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Derek - Master Electrician, Solar Installer and Solar Installation Company Owner
77 Plays1 year ago
Derek is a master electrician, solar installer and with his wife, owns a solar system installation company. We discuss the steps to become a master electrician, how family members influenced his skill set from a young age, and how to operate a successful business. We discuss solar system installs, the growth and manufacturing of solar components, some common north American brands, net metering, rebates, the permit process, as well as advice on how to be successful in his line of work. If you love alternative energy as much as I do, you will enjoy this deep dive into what a Solar install company does and the man behind the operation.
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Music by: SnoozyBeats - Song Title - "Keep It Calm". Please check out SnoozyBeats on PixaBay for a ton of awesome content! -LINK
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Transcript
Introduction to the Podcast and Guest
00:00:11
Speaker
Hey folks, you're listening to the jobs podcast. I am your host, Tim Hendricks. Your time is valuable. I'm not going to waste it. Let's get right to the interview. Good morning folks. Thanks for joining me on the jobs podcast. Today we have Derek with us. Derek and his wife on a solar company and he is a master electrician and we're going to do a deep dive into his education, his upbringing and the nuts and bolts of his job. Welcome Derek.
00:00:36
Speaker
Thanks for having me on. You bet.
Derek's Background and Early Influences
00:00:38
Speaker
So let's go ahead and start with your, where you were born, your family, early influences and education, just kind of how you grew up and moved into the career that you're in today. Yeah. So, uh, I was born and raised here in Springfield, Missouri, so I never left here. I lived kind of on the Southwest side of Springfield.
00:01:00
Speaker
Went to Horseman Elementary School, which is also the same school that a guy by the name of Brad Pitt attended. Pershing Junior High, Kickapoo for high school. So in high school, kind of started taking some business classes there. I was a member of the ah FBLA, which is the shoot Future Business Leaders of America, kind of sparked some interest there.
00:01:26
Speaker
uh, lived with my dad who ran his own business ever since I can remember. And I had began working for him, uh, through, through my youth, really, you know, helping him go into job sites. And then, you know, as long as I got into high school, um, we actually paid me and then I continued to work for him out of high school. What type of, do was he a builder or what did he do?
00:01:57
Speaker
Uh, he was a subcontractor for builders. That's what I would say. So, uh, we did, uh, central vacuum. So that was his main thing. Kind of the bread and butter that he started with. Uh, and then from there it expanded into other low voltage items, uh, such as a home security.
00:02:16
Speaker
music and com systems, home theater, we would do wiring for cable TV and actually install satellite television and some ah security camera stuff. Kind of just kind of all the little low voltage things that was kind of its own little niche market.
00:02:38
Speaker
So you had a pretty early influence and hands-on training with doing wiring and running cable and splicing and doing all that stuff. I did. So like even with the central vacuum systems, they run a low voltage wiring along with all the piping that goes to you know turn on each outlet throughout the house or even have a switch on the hose.
00:03:00
Speaker
you know, and then as we moved to the music intercom systems, the security systems, you know, that was heavy on wiring, landing wires, doing some programming. um So I had lots of experience in homes, new construction and existing, a little bit of commercial, mostly residential. So i've done a lot of that. And this is why you were in, say, junior high and high school?
Transition to the Solar Industry
00:03:29
Speaker
Yeah, so... At that time, we hadn't branched in as heavy into the wiring stuff, so it was more central vacuum systems. I started getting into the security and then the music intercom. and By the time I was out of high school, I was working for him full-time, and that's when we got more heavy into some of that, which I was a part of because I was interested in a home theater. um and so I would kind of learn ah how to do that, and I would take that on myself.
00:04:01
Speaker
of figuring out how these components of work, go together, how to control them, and that kind of branched us into more opportunities because I had the interest and the desire to learn it.
00:04:16
Speaker
How long did you did you do what you just mentioned the low voltage stuff and the home theater and whatnot but and transition into solar you're out of high school you're working you got checked but then you shifted gears at some point. Yeah so.
00:04:34
Speaker
And I skipped over one little piece of, I did take a few business courses at OTC. I didn't go to college right out of high school. I didn't feel, you know, my dad was willing to send me to college and I just felt like it was going to be a waste of his money. I wasn't the greatest student, you know, homework wasn't for me. I was okay in classroom, but you know, to take something home and get it done. Yeah. I wasn't always the best at, but I did take some business classes and I did enjoy that and I did learn.
00:05:03
Speaker
some, some good things. And maybe we'll point on this, or, you know, touch on this later. But there's one thing that really stuck with me that I still remember today. Go ahead, please. So well, empathic listening is what it is. So, okay you know, as we communicate, a lot of us want to communicate what's on our minds. And you and another person talks back to us and you know they're communicating what's on their mind, but you know we don't always listen or actually hear and understand what they're saying. yeah so Sometimes they're talking and it just kind of breezes right on past you just because you're thinking about your topic and you know what you want to say next. and right so I learned to kind of stop, slow down, really listen and understand what they're trying to communicate,
00:05:58
Speaker
And you can solve a lot of problems that way and just things go smoother. So, um, that, that, you know, yeah that's not necessarily even a business thing, but that was probably my greatest one takeaway from taking classes at OTC. You know, and that really stuck with me. You've got, you have to understand somebody and they may be a four communicators. They may be trying to tell you something and you're not, different and you've got to pry and dig deeper to really figure out what it is that they're trying to ah tell you, you know, and then you can, you know, so, you know, sales, part of what I do now, I'm in the sales position. yeah I've got a, you know, that really helped me, you know, through that process. But even when you're doing the installation, you've got to understand what somebody wants and in goal. So that, that was a big deal for me. And I didn't necessarily know it at the time, but it just kind of stuck and,
00:06:58
Speaker
I feel like I became such a better listener. So now I can stop. I don't talk. I just think about what the person's going to say. I can see that being advantageous in sales because it's hard for you to cater your end product or to satisfy the desires of your customer if you don't take the time to listen to know what it is that they actually want. Correct. Yeah.
00:07:25
Speaker
But so I took took a few classes there continued. Now that was in my early 20s and I continued working for my father until I was I think about 28. OK. And. I just. I guess I felt like you know when I was young, I thought I was going to take over my my dad's business and do all that and then. As I'm in my later 20s, I just see that.
