandfathered in at 30% this year? Correct. Gotcha.

So like, like I said, I moved into my home June 1st, my, I signed the contract for my solar system June I just got installed last week. My PTO should be sometime this week. But I'm getting that full 30% tax credit. Whatever I don't use from it rolls over to next year at whatever that amount was.

Okay. And you were also telling me you've got kind of a cool battery situation going on at your house.

So I decided to go with the Tesla Powerwall 2.

Okay.

Yeah, it's what I decided to upgrade to.

That's awesome.

Yeah, it took some convincing on the wife end. But I was able to convince her on it. She saw it as it was more of a toy than anything else. But luckily, I talked to my neighbors, and they said during Hurricane Harvey, they lost power for 3 days. She's not complaining anymore.

Oh, yeah.

But yeah, so it was a nice upgrade for the Tesla Powerwall. I wasn't too sure if we will ever use it. Now, I have a feeling we may use it. But yeah, it's a Tesla Powerwall 2.

So does it engage before you guys start pulling from the grid?

So with the Tesla Powerwall, you actually have that option to program it how whatever you want. Okay. So there's a few utility companies, a majority of the co-ops, that give you a wholesale rate on the buyback. So we could program that before you send any power back to the grid at a fraction of the cost, it will charge up your battery.

Right.

And then that excess, if after that, yeah, you'll send it back to utility company. And at night, before you pull from utility company, you'll pull from the battery.

Battery.

But, uh, uh, that's again in that specific situation. Mine, I have it set up that in case if it's a blackout, automatically within a second it kicks on. Uh, everything that's in my house that's 120 volts, it's to operate as normal. Majority of my house is electric minus the furnace and the water heater. So the only things I'm not able to use is the stove, obviously the AC unit and the dishwasher and the dryer. But besides everything else, I'm able to use my house.

Because those don't use 120?

Correct.

Okay. Everything that doesn't use 120, you can't operate?

Correct.

Okay. Do they have systems where you could still operate the air conditioner?

More batteries.

More batteries.

More batteries.

Okay.

Yeah, that's where you get it.

Stack them on top.

Yeah, that's where you get 3, maybe 4 batteries.

Oh, wow.

Yeah, where it makes more sense having a window unit as a backup option or a portable unit as 120. You know, originally my, my thought process behind it is that I want to have half the house being able to function. I have my office media room that's connected to the master bedroom that has the master bathroom there.

Right.

I want that area to be where in case we black out, we're in the back of the house where it there. But I was able to actually power the entire house minus the, you know, the major appliances.

Yeah. And, and so, uh, was that something separate that you did with your, with your solar, or is that something you did kind of—

I got at the same time.

At the same time?

Yeah.

But you had to purchase that through Tesla?

No, I got that through my company.

Through your company?

Yes.

Okay. So you guys, you guys installed Tesla batteries and things like that. So do you guys also install like the Powerwalls for like the cars and things like that?

No, we don't. You don't?

Not on that.

That's just about the battery.

Yeah. Okay. So does the battery— can the battery integrate with that?

Yeah, definitely.

Okay. Yeah.

It's just because I have several homeowners who, they tell me, well, I'm gonna get a Tesla next year.

Right.

Well, what they do is they added a few extra more panels. Or, you know, I haven't had anyone with a Tesla and a battery Powerwall just yet.

Okay.

I'm excited for that homeowner. If that's you, give me a call.

We want to hook you up.

Yeah, definitely. But yes, it's all integratable.

I guess in theory, could a solar system charge a Tesla car?

Yes. That's kind of cool. When people talk a grid-tied system or off-grid, they typically think that it's shutting off the utility company and my house is going to work forever. That's not the case. You need the utility companies. Unless it's off-grid where it's really a shed in the woods and there's no lines running to it and you have that there, that's off-grid. off-grid system, right? Anything else residential is not truly off-grid, right?

Right.

Because it's net metering, you need the utility companies to send them your overproduction. And I forgot where I was going with this. I'm sorry.

