“California is one jumbo solar mecca, and one big ass state” was all Cliff could say when he walked into the office from delivering a customer’s home solar kit. Northern California Highway 101 is ancient redwoods reaching to the sky, pristine Pacific Ocean shorelines and solar everywhere.
Cliff is one of our solar consultants who yesterday, just got back from delivering a sizeable home solar kit to a customer in the NW corner of California. Now it is not normal for our solar consultants to deliver solar kits themselves, but we have a policy that when a sale is assigned to a solar consultant, he or she takes ownership of the order. That means they are responsible for everything including acting as the safety net for delivering on our companies promises. The delivery driver called in sick, no one else free to make the delivery, the solar associate then becomes the go-to-guy. In this case, it was Cliff.
This particular home solar kit consisted of 6 Schüco 225 watt solar panels with racking and Enphase micro inverters. First stop, the Schüco warehouse in the East bay, then a quick trip to our warehouse in Santa Cruz to pick up the rest of the home solar kit.
Leaving at 0 dark thirty in the morning, Cliff said he soon escaped the confines of San Francisco and was soon weaving his way north on highway 101 into Mendocino County with our customers home solar kit secured in the truck. Solar kits have become popular lately because homeowners have discovered how easy it is to take advantage of the suns free energy, lower utility costs and put more money into the monthly house budget.
Northern California Coast
101 in Northern California will take you through rugged outdoor mountain landscapes, towering redwoods and winery after winery. But being a solar guy delivering a home solar kit, Cliff said he was blown away by how many solar panel installations he could see. It is nothing less than spectacular to find solar installed from small two panel kits to large commercial solar installations.
The solar kit delivery took Cliff up past the pristine waters of the Pacific Ocean, over scenic rivers, through redwood forests that California has preserved only allowing minimal impact when they laid Highway 101 N to the Oregon border. What Cliff said what really made his heart pound with excitement was everywhere he turned there were solar panels mounted in every fashion you could imagine.
The usual thinking is that home solar PV kits should be mounted on the roof of your home or cabin, but Cliff could not stop talking about all the small solar kits he saw that were ground mounted, and installed on garages. If you are a little handy around the house, they you should find a home solar kit doable. With a few basic tools and a couple of trips to the local hardware store, you can also install your home solar kit.
When Cliff got to the customer’s home and unloaded the solar kit, he said it was fun to see the excitement in the homeowner’s eyes. The 225 watt solar panels are packed in pairs which weigh about 90 lbs per box. After unloading the first 2 boxes, the homeowner asked if he could look at the solar panels in the kit. Opening the box was like watching a child open Christmas presents. The solar kit panels are packed face to face with a sheet of cardboard protecting each solar panel glass top. When the top solar kit panel was raised, so you could see the new panel, it was beautiful. The homeowner had a shine to his face like he was looking at jewelry.
Cliff spent the next 45 min going over each part of the solar kit carefully separating the hardware which came packaged and marked. Taking the time to make sure each customer understands how each of the solar parts fit, reading the drawings and instructions is always our SOP. It was only when the homeowner was satisfied with the initial instructions did Cliff head out to come back to Sacramento.
If you have never traveled the NW corner of California you are missing the amazing vista’s. As fun as that was, Cliff mentioned that his most exiting part of the journey was seeing all the different solar installations and configurations. Solar rocks!