00:07:54
Speaker
It appears I'm going to continue going down the same road. And that I felt like I wasn't learning some of the business things that I wanted. And I was just more of an employee and I just sent out and that just wasn't enough for me. I wanted more. I wanted to do more. I wanted to learn more.
Solar Installations and Innovations on Boat Docks
00:08:10
Speaker
And so my stepfather, who was, um, bearing to my mother, my parents had got divorced when I was in, uh, elementary school, going into junior high and, uh,
00:08:24
Speaker
He had been doing solar and he lived off grid on solar. He needed some help and I kind of started working for him part-time and um for long it it was full-time. So I fit really well because we're doing wiring, we're running conduit. It's all things that I was very skilled at. ah And so it iss just it was a match.
00:08:52
Speaker
And so that's so I can you know, so I started into the solar business when I was I believe 28 years old What what would the time frame have been was that I don't know how old you are So was that you know 10 years ago 15 years ago. I am 46 now so and I I worked with him we did I primarily solar installations on boat docks. So there's a problem with boat docks ah where they move out out. So electric cords aren't the best thing. As you move your dock out, the electric's got to move with it. And it's either down on the water, just kind of laying on the ground, rubbing around, which an electric wire in the water seems crazy to start with. But you've got it overhead.
00:09:44
Speaker
um you've got to reel and you've got to reel it in and out. um And then some locks lakes started mandating that you have solar because they just didn't want the electric coming on the docks at all. okay oh ah So those were standalone systems. So you know the dock would kind of be off-grid, if you will, with solar. So I learned a whole lot of how to do off-grid systems.
00:10:12
Speaker
Conduit wiring, we would have to submit CAD drawn engineer stamped plans to the Army Corps of Engineers, get approval, so there's an approval process. and so you know I was kind of handling all facets of this. um you know so I had done quoting and sales when I was working for my dad and you know the home construction stuff. And so I knew how to do that. So that transferred in the solar. um you know It wasn't long that I'm doing the sales, the quoting, I'm putting all the plans together, submitting it to the Corps of Engineer. I'm going out and doing the installation. you know and So i was just kind of I was able to handle all of it.
00:10:52
Speaker
I even started running QuickBooks. I was doing billing, but invoicing, paying vendors. so I really started to get a feel of you know how to run a business and all the things that go along with it. Along with the help from my wife, Ashley. so There's you you know some input from her because she had previously ran her own business. She had a floral shop.
00:11:18
Speaker
And so she had done all this stuff on her own. And to her previous experience, she had a similar thing. So she worked for a floral shop when she was in high school and out of high school. And that lady that owned that business taught her how to do everything. And so she was running that business. And then later on, she ran her own shop for a while in Springfield.
00:11:44
Speaker
So she was able to help me and then you know there was times when even she was coming in and handling um all the bookkeeping and things while I was busy and out working. That sounds like a pretty tough office to have when you're down just on boat docks. I would imagine you spend a lot of time at Table Rock Lake it's you know or Lake of the Ozarks.
00:12:06
Speaker
So not so much like of the Ozarks because they are not an Army Corps engineer. like So they're owned by Ammon Electric, the utility company. And so it's very easy to run electric on there, ah mainly because the lake doesn't fluctuate. you know They let it down a little bit in the wintertime to repair things. But for the most part, that lake stays at the same level. Things don't move around. so um and they just don't have the requirements. So okay it was Table Rock, Full Shoals, Norfolk, Beaver, Palmitare. I mean, I went into Oklahoma, Lake Eufaula, Tin Killer. I've been down to, I believe it was Lake Austin, some of the lakes, you know, been all over the place.
00:12:59
Speaker
Were these installs that you did typically a day job for installing the boat dock solar setup, or were you there for multiple days? Most of them were a day job, so we could, you know, if all we were doing was installing the solar power system, it it was absolutely a day job. yeah And then we had a pontoon boat, so everything was set up on a pontoon boat, we would launch that, pull it in, all our tools were right there.
00:13:27
Speaker
In the beginning, we didn't have that and we were carrying everything onto a boat dock. That was difficult because Table Rock, Beaver Lake, Bull Shoal, some of these, it was a very long walk from someone's house down to their roadd do so right ah umtoon boat boat changed thing. It was just a work barge. But we would also run the electric lines and conduit on the boat docks.
00:13:56
Speaker
So there may be a brand new boat dock and it's either a two slip or four slip, or it may be a 12 slip and they want lights and receptacles. And so, uh, we would also install all that. So if it's a large dock and it needs all the conduit wiring, ran lighting receptacles and the solar installed that make that a two day job. I see.
00:14:22
Speaker
Some of them were just an existing boat dock and they wanted to get rid of the electricity from the shore so that there's yeah a shock hazard or a shock potential. So when you bring power from the shore, you know, from your house, down to your boat dock or a utility pole. That is a grounded system. So if you were potentially to have a wire fall in the water, and it's not GFCI protected, now which is what you try to have everything be, it's what it's supposed to be, GFCI protected, so if there's any fault that trips a GFI,
00:15:03
Speaker
But if that is not there or there's a malfunction with it, whatever the case may be, and on wire, even an extension cord plugged out to the dock, somebody drops that in the water.
00:15:15
Speaker
That pathway is trying to return to the source, which means, you know, and there's a circuit or a loop. So, you know, from the house, we'll just say, you know, from the electric panel of the house, you know, it goes out on the hot, would go to the boat dock and return back on the neutral.
00:15:38
Speaker
The natural is bonded with the ground conductor. So if a hot wire falls in the water, it's trying to take the path through the water to the ground, the shore actually. Water is not a very good conductor of electricity, so it doesn't actually trip or break her. And it doesn't conduct very well. If a person gets in that path, a person is made of saltwater and they conduct electricity much better than saltwater.
00:16:07
Speaker
And that's how people get electrocuted and while swimming around docks that have some sort of electrical problem. um So the safety aspect is a big reason why a lot of people wanted to put solar on. So we would go on to some of these dock, we would take the shore power off, there their dock was already wired, we would install you know solar panel or panels on the roof, and we'd have a box that had batteries and an inverter in it and truck controller, and we could come in and put that all in and and power up their existing stuff ah in a day.
00:16:40
Speaker
Besides lights, what type you said receptacles earlier when you were talking about the install, what typically because I know you're probably limited to a certain extent by the amount of power that you can provide, what would the receptacles typically be used for on a boat dock? Boat lifts. Oh, okay. So they've got a boat lift. So that's the big deal is people want to get their boat out of the water and so they have a lift.