No, it's okay. No, I've actually— you inspired a question already. So with that, I mean, like, so something we haven't gotten into yet is how power companies interact with people who have solar, right? And so like, with me, we were talking my power company, uh, what was it again? Golly, MidSouth. MidSouth. MidSouth.

Thank you.

All right, MidSouth. So I can't actually— they won't buy my stuff back.

They buy it back at about 6, 7 cents a kilowatt, right, if I'm not mistaken.

Well, they don't buy it, but they just give me a credit on my account.

So there's no— well, I'm not gonna say there's no— there is one utility company that actually sends you a check anytime your credits accumulate to $50 or greater.

Okay.

But they're buying it back at 4 cents, less than 4 cents a kilowatt on the real time, right? So that's a bunch that You're having to put back. Yeah, correct. You know, they changed that rule last year, January 1st. So for the homeowners that went solar with that co-op prior to it are getting dollar for dollar, and they're getting a $50 check every quarter to every 6 months, right? The homeowners that got their system activated with that same co-op after last year, January 1st, they're getting 4 cents real time. So that means that a homeowner has to— obviously cannot offset 100% of the system. For that specific utility company, we usually typically range about 50%.

Okay.

And unfortunately, the way the, the human brain works, that when you tell them 50%, they're gonna tell you, I want 100% or nothing at all. I don't want a light bill and then a solar payment. Well, no, the whole point is that's your only utility option going with them. So why not offset the power that you're consuming during the day with your solar system and just get what you need from them at nighttime? You know, so, you know, And so that's with that specific co-op where they changed the rules because more people were going solar. And it's crazy because that same utility company just bought like a $60 million solar farm in Louisiana. So, you know, we tell homeowners, you're paying for solar, you

just don't have it. Right. And these utility companies, they're investing into these solar farms. They're getting these tax credits. They're sending you this green energy. And then you're going to pay off their system.

Yeah.

That's free profits for them.

Right.

That's insane.

But it's the way it works.

Realistically, they're not stupid. No, no, not at all.

They're in business.

Yeah.

And something else we were talking about earlier is I think, I think a misconception that a lot of people might have is that eventually I'm going to get to the point where I don't have a bill from my power company. And that's just not the case, right?

Again, that's all—

It depends on if you have credits and things like that.

Your utility company, right? Some of my homeowners from 2016 haven't paid a light bill in 2 years.

Right.

You know, that homeowner that's with a 70-panel system that has a $3,000 credit. Yeah, it's obviously excessive system. But no, you could initially be bill-less forever.

Right?

Realistically, I have homeowners, again, 1 year, 2 years, they haven't paid a single dollar to the light company.

Right.

And again, because they had— we make the house more energy efficient. They're using what they typically use, whether it's 15,000, 20,000, 30,000 kilowatts a year, they're staying in that range.

Right.

You know, so the only—

I mean, like, like me, for instance, I mean, like, because I, if I were to have one and then I was producing enough where I'm getting enough credits through MidSouth, even then I would still, like, I'm not pulling any power from the grid. I'm still gonna be charged that pull charge.

There, some of 'em do have a base fee. Right. So, uh, if I'm not mistaken, I believe yours has a $10 base fee.

I think something like that. Yeah. Yeah.

So the lowest I could get your light bill, maybe $10 out in College Station. I believe it's like $19.99, a base fee. So we cannot go under that. That's whatever they charge you just for having their meter on your property.

Yeah, no, I just don't want people going into this going like, I can eventually just get rid of them and yeah, I don't have to pay them any more money. But like, you know, you're still going to be giving them money.

Yeah, so well, that's again, not so much.

Uh, it depends on the company.

Yeah, so my situation with CenterPoint, uh, I'm pretty sure I oversized the system with 36 panels that I'm— I should never have a light bill regardless if I didn't have a battery system, you know. Um, uh, Reliant, TXU, Green Mountain, they're doing a dollar-per-dollar buyback, right? So, you know, uh, they're giving you whatever your overproduction is. I believe right now it's about 13 cents a kilowatt, right? They're crediting your light bill for that. So you're still getting a paper statement, a summary, and on that summary it tells you how much energy you consume from them, how much energy you overproduce and send to them.

Gotcha.

