Join The Solar Power Movement

Archive for September, 2011

First of all I need to let everyone know that I am about two fries short of a happy meal when it comes to having a good grasp of some types of information. When I was  tested through the local Workforce employment center to take some solar training back in the summer I had to make a grade of “GOLD” to qualify for the training.  Well I only got a “Silver” so I had to retake the low score tests again. That time I passed and was allowed to go through the week long training course.  At the end of the week we had a 100 question exam. Guess what! I failed. I only needed a 65 but I failed.  I had to wait until a couple of months later to retake the final exam again and this time I passed.

Which brings me to the BPI segment of this post. Again I went into training for a certification. The type of certification is such that I would be qualified to conduct a home or commercial energy audit. Complete with blower door test and evaluations of envelope recommendations.  It was a week crammed into a small hotel room with the instructor and 6 other students. Of course you can’t say that you understand the information you have to take a friggin’ test to prove it. So I took the first 100 question test and barely passed by just 2 points.  A couple of days later I took yet another exam and passed by ZERO. I mean you had to get 70 and I got exactly 70. I think it may have been rigged because they want a high pass ratio. I don’t know.  Now on the field test portion of the BPI training I did very well, 98 and 96.  So I will soon receive my certification documents in the mail and proudly display them with the other energy related certifications I have stumbled through and keep on trucking toward my own solar power business.

Are you reading this post because you want to be in  the solar business? It is very interesting but challenging.  It does require a good grasp of certain levels of math. Mostly how to convert volts into watts and watts into amps and so forth. What kilowatt hours are and what role they play in sizing a PV system.

I’m no expert yet, but I have come a long way in the past 16 months. You can too if you want it.   Thanks,

Stanley

Are you working on getting into the solar energy business? Leave a comment and if you have a good post about it I would be glad to let you use it here.

Later.

Stanley

As far as the hotel PV project is concerned, it’s dead. On my last visit I was told by the manager that he had gotten a couple of PV quotes from solar comapnies out of state.  I am sure that was a lie because I asked him to lay them out on the table and I would try to match within reason something that he could live with price wise.  He said that he would call me, but never has and that has been months ago.

Now later in the solar game I have become aware of a pattern protrayed by certain business persons from another country, say India, that have sort of a mofia mentality in that if you want to do business with them you must somehow come in face to face contact with the Grand PooPaa.  So it turns out that I have been talking to the wrong person in the command chain.

Oh well.  Live and learn.

Thanks

Stanley

The hotel project I was writing about is also making progress. We are at a point of revising how he heats the indoor swimming pool. Currently there is a large capacity on-demand electric water heater doing all the work. I am proposing that we take this out of the equation and replace it with a gas fired on-demand water heater coupled with some major overhaul improvements.

I want to avoid going solar thermal by adding pool heater modules on the roof. This would only take away from the hotel looking at the overall solar PV possibilities. So I am sacrificing that potential sale for an even greater ROI on my involvement.

The proposal is to do the above switcharoo on the water heaters but re-plumb the pool through and existing unused 120 gallon gas fired water heater just sitting in the mechanical room.  Providing it is in good shape this would heat the pool water up to the state specified temperature and then as it passed though the on-demand gas heater it would get and extra boost before mixing with the body of water in the pool.

The other side of this fix-it equation is to keep the heated water at the pool surface during after hours. The pool closes at 10PM and opens again at 10AM. So I have a 12 hour window to combat the dehumidifier from sucking all that hot steamy air out of the room and replacing it with fresh air.  What to do, what to do.

Well a pool cover comes to mind the first thing. But I don’t want to add the burden of having the maintenance guy going in the pool room twice per day and manhandling 4-6 insulated panels.  I am searching for the idea of having post mounted from the floor to the ceiling at several locations around the pool. In between these post would be a blind or thermal barrier that pulled up and down depending on the time of day.  If I can reduce his pool heating bill from $15,000.00 to $5,000.00 per year then they may be inclined to go solar on the reat of the electric bill.

Now if I could figure out a way to offset those rooms heater/ac units.

What are your thoughts? Any engineers out there that would like to know the the details and offer suggestions?

Thanks

Stanley