Understanding Net Metering and Regulatory Challenges
00:17:04
Speaker
they They may have a fish cleaning station that requires a water pump so okay to pump water. They may want to do a radio. Fishermen have chargers on their boats to charge their trolling batteries.
00:17:21
Speaker
okay So we kind of would do an intake on a specific boat dock of, you okay, you've got four slips. And a lot of times there was different owners of each slip. And so we'd have say, okay, what's everybody doing on this dock? And that's how we would size the system. So back to Lake of the Ozarks, part of the reason that our systems wouldn't work very well there is their usage on a boat dock is much higher than the other lakes.
00:17:54
Speaker
So, for example, the Army Corps of Engineers doesn't doesn't allow you to ah do a lot of things on your boat docks. They want it to pertain to boating and not where you have refrigerators, televisions, lounging areas.
00:18:13
Speaker
Ceiling fans, you know stuff that uses a lot of power Continuously like what like those are so like those are it's you know, very common for them to have a refrigerator and televisions Of course, there's large boats there So you've got cabin cruisers that are maybe plugged in that are using power 24 hours a day and that it's just very difficult to Mash a off-grid solar power system up to that versus at table rock lake you've got somebody you know if they've got a pleasure boat all they really care about is lifting their boat up and down and maybe a few other things run some lights at night sing term lights on.
00:18:53
Speaker
oh Is there a certain wattage ah cap that you have with the Corps of Engineers? Like you can't generate more than a thousand watts via solar, or you can't have over, you know, 200 amp hours of battery, or is it just kind of whatever you feel is necessary for the requirements that you've got at that specific dock? Yeah. So it's just the requirements of what they need. Okay. So the bigger docks, when you get into like the 12 slip community docks,
00:19:21
Speaker
Those generally have pretty large systems on it, so they've got a large battery bank, they've got a large solar array on the roof, and a lot of times we would even put timers on the inverters, because what would happen, a lot of times these people from out of town should get somebody that comes from a whole other state, comes down, ah uses their vote, and then they plug something in to their vote,
00:19:46
Speaker
whether it be a dryer, dehumidifier thing, or a battery charger, whatever it is, and they turn the system on and then leave. um Well, that can run it down, especially in the wintertime. We would have it set up with the timer where you get um like four hours of AC power down on the dock and then it would shut off. That would prevent somebody from just draining all the power out of the system.
00:20:12
Speaker
To go down a little bit of a rabbit hole, what was it about solar that drew your interest and made you move from the home theater and the low voltage stuff into the solar? Was it kind of a business decision only or is it something that you find really interesting and you enjoy or was it both? At the time, um, I didn't look at it that way. So it was,
00:20:39
Speaker
Another job that I felt like maybe I had more opportunity to grow and learn. And then as I got into that, I started enjoying it more and more. I just kind of tripped over this, I guess I would say, and found something that I really enjoy doing and that I ended up being good at.
00:21:02
Speaker
um You know, same thing, you know, when I got into the solar, there's a lot of things I didn't learn. These, uh, battery systems and inverter systems would be very complicated. I didn't understand them. I would take the manuals home with me, read them at knives to try to learn and better myself. Um, you know, and get that figured out, and you know, and I'd kind of always done that of, you know, I wanted to.
00:21:28
Speaker
I wanted to know it. I wanted to be better. I would do that stuff on my own time. All this time, I'm just an employee, but I still, I wanted to, you know, be good at it. I wanted to know it. I wanted to understand it.
00:21:44
Speaker
And no matter where I were, I took ownership and pride in what I did, and I treated it like it was my business. So I never had the mindset of, um I'm just an employee, you need to worry about that, or I'm not getting paid enough for that. chair I would take it on. i didn't It was just something I always did.
00:22:05
Speaker
Well, that's a good mindset to have. It typically lends itself to success if you're just constantly moving forward and trying to learn every aspect of what you're doing like you own the company. I mean, that seems like that would benefit you across the board. and Yeah, for sure. you know And so just doing it that way,
00:22:28
Speaker
um I learned everything, got confident, was good at what I did. And so I continued to work ah for my stepfather until I was about 35-ish, so about seven years.
00:22:51
Speaker
So during that time, I should add, we did some residential and some commercial projects. Solar was Not very well known You know people had maybe heard about it, but they thought it was weird or awe or didn't know anything about it ah There wasn't regulations in place to connect with the utility grid like there is today that didn't happen until 2008 So the solar business was was pretty slow and things just kind of slowed down and
00:23:31
Speaker
you know So we kind of ran out of work, I guess. And so I was kind of trying to figure out what I was going to do next. And I kind of worked a job for a little bit with a friend of mine um doing ah some auto work. And I did for that a little bit.
00:23:57
Speaker
and decided to start doing some solar projects on my own.
Independent Solar Projects and Market Expansion
00:24:01
Speaker
i So I was still working ah with my stepdad. He really kind of liked to focus in on the boat dock stuff and I liked doing the residential and the commercial work. There was a lot of details to it and a lot of paperwork um and just kind of They kind of go on for a while and he didn't like that part of it. So the boat dog stuff he liked, it's a quick thing as far as the sales process, the installation process. and There's a little bit of paperwork, but it wasn't too much. ah With the residential and commercial solar, first you've got to do your intake, which is talk with a customer and find out how much utility are you using and on a monthly basis.
00:24:52
Speaker
And then you've got to figure out a system that's going to match with that. Where are you going to mount the solar panels? Whether it's going to be on the roof or on the ground. And if they're going on the roof, will they all fit? Or do they have to be in multiple places? In the beginning, this is all done by hand. So I'd have to get up on the roof and do measuring and kind of sketch this out all out on paper. And then use some Programs provided by the government actually online to figure out what the solar production would be and then I'd built my own spreadsheet That would show Kind of this system size will do this for you, you know and be in a percentage Let's say you may this will cover 88 percent of your yearly electric bill.
00:25:41
Speaker
It's going to cost this much. And then if they want to do that and move forward. So then the next thing is I'd have to do a net meter application with the utility company, I would have to.