So they'll send you a paper statement that says, uh, information only, your account has credits, you're bill-less. Right. And I do have homeowners 1, 2, 3 years that haven't had a single light bill. They're only paying their financing system on the solar system.

Right. Which, I mean, the way you guys arrange that, it ends up being pretty similar to what they're paying on their light bill.

Correct.

Right. So, I mean, like, between those 2, I mean, the credits versus a buyback, is there one that's better, like tax-wise maybe? Or is it like—

Well, the credit or buyback, what are you talking about?

Well, because you were saying there's some that like, well, if you go over $50, I'll just send you a check. Whereas this company has a credit.

Gotcha. So that one utility company that actually gives you a check anytime your credits are $50 or greater, right? I always tell homeowners, apply it back because they have a $10 base fee. Okay, you can go out to eat if you want to. But see, then what happens is where you could have gave them $100 back in checks where you would have had credits for summer, now you're paying a little summer difference.

Gotcha.

And then I have a homeowner tell me, hey, my light bill came out $40, $50. Well, did you get a check? Yeah. Did you apply it?

No. Well, there you go.

Yeah.

So that's where it went.

Yeah, I prefer the credit, the credit term, right? Because we don't design the system as far as an investment. You're not trying to get $500 or $1,000, you know, every year from your solar system. No, you want to offset what you're spending anyways. And instead of renting your power, you own it.

Okay.

And so, you know, we don't design a system to have more than $300, $400 worth of credits at any given time, because you're gonna eat them up in the summer, right? I'd rather have a homeowner pay $20, $40 those 4 months out the season, gonna have a $300 credit that they're never gonna actually use.

Right. Interesting. Okay, that makes sense to me. Well, um, and let me, let me ask you, out of everything that we've talked— because we've, we've covered a lot— what do you, what do you think is probably like the biggest misconception that people have when it comes to solar?

It's free and the government's giving you grants. Ah, no one's coming to your house to put solar panels for free, right, to eliminate your light bill, right? That's one of the hardest things that homeowners are so misinformed. Or, you know, there's a lot of clickbait information that you see online that talks about, you know, Texas homeowners are getting paid to go solar.

Yeah, that's not the case. I've seen that.

Yeah, that's clickbait. You know, it's a lead source, they're gonna go in there, you're gonna type in your information, and your contact information is gonna go to several companies, right? That's that lead generation company, it's either going to sell your information exclusive to one solar company for $100 for your phone number and email, or it's gonna get sold to a bunch of different companies that have $10, $15, $20 for that lead. And so when I go to those homeowners, the first thing I ask is, how did you hear about us? Oh, I saw something on Facebook. Oh, you didn't see SunPro, you saw one of those ads, right? So the first thing I have to let you know, hey, it's not free. This is the way it really works.

Yeah.

Even with senior citizens, sometimes they think that even for being a senior citizen, it's free for them. That's not the case. You know, there's a tax credit because again, you're applying money to the ecosystem, you're taking control over how, you know, you power your home, you're breaking from the light company and you're doing something a little bit better for it. And obviously making environmental impact is just a plus, right? But the main reason why people go solar is because first it makes financial sense.

Sure.

But that's probably one of the biggest misconceptions, or that it's a grid-tied system or off-grid and you don't need to have the utility company involved.

Yeah, those two. Okay, interesting. And this has all been really, really good information. I hope everybody's been paying attention because you have thrown a lot at us. A lot.

Yes.

Yeah. Well, it's a lot. It's a lot to take in. Correct. Yeah. So, and anything else that we haven't covered yet?

Um, so a lot of homeowners, there's a sticker shock when you go solar.

Yeah.

They ask you, how much is it? If I tell you $10,000, oh my God, that's a lot of money. I'm still lying to you because it's not $10,000. It's more.

Yeah.

But that's just the way the human brain is programmed to work.

Right.

You know, what I tell homeowners all the time, imagine if I was a financial advisor, and I'll tell you, stop putting your money over here where there's no return, you have nothing to show for it, and put it over here back into your home, where you're gonna have control, build equity, and it has an endpoint. Which one will you do? But because my shirt says the Solar Pro, I'm the solar guy, I'm the enemy, right?

