I'm am in total disagreement that contractors and wrenches who
work for a living for their families should give away their time and knowledge
to the "uneducated public." No other profession gives away their time and
knowledge for free. Solar hot water and solar pool heating systems are
simple systems with basic rules of thumb that enable you to give a consumer
rough cost estimates and free job surveys and quotes. Not so with solar
electric systems. Read Bob-O's article & Richard Perez's article in
HomePower #81 on what to expect from a professional solar electric
contractor.
ECS charges $500 to $2000 to custom design and specify
all the equipment with price breakdowns that include labor. If some
pilgrim wants to take our list and shop the internet or call a discounter
advertising in HomePower that's fine. I've been paid for
providing an education and a shopping list. I guarantee
there are fewer solar electric contractors in each state than their are brain
surgeons.
If you don't value your time, no one else will. We typically
refund half of our design time charge, if the customer buys the system as
specified. If they bring a shopping list and want a quote that's
different. Some of you new contractors don't know how many professional
engineering firms will take advantage of you to quote or do their design work
for them - that they're getting paid for!
We provide basic educational brochures and information for
free to people to gain a basic understanding. We teach courses each
semester at our local community college for the beginning pilgrim. We all do
missionary work at trade shows, etc.
When someone buys the equipment and wants us to install it for
them, we're glad to charge them by the hour for our labor. It's pure
profit when you charge by the hour for a crew. They pay for all the time it
takes, holding us up driving or taking a boat or plane back to the mainland to
get parts or dealing with defective equipment. All the normal glitches a
professional runs into costs the client money instead of our loss
of profit when we run into Murphy's Law.
Tom Lane
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