00:25:54
Speaker
get a one-line diagram which shows electrically how everything is connected. It shows the solar panels, the inverters, a little bit of the home electrical system, and a solar disconnect. And then I'd put that together with all the specifications of what their system is, which is spec sheets for the solar panels, the inverters, ah the racking,
00:26:17
Speaker
and kind of put that all together in a package and would mail it in to the utility company. And we have to get their blessing, their approval. Do you find that most utility companies work well with you or do you get, maybe it's better now, but in the early days, did you get a lot of resistance or pushback or kind of dragging their heels because you're cutting their market essentially or no? For sure. So it is better now.
00:26:47
Speaker
I feel there's still some utility companies that you can feel kind of them pushing against solar. We still are able to move through the process, but they're definitely doing some things that are making it difficult. There's some companies and utilities that never cared and are really easy to work with, and it's not a big deal. But yeah, in the beginning, but there was definitely some some tension.
00:27:17
Speaker
um Do most customers that have it put on their roof, are most modern day roofs able to handle the additional weight? I mean, I know solar panels aren't drastically heavy, but but is there usually any structural reinforcement that needs to happen with someone's roof or is it really a case by case basis or do you find that most of them can easily just withstand the additional weight?
00:27:45
Speaker
Most of them can withstand the additional weight. okay I have ran into a couple cases where I had to go in and add some additional breaks in. so Part of what I've got to do is get up in the attic, take photos, take measurements, and give this to a structural engineer to review. In most areas, um Springfield, Green County, Christian County,
00:28:14
Speaker
get up So after I would get the approval from the utility company, the next thing is I've got to get a permit. So I've got to submit all this stuff, except they want um a letter and a stamp set of plans from a structural engineer and an electrical engineer. okay So there was a few cases where the structural engineer said, hey, I'd like to have you add some more supports here, here, and here. We did that. But for the most part,
00:28:39
Speaker
solar panels, if they're roof mounted, add like 2.4 square pounds or a square 2.4 pounds per square foot. Okay. So it's pretty low. Yeah. The snow load that we're supposed to have is 20 pounds per square foot. So I assume what the structural engineer is looking at is Does this rock support 23 pounds per so basically that would be the additional weight of the solar panels racking wiring and if we had a um large snow that was 20 pounds per square foot. That would be a fair amount of snow would it not. I don't know what that comes out to an inches but that's the.
00:29:32
Speaker
the sizing we're supposed to go to, and then 150 mile an hour wind load. So there's also uplift. So we have to grab ahold of something. um You know, um you know, it's got to be able to stand that amount of uplift. The permitting process that you've mentioned a couple of times, is there a general, is this is probably going to take three months, four months, six months? What's the, what's the average timeline?
00:30:02
Speaker
ah It varies. and It varies by system size. So solar power systems are rated in KW. So you may have an 8KW system size or you may have a 16KW system size. But there's kind of a break at 10KW. So if you're 10KW or less, the utility company treats it differently and they will push it through possibly a little quicker. If you're over 10 KW they can take longer. So the mandates that are set um by the ordinances of the state, so there's what's called a easy um interconnect act, easy connect act, I think that's actually what it is, that was set in fourth by the state of Missouri to allow people to
00:30:53
Speaker
add their own power production ah with solar on their property and tie into the utility company and actually send energy back to the grid. And that would be net metering, correct? That's the net metering, correct. If the system is under 10KW, they give the utility company 30 days to review that ah and respond. If it's over 10KW, they give the utility company 90 days to respond. Okay.
00:31:23
Speaker
So, um, I can submit a set of plans and sometimes it will be approved in less than a week. Or I've also had it where I'm over the KW threshold and they take right up to 90 days. You know, possibly that's dependent on their workload, you know, so I may send something in and maybe they're really busy or behind or And it takes a while to get to it. and know that I don't know on that. ah So that that part's out of my hands there, but yeah but we submit to the utility company and wait to make sure they get the approval. Then at that point, I have the engineers go ahead and stamp my plans. I wait to do that because the utility may require some changes and I don't want to have stamp plans that they do.
00:32:18
Speaker
But then I get my plan stamped and then I submit for a permit. Depending on where it's at for the permit, they normally take about a week. I've had some of them take longer. I've got one jurisdiction now that it's taken me i'm right at a month to get a business license.
00:32:36
Speaker
goodre you know like I keep business licenses in areas where I'm constantly doing work, but there's other areas like Columbia. whether That's where this is. I'm going to do some work in Columbia, and I've been working to get a business license for a month now. That's through the holidays of Christmas and yeah New Year's and people I'm sure have taken off. and and I'm not in a hurry for it, so it you know hadn't been a big deal. but All this paperwork does end up sometimes so it can take months to get all this paperwork done. When we are ready to install the installation, depending on the size can be a few days ah to a couple weeks.
00:33:19
Speaker
the I wanted to go down a rabbit hole real quick, the net metering. I know it probably depends on the state
Financial Incentives and Tax Credits for Solar
00:33:25
Speaker
that you live in. If you're in California, Colorado, Florida, some places where they've got a lot more robust solar industry, I guess, for lack of a better term or it's I don't quite know how to explain it, but there's more rebates and things. you know They're just more involved from a government level. Is Missouri just kind of basically a federal deal and so then whatever the feds line out for the industry standard, that's what we're going to get or is it depend on the power company that you're dealing with? like How does the net metering typically play out?
00:33:58
Speaker
Yeah, so I'll touch on the rebates first. okay So the state of Missouri has never offered any rebates. There are other states that have, or they've had different incentives.
00:34:11
Speaker
that are called S-REX or Solar Renewable Energy Credits. So you know if a person installed solar, ah you know they somehow figure out that's worth X amount of credits and they're able to sell those and get money. In Missouri, we don't do any of that. The only thing that is available currently is the there is a 30% federal tax credit, which is at the federal level.
00:34:40
Speaker
Previously, there have been some utility incentives where they actually paid a rebate. That was something that um was mandated by legislation. I don't know who did this, but if it was a ah basically a forprofit and toy for for a utility company,
00:35:09
Speaker
ah which would have been like Amron, Evergy, and Liberty. Those companies that would have to pay rebates. Any of the co-ops or municipal utilities, like city utilities or Springfield, were equipped for that, so they didn't have to do any of that. okay But all those rebates were up to a certain amount, which I think was like 2% of their capacity. And I think everyone has reached those goals or the rebate tiered off, but there's no longer any rebates available from any utilities.