Right.

And so, and so that's what I tell homeowners all the time is the way the money moves. Okay, you know, you're gonna spend it regardless one way or another. The other misconception that I have quite a a bit. And I'm drawing now a blank because I had it ready. We'll come back to it.

So I mean, like $10,000, that does sound like—

Yeah. So what I was going with it is, imagine if I told you, hey, you could buy— you could lock in your rate at 6 cents a kilowatt. Okay, $180 a month, 1,500 kilowatts. And once you're in, in 15 years, once you get to the endpoint, you're not paying it no more, you're jump on it.

Right.

All right. But it's hard to, for homeowners to understand, hey, you know, I'm gonna spend $20,000 in 10 years, I could spend $18,000 going solar.

Right.

Or, you know, sometimes the homeowner thinks going solar is instantly savings month one, where sometimes, again, depending on your energy rate, that's what varies the savings side of it.

Right.

So, you know, if you're paying 9, 10 cents a kilowatt, yeah, there is a little out-of-pocket difference. But going solar is not so much to have an instant savings day one. It's, you know, in the 10 years, you know, you're gonna spend this money one way or another, it's better putting it back into your pocket.

Right. Well, not only that, the equity on the property, I mean, like, you're kind of getting phantom income that way as well.

Correct.

So, so what does like an average solar system cost for like, you know, a 3/2 home?

And that's going back to without— there's no such thing as an average.

Yeah, you're right.

Yeah. But statistics show that in the greater Houston area, homeowners are going with about $28,000 to $30,000. panel system. That's typically an 8 to a 10 kilowatt system. That's for some people using between 1,200 to 1,300 kilowatts a month. That's for those 2,000 summer months and those, you know, 800 winter months, right? That's typically the average system. Then again, with my rental home, that's what I would have needed.

Okay.

Then you have homes that are new construction or people that just moved into the home that they say, I want to wait a year before I go solar. Why? You know, you're gonna spend at least $100 of power every single month. Why not get a starter pack system?

Mm-hmm.

You can start off small with 8 panels, 12 panels, and always add to it as you get a better understanding of how much power you use. You know, with us, we offer lifetime monitoring. So you have your smartphone that communicates with your solar system that shows you in real time how much power you're consuming and producing. So you're not wasting energy cooling an empty house. You know, you're— we give you all the tools to be more energy conscious.

Right.

And so that's even if it's a brand new home, you can still go solar. There's not— there's no reason to wait.

So, and so I say I do want to do like a starter pack, like we're talking about an 8-panel system. And then I'm like, oh, this is actually pretty cool. I want to go, you know, full solar. Can I then roll that into a new loan if I add on to that system? Or am I going to have to be— am I having like 2 separate loans running if I want to upgrade that system?

I'm not sure on that one, to be quite honest with you. Okay. Because majority of the companies, they don't want you to have multiple loans.

Sure. Yeah.

Just because you're already tied down to one, you know. So on that one, I have had a customer that after Hurricane Harvey, she had a settlement with the insurance company, right? And she went with a 20-panel starter system cash. Obviously, it's not going to offset their entire bill. She just wants to start off with that. A year later, she got her credit situated a little bit better.

Okay.

And she was able to roll it into the financing. Well, credit and financing was still new to her, that she got approved up to the max, but she didn't want to use that max. She decided to add another 20 panels.

Oh, wow.

This year she decided to— she paid off the other loan from last year. She decided to add a Powerwall and 10 more panels.

Oh my goodness.

So you have control over how you want to add more. Again, it's easier to add when you know you need them than to take them. You can't take them off if you don't need them.

Right. And I imagine like what you were talking about before, it's easier to add on to like a microinverter system versus— what was it?

A string inverter. Perfect.

Thank you. I'm learning all the words today. I can, I can go work for you now.

Awesome. Looking forward to it.

Yes. All right, man. Anything else we need to, we need to, I'm sure there's lots of other stuff we could talk about, but anything that's, that you can think about that we haven't talked about tonight?

