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Archive for the ‘Green Collar Jobs’ Category

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

Well today, after three days of designing a four page letter, 36 hours printing 400 copies of the four page letter, front & back at a cost of over $250.00, another two days folding the letter, $65.00 for the 400 addressed envelopes, and them another day stuffing the envelopes and then another 6 hours stamping the sealed package with the metering postage stamp I have finally finished my first bulk mailing.

This was sent out to businesses and individuals that are members of the local Chamber of Commerce.

I have another 425 to go. But I’m going to wait for the first batch to make it to their destinations and by Thursday of next week I will start calling each recipient and see if they got the mailer and strike up a conversation about solar energy.

I sat down this morning and devised how many panels, or solar water heating systems I would need to sell in order to generate $3,000.00 per week of activity. With my commission rate being cut in half I need to sell twice as much as before. So to meet my financial goal it will require for me to close the deal on an approximately two 3.0Kw sized system plus three 80 gallon SHW installations per week.

I think I am talking myself out of this as an occupation. The real way to make money in this business is to move where people want solar power and fight the competition or open a solar energy store and have offer workshops and seminars to educate the masses on the advantages of solar.