00:35:49
Speaker
The net metering, that is essentially, and I'm probably going to butcher this explanation, but you are sending, if you're using less than what your solar array is producing, then you are sending electricity back into the grid and the power company is paying you a set rate for the power that you are not using and you're sending back to them. Is that correct?
00:36:15
Speaker
well sort of. So they don't actually pay you anything. Credit, you may be a better way to say that. I would say credit. So here's how I like to explain it. Okay. So um you would have a bi-directional meter. So in the morning, when the sun's coming up, you're buying all your energy from the utility company. So everything's coming in from utility.
00:36:43
Speaker
As the sun starts to come up and hit the solar panels, you start making your own energy. So you start feeding into the house as well. At a certain point, you reach ah enough, you make enough power that you stop buying energy from the utility and you're providing all of your own power. Then as the sun gets stronger, because ah as it comes up,
00:37:10
Speaker
It's weakened through Earth's atmosphere at a glancing angle. So as we get to about 11 o'clock from about 11 to 2, that's when it is the strongest. And that's because there's less atmosphere to diffuse it. okay So we'll just say at 11 o'clock, you're making peak power. You're providing all the energy for the house, and you are sending power backwards into the grid. And our meter's keeping track of all this.
00:37:38
Speaker
So then you do that all day. Now you do the reverse going into night. So as you go into night, now you're buying power from the utility. Well, so ideally, just to dumb this down, what we want your solar power system to do is make twice as much energy as you need throughout the day. And then at night, you're just pulling that back and using what you stored in the utility grid. Oh, okay. Now,
00:38:06
Speaker
You are doing this all on credit. So your meter counts, you know, so let's just say overnight you um pulled in a hundred kilowatt hours. And then during the day, ideally you're trying to push a hundred kilowatt hours back into the grid and that makes sense. Okay. So, but it it is all done on credits through the meter. So the only caveat to this,
00:38:34
Speaker
they do that for a month so they let you exchange at a one-to-one rate all month long but then when they come to read their reader and figure your bill they're going to see who owes who so either you have a surplus of energy or you're in a deficit and you owe them or however much energy that your solar didn't provide for you if you produce more than what you used they will carry a credit over to the next month, but they do that at what's called avoided cost or what is um the cost for them to make the energy or what I like to just call the wholesale rate. okay um So they've got their wholesale rate, they sell to you at the retail rate. ah So they'll carry over that avoided costs or that wholesale rate of energy over to the next month.
00:39:31
Speaker
On average, utilities are anywhere from 10 to 15 cents per kilowatt hour. And the avoided cost rate is three to five cents per kilowatt.
00:39:49
Speaker
So this isn't a money making venture. This is just an elimination of cost for the, okay. Yeah. So, you know, some people and will call me and they think that they're going to put in this huge system and sell a whole bunch of energy back to the grid. And then the utility is going to write them a big check at them and they won't. So they'll, they'll credit energy to you. Okay. And, and that's it. And then after a year,
00:40:17
Speaker
time If you still have a credit built up, they wipe that out and you start over. Okay. I do have one specific question about generating power. We live in you know an area that can get storms, pretty rough storms from time to time. We're on the edge of our tornado alley.
00:40:38
Speaker
I looked into solar a number of years ago. I like it for the self-reliance aspect. At the top of my list is I really like alternative energy for that regard.
00:40:49
Speaker
but and I'm going to get the term wrong, I know it, but there was islanding or anti-islanding where essentially if I lost power and I had a solar array on my roof or a ground mount system, I wasn't able to access the power because they didn't want that. It was to protect the line workers that were down the street working on the power lines, which obviously I would not want to hurt anybody.
00:41:12
Speaker
Is that still the same kind of arrangement or is there something that's been done with batteries, micro inverters, things of that nature that allow you in a disaster where you're not getting power from the grid to still generate and then most importantly, access and use the power that your array is generating?
Technical Aspects of Solar and Becoming a Master Electrician
00:41:33
Speaker
Yeah, so um and what you just mentioned is what I would call a straight grid type system. So if It has no batteries and you've got BC energy. It says down to an inverter goes through an inversion process and comes out AC energy and it's able to push energy into your house and backwards to the grid. And so if the grid goes out your inverter senses that the grid is out and it shuts down and it stops.
00:42:02
Speaker
Producing energy and they're really not able to produce their own energy anyway because they require the sine wave from the grid to ah work off of and um Push the energy back again There are some caveats to that. So there are some inverters that have a Secondary output so you've got a grid input that has to go dead if the utility goes down But you can have a secondary output that goes to an outlet that would provide up to 2000 Watts of power that you could plug an extension cord in to run a refrigerator or something. Okay. And the reason it's done that way is you can't really put a transfer switch in and try to power your whole house because if your demand is more than what the inverter can output, which is 2000 Watts, which isn't a whole lot, it just stops working.
00:42:59
Speaker
And there has to be enough solar resource So if you've got a 6k W solar array, but it's cloudy out or there's snow on the solar panels or whatever Happens it can't output 2,000 watts Then you go into a battery backup system You know, this is the best of both worlds so you can sell back to the utility grid if the grid goes out the Input for the solar inverter stops and just stays disconnected from the grid that's down and then you've got an output that can feed a ah Like a sub panel that you could have Your refrigeration your well pump whatever things that are important to you to power an outage and you're pairing that off of batteries and
00:43:48
Speaker
and okay Now you use your solar to charge the battery. So you're able to run 24 hours a day um and you're able to do that forever as long as your energy usage doesn't go above what your solar is able to charge the batteries.
00:44:06
Speaker
OK, does the does it matter in that scenario whether you're using micro inverters that are on the panel or one stationary inverter? I think ah is it Solark is a brand that you have used? Yeah, so I'll say it doesn't really matter, but there are brands out there that do certain things better than others. So I do use the Solark brand.
00:44:37
Speaker
And it is more made for off-grid living than what the Micron first. So Micronverter brand would be Enphase. So they do have a system. It is, in my opinion, more made for what's called time-of-use um shaving. So what that means is in other areas besides ours, it's starting to happen here, but it's very prevalent in other areas like, let's say, California, where they charge different rates for different times of the day. Yeah, I'm already seeing that down here where I live. Yes. um So with some of these systems, they're made to just inject power to your house
00:45:28
Speaker
to try to prevent you from buying from the utility grid from like seven in the morning to nine in the morning and then again at five to seven in the afternoon or whatever the time it is. If there's a short outage, it will also power a few things, but they they're not very good at surging. And what I mean by that is, so when you've got a well pump that you're trying to power, there's a huge surge that happens on the startup. Same with an air conditioner. Okay.