Um, when a homeowner looks into solar, you know, a lot of people think it's a bad thing to make a same-day decision, right? Majority of my homeowners are same-day homeowners, right? And as long as they have a clear understanding of what—

Meaning you've explained it to 'em, they make a decision.

Yeah. And they never met me before.

Right.

Regardless if I'm the first person or 10th person that they met, we, with our platform, we set, we set it up where the customer understands it thoroughly. And as long as the homeowner understands what are the risks involved, how you protect it by going solar, the material and the installation process and the affordability, then you can make an educated decision at the end of a 1-hour consultation, regardless if it is a $10,000, $20,000, $30,000 system. Right. One of my biggest installations was a 125-panel system, $125,000. The homeowner had a $5,000— 5,000-kilowatt average light bill, about $500 a month, right? They decided to go solar the same day. They were in their late 60s, early 70s. I was like, wow, you know, and to be quite honest with you, I didn't expect for them to purchase that. But that doesn't

change the way we're going to interact with the homeowner, right? You know, I treat them the same way I treated every other homeowner. I thank them for the time. I go, okay, guys, let me know. We'll go from there. So I thank them and I left to my next appointment. They call me back, hey, David, we want to do it. I was shocked, right? You know, and so then I realized, you know, there is no real age group for people going solar. You know, you have people in their 60s and their 70s that say, oh, I should— I'm too old to get a 25-year investment. Again, this is a 25-year warranty, right? That's what they think. I should have done this when I was younger. Then you have people who are in 30s, you know, 40s,

oh, this is not my forever home. You're gonna pay Power Regards for 8 years, right? Why not have control over it? And I don't have a financial background of homeowners, you know, I don't have a bunch of doctors going solar, a bunch of lawyers, a bunch of chefs. It's regular people, right? You know, realistically, when we go out to a nice subdivision in the middle of Houston, they are less likely to go solar than somebody out in the countryside.

Okay.

You know, just because for one, there's somebody coming out to the house. So they're happier about that. But no, they understand the money, you know, it's easier to understand. And the hardest people to convince to go— so actually, let me take that back. You don't have to convince nobody to go solar. The numbers make sense, right? You know, and so, but the people that have the hardest time making decisions are usually engineers. Sometimes they're too smart for their own good that they miss the simple stuff. And I have seen it where they start breaking these numbers down in ways that it's actually not even the way that it actually is, right? And so, you know, a lot of engineers actually

miss out on the savings focusing so much. I had one guy said that the devil's in the details. I think that's the expression.

Sure. Yeah.

And so, you know, they reanalyze it and they miss out on good opportunities, right? Then you have people who, you know, who didn't— don't analyze every single thing that way, but they're saving $2,000 a month— excuse me, a year, you know. So that's the funny thing about it that I've seen.

Yeah. And I think, I think some people do have like analysis paralysis where like, you know, they feel like they can't get a handle on it. And so it's just, I'm not going to do it because I don't feel like I can understand it, or I don't, or I like, there's, there's too many variables, or there's too much of this. And like, so I'm just, I can't wrap my brain around it. They feel like they can't do it justice. And so they just won't make a decision.

Absolutely. So I had one guy, um, I believe he was a professor at Rice University, if I'm not mistaken. This was maybe 6 months ago, brand new to the house. And so he's buying all these fancy appliances, he's doing all these different things to the house. And so I told him, go with a starter pack system, 18 panels. I forgot what the payment option was on that. So he tells me, you know what, David, I'm not going to do it because with the interest rate, I'm not really saving this and that. And I told him, well, you just bought a $200,000 home on a 30-year term. That's a $470,000-$650,000 home, right? But you didn't say that thing with that. Why does it matter with solar

side of it?

Right.

You know, and it just shocks me when people see it that way, but they don't see their home that way.

Right.

You know, it's just crazy.

All right. So something you mentioned just triggered a question in my head. So we've got these 25-year warranties on these products. So say this isn't my forever home, I'm only planning on being here 5 years.

The warranties are transferable.

Transferable.

Yeah.

Okay.

As long as the seller and the new homeowner tells us within 60 days.

Okay.

That's just back-end paperwork process that if we, we miss that deadline, that's out of our control.

