Hello! Lest you think, due to my lack of blog updates, that West Delta is defunct or just a web page holding some photos of PV arrays, rest easy my friends! Be assured I am still in business, working independently but with various smaller contractors, providing them with quality, efficient designs for their projects.
I have changed some things. After 5 years of almost exclusively designing solar projects, I've decided to move away from the industry, having suffered many affronts and watched it change from an idealistic, forward-looking endeavor to one bursting at the seams with charlatans and sales vultures. As much as the corporate buzzword get on my nerves, they don't call it the solarcoaster for nothing. In my opinion, the solar industry will start doing well when it accepts the fact that it's just another building trade and requires the planning and working within it's limitations like any other trade. Stop with the sales pitches. Stop outsourcing your plans to foreign countries to make it as cheap as possible. Stop the business model that pays contracted installers as little as possible. It's unsustainable and unfair. We all deserve to make a living off of our labor.
With all of that and the bag of cheeto, I've decided to focus less on PV for now and more on my other expertise, which is an older and more stable industry: fire sprinklers. The fire sprinkler industry is enjoying somewhat of a boom, both due to increased consciousness from some of the horrifying, deadly fires we've had and the successive adoption of the 2012 international building code, which requires fire sprinklers in most new structures, including new residential projects.
You'll come across the occasional naysayer regarding fire sprinklers, saying they don't do anything to put out fires or they cause structural damage from leaks, but none of that is accurate. While it's true that the main goal of a sprinkler system is to get occupants safely out of a burning structure, they often, even usually, do put out the fire, ultimately minimizing structural damage. A properly installed system will not leak, and unless you look for it, most people will never even notice that 3" white (or other color) disc on the ceiling. In addition, the cost of the systems are generally offset by savings on homeowner's insurance.
All that said, I do still work with some solar contractors, putting together permit packages or doing simple sales package layouts, and I am still available to do engineering analysis for you to find out your system potential, payback time estimates, etc so you can determine if it's worth the cost and effort. There's really no way to overemphasize the importance of good planning.
Thanks for reading! Happy 2018
Ben
I have changed some things. After 5 years of almost exclusively designing solar projects, I've decided to move away from the industry, having suffered many affronts and watched it change from an idealistic, forward-looking endeavor to one bursting at the seams with charlatans and sales vultures. As much as the corporate buzzword get on my nerves, they don't call it the solarcoaster for nothing. In my opinion, the solar industry will start doing well when it accepts the fact that it's just another building trade and requires the planning and working within it's limitations like any other trade. Stop with the sales pitches. Stop outsourcing your plans to foreign countries to make it as cheap as possible. Stop the business model that pays contracted installers as little as possible. It's unsustainable and unfair. We all deserve to make a living off of our labor.
With all of that and the bag of cheeto, I've decided to focus less on PV for now and more on my other expertise, which is an older and more stable industry: fire sprinklers. The fire sprinkler industry is enjoying somewhat of a boom, both due to increased consciousness from some of the horrifying, deadly fires we've had and the successive adoption of the 2012 international building code, which requires fire sprinklers in most new structures, including new residential projects.
You'll come across the occasional naysayer regarding fire sprinklers, saying they don't do anything to put out fires or they cause structural damage from leaks, but none of that is accurate. While it's true that the main goal of a sprinkler system is to get occupants safely out of a burning structure, they often, even usually, do put out the fire, ultimately minimizing structural damage. A properly installed system will not leak, and unless you look for it, most people will never even notice that 3" white (or other color) disc on the ceiling. In addition, the cost of the systems are generally offset by savings on homeowner's insurance.
All that said, I do still work with some solar contractors, putting together permit packages or doing simple sales package layouts, and I am still available to do engineering analysis for you to find out your system potential, payback time estimates, etc so you can determine if it's worth the cost and effort. There's really no way to overemphasize the importance of good planning.
Thanks for reading! Happy 2018
Ben