00:45:57
Speaker
So some of these systems aren't very good with that, where like the solar system is. So it's got a large surge. So now we're starting to power whole house air conditioners with these systems. In the beginning, I never did that because of such a big startup jolt. but with The equipment's getting better. The battery technology is getting better and we're starting to power more and more things.
00:46:20
Speaker
It I'm going off of a ah distant memory is so lark at one point. I thought they were the only one that was emp Certified, I guess is are they are they still that are they the only ones or is that becoming pretty cut I'd say they are still the only ones so Okay, I'm not aware of anyone else that does what they do so they make an inverter that they call emp hard So they've done something internally to the inverter to help protect it. And then when they send that specific inverter out, they send out some pieces to put on the wiring of the solar panels and on the wiring of any of the electrical devices in your house to help ah prevent against an EMP from taking out your electronics. Okay.
00:47:11
Speaker
ah I've got a few of those. What is more common now, so like I'm working on a system that we're just finishing up where we had a solar converter, actually a couple of them, and we put on a product called an EMP shield. What that is, that ah goes in line like what a surge protector would, but they are they've kind of taken up that space of EMP protection.
00:47:40
Speaker
They're a certified contractor with the military. They've been testing with them. I feel like their product is kind of the best on the market for people that are concerned about, you know, EMB stuff. Sure. I could talk about solar all day long. I kind of geek out on this stuff. I enjoy ah learning about it. But you had talked earlier when we were talking before the interview started about you started in the solar industry first, and then you became an electrician.
00:48:09
Speaker
When, so you're, you're working, you're doing the solar installs and stuff and you did, I think you said automotive for a short bit. When did you take the step and get certified or trained to be a master electrician? So, uh, as I mentioned once about 35, I kind of was stuck, you know, trying to figure out what to do. So I started doing this on my own, started my own business. I was just handling it all myself until it grew. And then I began hiring people.
00:48:40
Speaker
So and I had been working with a master electrician that I'd previously worked with before. So he was helping me with, you know, some of the stuff to get permits, do some of these sign offs, you know, I would have to get him involved and pay him. And so I hired him full time. And was my plan was just I would have always have a master electrician working for me and other installers. And then we had a little hiccup along the way. And I realized that I was kind of caught where I always had to have one of these guys. And so I decided that I wanted to, you know, hold that myself.
00:49:23
Speaker
So there's many ways to go about getting your licensing, but I had had enough apprenticeship. So you've got to have 12 years of verifiable ah experience or hours. you know So I had to do you know you get a bunch of hours from my previous work doing electrical wiring get notarized forms, submit all this to the city of Springfield. And then I had to take the test. They have a master's exam test. And so I had to take that test, pass it, and then get my master's license ah with the city of Springfield.
00:50:06
Speaker
Then shortly after, an organization forms that you could actually get your ah contractor's license, electrical contractor's license for the state of Missouri, which you had to have your master's exam pass. And so I was able to get that. So now I'm currently able to go into any city in Missouri and do electrical work with that license.
00:50:37
Speaker
Is that license, is that typically done by the local authority like in your example, the city of Springfield or is that a state or a federal test? And approximately how many questions are on a test like that? Is it just written or is there a practical portion to the test or both? So as far as the test itself, it is done through a third-party testing facility I can't remember ah what that is called, but it is a standardized test across the United States and it's only administered by suitable places to give exams. So as I'm taking this exam, there's doctors in there taking their exams and this is where you go take these. I gotcha. okay um So once you pass that test, now I'm able to
00:51:31
Speaker
show this to the city of Springfield to get my master's license only with the city of Springfield. So this was a big problem before, so I would have a master's license with the city of Springfield. But if I wanted to go work in another city that's not close by, you know so everyone else would kind of reciprocate with Springfield that is close by. yeah But if I was to go to St. Louis, let's say,
00:52:00
Speaker
they wouldn't, you know, reciprocate at all with that. And they would want me to do their apprentice program for however many years and go through their ranks to get their master's license. I see. You know, and this, so this house was several places, several cities and Missouri. So it just kind of prevented me from being able to do work there. Once the organization formed that came up with the a Missouri State Electrical Contractors license, they all had to you know adopt that license and allow me to to go and pull permits and use that license. So that that that helped a lot in Missouri. Lots of other states that had already had that for a long time. ah So we we were
00:52:52
Speaker
a little later on that. but but not and yeah know So able to use that same same test scores to to show to get that. If someone wanted to be an electrician, is and I'm not asking you what you make, but can you can you even ballpark what your typical salary would be for someone who is an electrician like the gentleman that you hired that would do your solar installs and whatnot?
00:53:19
Speaker
What? Yeah, so that's been quite some time ago. So today, I mean, it's varying, you know, so, chair depending on so there's three steps to be an electrician. Okay. So there's a lot of people that say they're electrician and they're just, they're somewhere in one of these steps. So there's apprenticeship where, and ah so a true apprenticeship means you're working under a master.
00:53:47
Speaker
And you're being supervised by either a master or a journeyman electrician. And they're watching over your work and they're teaching. Or you may be doing an apprenticeship program at a school, you know, colleges offer some of this. Then there's journeyman. So to get a journeyman license, you've got to be an apprentice for four years.
00:54:13
Speaker
to be able to be considered to be able to test to actually get your license. yeah And then ah for the master license, if you've done step by step, I feel like it's at year eight. okay You could do that. I had to go use 12 years of apprenticeship because I can never get my Germans license. I just got straight to my master.
00:54:42
Speaker
um But as far as the testing, it was all written or multiple choice open book. I don't remember how many questions there were, but I spent the entire time working on my test, which I think was five hours.