Right.

But you can transfer the warranties.

And as many times until the 25 years is up?

That's a good question. I actually, I haven't had that occur more than once. Right. You know, I just, it's a handful of homeowners actually sold their systems. I haven't had anybody, that same house being sold twice yet.

Sure. Yeah.

That's definitely a good question.

Yeah. 25 years is a long time. I mean, sometimes, I mean, that's a house can change hands like 6 or 7 times. Well, man, I, we, we're, we're a little bit past our time that we usually take, but we want to make sure and get in what, uh, what we do with all of our guests, which is called the Final Four. The Final Four. Kevin's not here to sing it for us. Um, but this These are the same 4 questions that we ask all of our guests. I hope you are prepared because they're extremely difficult.

Let's do it.

And testing. All right, you ready?

I'm ready.

All right, what is the one tool you won't leave the home without?

My drone.

Your drone?

My drone.

Nice.

Yeah.

What are you flying?

Uh, the Mavic Air.

Nice.

Yeah, the Mavic Air. I use it multiple times a day. Makes the job so much easier.

Heck yeah.

Uh, customers love seeing these aerial shots. It breaks the ice that much more. Yeah, it's just fun. I get to play with the toy every single day.

Yeah. Now, now, I don't think any government officials are listening. Do you have your, your, your drone pilot license? Yeah.

Yes, I do.

How was that test?

It's pretty easy. Yeah, a little to do with the drone.

Don't fly it over an airport.

There we go.

What's, what's the, what's the limit that you can only go?

Like, they have it about 400 feet. That's what I think is the, uh, the cap, but you could turn it off if get permission.

Okay. Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, and like the drone will tell you too, like, hey, it won't let you go any higher.

It's at 397 mark. You gotta turn it off and know where to go.

Awesome. Awesome. All right. Question number 2. How do you wind down at the end of a long day?

Uh, hang out with my son. I have a 4-year-old.

Uh-huh.

Uh, he loves solar as much as I do.

Nice.

Uh, he, I started doing solar when he was born. Uh, I have pictures with, uh, with him going through different SunPro signs throughout the process. And it's just, he's my best friend and we hang out every morning, every Fantastic.

What do you guys typically do?

Everything, anything. Uh, he likes painting right now. Oh, uh, loves bike riding.

Okay.

Uh, I'm a big boxing sports fan.

Okay.

Uh, so he likes to box. When we're watching boxing, he likes to go get his, uh, not wrestling belts, he actually has boxing replica belts. He got a little kid-sized trunks, the gloves and everything. So he sits there, tries to box as well. But he's very smart. Uh, he just loves talking.

Does he, does he have a favorite boxer?

Uh, Canelo, actually.

Okay.

Yeah, it's his favorite boxer.

And then, uh, he—

we also watch wrestling, and Roman Reigns is his favorite, which is weird because my son's name is Roman.

Okay.

But I did not name him because of wrestling.

That was not the happy circumstance.

I'm a big Fast and Furious fan, and Roman actually came from that movie.

Okay.

Yeah, that's the actual origin. Yeah.

Fantastic. All right, uh, what is a job that you have walked away from? Now I'll tell you, this has been a bit of a controversial question the show, uh, because some people take it as what's a, uh, what's a career I walked away from? What we intended was what's maybe like a project around the home that maybe you tried to tackle and couldn't do yourself. You had to bring in a professional. Um, so you can take it either way you want, but end of the day, what is a job that you walked away from?

That's a hard one. Uh, I jump into everything first and I think about it, the process later on.

Uh-huh.

So when I have walked away from something, it's probably because I didn't have a resolution for it. But, uh, like you said, if it's something around the house that started and didn't finish, I get the right person for the job.

Right.

So it's very, very rare that I don't finish something.

Yeah.

Because I'll figure out how to get it done.

A little YouTube?

A little bit of YouTube, a little bit of, like you said, ask somebody that knows.

Right.

And bring them along. Um, but yeah, that's a hard one to answer, actually.

We don't like to talk about the ways in which we've— We gave up.

Oh, we failed a lot. No, don't bring it up.

