PV Aesthetics [RE-wrenches]
Bill Roush, Solar Electric Systems
solarbeacon at email.msn.com
Tue Jun 6 10:55:47 EDT 2000
Would anyone join me for an egroup (or topica) on solar marketing ? There
seems to be a demand for it on this wrenches list.
Best,
Bill Roush
Solar Electric Systems of Kansas City, Inc.
13700 W. 108th St.
Lenexa, KS 66215
913-338-1939
800-632-9751
913-469-5522fax
solarbeacon at email.msn.com
www.solarbeacon.com
-----Original Message-----
From: Jeffrey Wolfe, Global Resources [mailto:global at sover.net]
Sent: Monday, June 05, 2000 10:30 PM
To: 'RE-wrenches at topica.com'
Subject: RE: PV Aesthetics [RE-wrenches]
True, but fixed shingles (which I hate due to the thousand connections) are
not under snow at all in most of the country, and are only under snow for a
relatively low percentage of time even in Vermont. Wall mounted panels can
provide 70% or more of the energy of a properly tilted panel. Our choice is
not doing it right or doing it wrong. It's doing it or not doing it. If I
can get 15kW on the side of a building that only produces 10.5 kW, but that
runs through a 94% efficient inverter without any battery losses and with
MPPT, haven't we got a system that's almost as efficient as your average
seasonally adjusted array that feeds a battery bank? And more importantly,
haven't we got 10 kW of green power we did not have, and the associated
awareness of power needs and consumption by a few more people?
The average person will never see what we see. Even when the sky is
falling, there perception will be totally different from ours. Marketing is
working with these perceptions, not drastically changing them. Depressing,
I know. But if the goal is to get more solar out there, and create a larger
percentage of our power from renewables, then we need to work with it.
Sorry, this isn't very Wrench related, and I wont post more on this unless
others are interested.
Jeff
Jeffery D. Wolfe, P.E.
Principal
Global Resource Options, LLP
A Woman-Owned Limited Liability Partnership
4 Kibling Hill Road
P.O. Box 51
Strafford, Vermont 05072
802/765-4632
802/765-9983 FAX
global at sover.net
www.globalresourceoptions.com
----------
From: Steve Willey, Backwoods Solar[SMTP:steve at backwoodssolar.com]
Reply To: RE-wrenches at topica.com
Sent: Monday, June 05, 2000 10:00 PM
To: RE-wrenches at topica.com
Subject: Re: PV Aesthetics [RE-wrenches]
As for aesthetics and building integrated, I would rather educate the
customer about the function, so they can begin to see what we see.
Otherwise you get shingle panels on a fixed tilt roof under the snow, and
these vertical panels on the side of skyscrapers.
Steve Willey www.backwoodssolar.com
Backwoods Solar Electric Systems
> As engineers, we tend to think of solar panels as great looking, and as
> energy activists, we tend to think that looks don't matter. But as sales
> people and marketers, we need to understand that aesthetics can often
make
> or break the sale. It is pretty useless to try to convince someone that
> anything they think is ugly is actually beautiful. Time is better spent
> figuring out a different way to solve the problem, different colored
> panels, mounting them farther away, etc. Often, aesthetics cost money,
but
> people are actually more willing to pay for aesthetics than they are
solar.
>
> This is best evidenced in the infant BIPV market. My understanding is
that
> most installations happen because the architect involved likes the look,
> and oh by the way these things also produce power. So working with this
> will help to create more sales. This doesn't mean that all architects
will
> like all solar panels on all buildings, but that we need to work with
> individual needs to craft something likeable to each client from our
> available pieces. I did this for many years as an HVAC engineer working
> with quite a few fancy architects. Each one needed the HVAC systems
exposed
> pieces dealt with differently. Although this was more work, it made the
> aesthetics acceptable.
>
> So we can't just go out and proclaim solar panels to be beautiful. We
need
> to figure out what the client wants in terms of aesthetics (as well as
> power) and mold our components to the needs. Showing diverse
installations
> that fit into a variety of molds will do a lot to expand the market.
>
> Jeff
>
> Jeffery D. Wolfe, P.E.
> Principal
> Global Resource Options, LLP
> A Woman-Owned Limited Liability Partnership
> 4 Kibling Hill Road
> P.O. Box 51
> Strafford, Vermont 05072
> 802/765-4632
> 802/765-9983 FAX
> global at sover.net
>
> ----------
> From: Michael Welch, Home Power[SMTP:michael.welch at homepower.com]
> Reply To: RE-wrenches at topica.com
> Sent: Monday, June 05, 2000 1:56 PM
> To: RE-wrenches at topica.com
> Subject: Re: Solar Powered Gate Openers [RE-wrenches]
>
> Travis Creswell, Ozark Solar wrote at 05:12 AM 6/5/2000 -0700:
>
> >Thanks for your quick replies. I am here in Southern MO. What (Inches)
> >size of solar panel does it come with. My potential customer is very
> >concerned about a "big ugly panel." It show it as a $129 option so it
> can't
> >be that big but I'm guessing it's amorphous which means it will be a
> little
> >bigger. This is going to be a residence so I am not expecting a lot of
> >cycles per day.
>
> This is worth discussing further on this list. Most of us on solar are
> proud of our solar panels and take every opportunity to show them off.
The
> attitude of folks that think they are ugly is something I think dealers
can
> and should work on.
>
> How do we instill a sense of pride for folks that are just dipping their
> feet into the realm of solar? Hell, if they really wanted good-looking
they
> wouldn't have put up that fence in the first place!
>
> Michael Welch
>
> ------------------------
> "Society is like a stew. If you don't keep it stirred up, you get a lot
of
> scum on top."
>
> Edward Abbey
>
> Michael Welch, michael.welch at homepower.com www.homepower.com
> Associate Editor, Home Power magazine
> Office Coordinator, Redwood Alliance
> (Not HP mag's #s) 707-822-7884 fax: 707-822-3481
>
>
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