00:55:04
Speaker
Wow. Okay. So, so it's not a 50 question test then. um No, it was. You had to use time management skills. I knew I had X amount of minutes per question. And if I couldn't find it and figure it out, I would mark it and come back to it later. I would go move on. Once I finished, then I came back and started trying to figure out the questions that I couldn't get quickly. And I did that until the end and then just, you know, a lot of it's multiple choice. Sure. hol Just kind of guessed on some things at the end that that I hadn't finished. As far as starting pay,
00:55:42
Speaker
ah you know I'm going to assume a German electrician is going to want to start at $25 an hour, $25 to $32 an hour. I don't know that I know what a master you know pay range is. There's not a whole lot of master electricians right for whatever reason. so the journeyman um so
00:56:15
Speaker
That's your most common one. yeah um Yeah. As far as a licensed electrician, there is a lot of people that would fall more in the apprenticeships. That's that's where the biggest class of actual workers or installers is in the apprentice.
00:56:33
Speaker
There's a lot of installers that are very good electricians, you know, they can men con if they can pull wire, but the practical part, uh, is difficult for them. So they may go in to take the journeyman's test and can't ever pass it. What type of person, you don't strike me as someone who likes to sit behind a desk just at a computer all day. You like to be out and about doing things. Is that an accurate statement? I do. So with my business, I've kept a small business.
00:57:03
Speaker
just for quality control, peace of mind. I really want to do good work and make people happy. And I want to be happy about the work that we're putting out that it's good work. And what I found is if when you grow your company larger, that becomes very difficult to control. And I just decided I couldn't stomach, you know, lots of happy customers because that's what's going to happen. I mean, it's just yeah no way around it.
00:57:31
Speaker
Quality over quantity. Yep. So states before so Just because I do the sales part I submit the plans, you know, I do ah um all of the technical paperwork, computer work aspects of our business. My wife actually handles all of our insurance. She does all the invoicing, pays all of our bills. That's a full-time thing, just keeping up with all that and the regulations and getting our taxes done and um all of that. But it does require a fair amount of computer work, which I don't mind terribly, but yes, I sit at my desk and
00:58:15
Speaker
generally, yeah I want to get up and go do something like get outside. And then when I go out and actually work, um, I love general work. um And it's a funny thing because most people, you know, i'm probably including myself, uh, when you're out working in the field, you think you're doing the hard work and that your boss, whoever that is, has got the easy job just sitting behind the bed. Yeah.
00:58:40
Speaker
The easy job sitting behind the desk isn't always easy because you don't always want to be there. You'd rather be out doing somewhere else. There's a lot of stress involved because you're juggling a lot of things. Problems pop up. You've got to figure out how to solve them. And then when you go out and field, all you're worried about is just doing your work. And if you're good at your work, you can do it efficiently.
00:59:04
Speaker
and do good work, make it look good. And you stand back and you look at it and you see what you've built in, you know, there's a sense of of pride and pleasure there. So I still go out and do some things myself. I do a lot of um EV charger installations. I enjoy doing those. um I do some service work for some other companies. So where they've got problems and I go out and I,
00:59:31
Speaker
Enjoy going out and meeting with people and working and, you know, solving whatever their issue might be. And and I don't mind the desk part of it either. But yeah, it's I certainly don't want to sit behind my desk. so you know, every day, a whole week long. The solar industry, you know, 20 years ago, it was, I don't know if niche is the right word or niche, however you supposed to pronounce that word, but it seems like solar nowadays, it's getting easier to do your job from the standpoint of people are more familiar with solar. It doesn't seem so niche. It doesn't seem so fringe.
Evolution of the Solar Industry and Business Philosophy
01:00:12
Speaker
It's very common. We see solar panels all over the place.
01:00:15
Speaker
Would i mean your industry seems like it's just gonna things are gonna keep getting better in that regard would you agree with that. I think so so you know i saw some competitors come in and really start ramping up advertising and have twenty some sales people in there yeah every show you go to everywhere they're out there.
01:00:37
Speaker
they really drove our solar markets. you know They really helped me because they really got the exposure out there. um you know The problem is there's been a lot of um you know solar companies that have not been so great. So there's some negative connotations out there. i And I run into those quite a bit because like I said, I'm contracted for a company to do service with people that have problems. So I ran into those you know frequently and I try to give them a good experience and hope to shed a good light on our industry. The technology has changed quite a bit. Batteries, ah you know, it wasn't too long ago where they were huge and bulky and lithium just wasn't as prevalent as it is now. Is it the life
01:01:25
Speaker
life po4 or po4 i forget the specific term of the new lithium batteries but everything just seems to be getting smaller more efficient the panels that used to cutting edge was 100 watts now you're what 450 500 plus watts out of one panel yeah so it depends on what the size is. But commonly for residential, I'm using a 410 watt panel. I've got a commercial one, which is a physically larger panel that I'm going to be in phone this year. It's like they were 650 watts. Wow, is what they are. So yeah, so the industry gets better and better.
01:02:13
Speaker
people are getting more aware. I feel like the solar industry is starting to settle in. There's a lot of companies that started out and didn't know what in the world they're doing, but wanted to get the solar industry. ah They're getting better now. And some of the ones that weren't good are, you know, they're gone now. So I feel like things have stabilized. It was um kind of wild west there for a little bit. You know, because there was when these utility companies were offering rebates. You know, there's a lot of door-to-door sales stuff going on and telemarketing and
01:02:51
Speaker
You know, I'm sure some of that's still happening, but a lot of that's calmed down and I just feel like we're at a pretty good place now as far as an industry in Missouri. Are most of the solar companies or the solar panels and batteries and inverters and things, are they made in China or do we have a decent manufacturing facility capacity here in the United States or in Canada or even in Mexico, I guess?
01:03:18
Speaker
So I believe all the electronics are all made in China in some capacity of some form. okay So Lark is an American company. Their inverters are made in China. okay I believe all the battery technology comes from China. Solar panels are different. There's a lot of solar panels made in China, but there's a lot of solar panels made other places.
01:03:44
Speaker
So if you know if you want to get technical, you know there's some made in Malaysia and Vietnam and Singapore. There's also solar panels beginning to be made in the United States again. We had pretty good manufacturing here when I first got into this.
01:04:03
Speaker
business. And then the Chinese market, you know their government was subsidizing the Chinese manufacturers and it ran all of our solar manufacturing out of business. okay So I believe that's why tariffs were put in place previously against Chinese solar products specifically.
01:04:25
Speaker
um And I did see that that did help to bring US manufacturing back because it is here now and there are some in Canada as well. For my own knowledge, are there two or three North American manufacturing for solar panels that you've used and would speak highly of? Q-Cells. It's a company called Hanwha Q-Cells. So they're not an American company, but they have started some US manufacturing.