All right, 4th and final question. What is the best piece of wisdom you've ever received?

I have 2.

Oh, 2. Okay, that's fine. Double down since you kind of danced around the last one. Yeah.

So my cousin told me when I was 12, hope for the best and expect the worst.

All right.

So that's pretty much what I live by. I go to every situation, you know, very positive. you know, ready to give it all, right? But at any— anything, something may go wrong that's out of my control and expect it, right? You know, you can't control what life throws at you, but you can handle how you handle it and get through it.

Okay.

And then when I was 20, get into renewable energy. You know, I don't remember that guy's name. You know, he was in his early 80s. He may not even be here with us. But he dramatically changed my life. And because of that, you know, that was 10 years ago, the last 5 years have been great. my family, you know, we— our lifestyle changed. Um, and, you know, um, realistically, that was why.

That's awesome.

Because of that. And so my mentality is I want to help other people, educate them, you know, and guide them. I have people older than me by 10 years calling me mentors, which is crazy weird, right? Um, but yeah, it's all because of that advice that I was given at 13 and 20.

Yeah, it's, it's crazy how in a moment like that someone can speak something in your life that just completely transforms everything.

Everything.

So, and how powerful those moments can be.

Absolutely.

And we don't— I think sometimes we don't realize that we actually have that ability to speak that into other people's lives, you know? So one, it makes me want to be really careful with my words.

Definitely.

You don't want to change somebody for the worst. But, but yeah, well, I mean, like, it's, it's crazy how that can happen.

Yeah.

And like, you're, you're like, this guy changed my life. I can't remember his name, but I remember exactly what he said to me.

And, uh, the other one, it was when I was, uh, 16. I was working at a Wendy's at a fast food restaurant as a cashier. And I met the manager from Raider Shack. You know, they're not around no more.

Oh, yeah.

He told me, you're too smart to work here. He goes, come on, come work with me. I go, you got to be 18 to work there. He was like, don't worry about it. I'll get you in. So it took him about 3 months.

Yeah.

And that was my first real job. It taught me, you know, sales interaction, you know, merchandising, running the stores, operations, etc. And that was 4 years that I was with that company. And that manager manager left and about 6 years after that, I actually met him at another place we worked together.

Oh, wow.

So now he actually lives like 5 minutes from me.

Oh, wow.

That's incredible. That's about 3 people that actually gave me some great advice.

Yeah.

Actually. That's awesome.

Yeah. All right. So the, the actual last question, which is the secret question of the final 4, is if people want to find you, how do they get ahold of you?

So, uh, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, it's David the Solar Pro. Again, that's David the Solar Pro. Uh, you pretty much going to see the little cartoon and the orange car, right? And that's going to lead you to every social media account that I have. Okay, @DavidTheSolarPro.

Awesome. Awesome. Thank you so much for being on the show.

My pleasure.

This has been fantastic.

You actually forgot to bring up the offer we have for you to get for your listeners.

I'm so sorry. So we have it. We have an offer for the, for the show, for the episode. What do you got for us, Dave?

So for every homeowner that actually calls and sets an appointment through the home show, you're actually gonna get $25 just to learn solar. Think about that. $25 just to learn about it. If you decide to go solar, you're gonna get an additional $1,000 off your system, all because you're listening to The Home Show— Homeowner Show, sorry.

Oh, you're good, man. We'll, we'll go by any name. Just listen. That's all we ask. Yeah, so we'll link all this up in the show notes. So give him a call, look him up on all social media accounts. Let him know that you heard about it on The Homeowner Show. We'll get you guys hooked up with $25 Awesome, guys.

I'm excited to educate y'all.

Yeah, I mean, it's gonna be fantastic. I encourage everyone to at least go and learn as much as you can about, about this topic. It's an important one. And if, if you feel like you can't understand it, call David. He'll educate you and get you all set up. Man, thanks again for being on the show.

My pleasure. Thank you for having me.

Yep. And again, guys, if you have not yet, go ahead and hit the subscribe button. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter. But again, we probably won't pay attention too much on Twitter, but we're over there for you guys if that's all you'll do. Thank you guys. We'll see you next time. See ya.