01:04:53
Speaker
Okay. Mission Solar is another one. They're based out of Texas. Canadian one is. There's Canadian Solar. Oh, okay. And there's another Silfab. Okay. made canada And I'm sure there's a lot more than that. So and there's a whole lot of solar panels.
01:05:16
Speaker
Some of my suppliers that I deal with just carry a handful, ah which is a product that I'm happy with and that I use. What types of soft skills, if someone wanted to get into your line of work, what do you think you bring to the table as far as the soft skills that allow you to be as accessible as you are?
01:05:36
Speaker
the ability to do more. So as I mentioned, when I was an employee, I was willing to do work outside of work hours that I didn't get paid for. And that benefited me so much in the future. A work ethic, you know, so that just built a work ethic and I'm not scared to, you know, work at night, work on the weekends. And I don't have to say, no, this is a hard, you know, five o'clock is a hard set time that I'm off work.
01:06:06
Speaker
you know, in the, the, whatever it be, whether it's physical or computer work, phone calls, you know, I have people call me in the evening when he asks, no big deal texting me all the time. And I can handle that.
01:06:19
Speaker
Well, I was going to say, if you're going to be an entrepreneur, the clock, I mean, the day doesn't stop at five. I mean, you know, an eight hour work day, nine hour work day is just not usually how you're going to get ahead. The folks that I typically talk with, you know, you are making calls on the weekends. You're in there burning the midnight oil, shooting emails and answering phone calls and doing the research and stuff. That's what it takes, especially early on to grow your business, to pay your dues, to grind it out, and then you get to the point where you're successful and you don't have to do that or as much. That's exactly what I was going to say. so I'm at a point where things are a little more efficient. where you know We're moving in each piece of our puzzle, kind of
01:07:06
Speaker
fixed together, we know what one person is doing and I don't have to do that all the time. but In the beginning, you know there was times when something had to get done and I had to do it and you just spent the time. But again, it wasn't a big deal because I was already conditioned for that because that's what I was doing when I was working for other people.
01:07:26
Speaker
So, you know, regular employee, they need to accept that skill or challenge themselves to do more, even if they're not getting a monetary gain or even if their boss isn't patting them on the back, but do it for yourself. Because when I was doing that and then I transitioned into my own business, it was very easy. I, you know, I already knew how to do that. I'd done it before, you know, it just, I didn't even think about it.
01:07:53
Speaker
But I think that's a big transition for somebody that has not gone above and beyond very often to start their own business. you know That could be a difficult thing. You're getting all the stuff coming at you and your eight to five thing doesn't necessarily fit that.
01:08:12
Speaker
What's your best advice to deal with failure? I mean, we all are human. We all make mistakes. So if you make a mistake, what's the best way to move forward and learn from it? Well, you know, I guess it depends on, um, we make mistakes all the time. So, you know, I've got employees that make work for me and I talked to them about this and I said, you know, you're going to make mistakes. I'm going to make mistakes with my customers. I'll tell them.
01:08:42
Speaker
something's going to happen, you know, on your project, something isn't probably going to go wrong somewhere. You may know about it. You may not know about it, but something somewhere, there's going to be a problem. It's all about how you communicate, whether it's something with an employer, something with my customer, my vendor, you know, just wherever the problem is, it's about communication, you know, communicating that, you know, um, Hey, Mr. So and so, uh, here's what happened. You know, I dropped the ball. I screwed this up. I'm sorry. I'm working to get it fixed.
01:09:12
Speaker
and And you can take a very stressful situation, which is just, for example, let's just say that, ah well, this just happened to me recently. So we've got a job that we're trying to get completely finished and commissioned by the utility company before December 31st, because that's technically what has to happen to file a tax credit for that year.
01:09:35
Speaker
These people, my customers are trying to get a tax credit for the year 2024. And they're depending on me to get all this completely done so they can get however many thousands of dollars. I'll just say it's a $7,000 tax credit. and So it's a lot of money these people are hoping to get. That's why they have purchased a system from me. Well, I keep having these little delays and i I order stuff from my supplier. We show up as soon as my guy's out, they're out there working and they don't have something.
01:10:05
Speaker
So this is a mistake, whether it's my mistake, vendor's mistake, you know, whatever. This happened twice, you know, and so both times, you know, I mean, I couldn't be super stressed out about it. And, or I just tell my customer, here's what happened. I'm doing my best I can, you know, we didn't get this. I don't know why I'm a dig into it. I'm trying to get here as quick as I can. It ended up all working out and we got it all done. But instead of me carrying the weight of that problem,
01:10:34
Speaker
I kind of left it off my chest by admitting to the customer that you know hey, this is a problem, I know it's a problem, I'm working on it, they accept that. And I think in general, people appreciate that much more than you hiding it from them and trying to fix it behind the scenes. Yeah, I think people, they can be more reasonable than sometimes we give them credit for if, and it's a big if,
01:10:55
Speaker
they're aware of what's going on and they know that there is work being done actively to solve the problem. Correct. Because if you hide it and just think you're going to fix it and then it comes out and it doesn't get fixed as timely as you want, now this whole situation is built up where you could have addressed it in the beginning and kind of squashed it. So I have learned that with everything. I try to attack all problems as early on as I can.
01:11:21
Speaker
Yeah, no matter what it is maintenance on our vehicles everything i said there's a problem let's take care of it now because if you don't know you've got a problem here you got a problem there and all this stuff builds up on you no matter what it is let's let's just take that stuff head on and then it's no big deal.
01:11:35
Speaker
Yeah. That's a common theme with a lot of people that I interview is just rip that band-aid off, own up to it, address it, and then work to fix it and bring solutions to the table, not just the, I think the vast majority of the time that does make a huge difference in how things are received and dealt with. So if you, if you weren't in your current line of work, what do you think if you could go back 25 years and do a different career, any career you wanted, what would it be?
01:12:05
Speaker
So now that I'm doing the position that I do, which is a lot of mathematics. and So like in school, for example, when you take math class and you're doing all this stuff, how would this ever get used in the real world? Now I see it. It's my job is full of math problems to come up with answers.
01:12:31
Speaker
And I enjoy that. And I enjoy it building these things out and solving these little problems, which makes me think that some sort of an engineer might be fun because that's okay also what they would be doing. I thought you were going to say math teacher for a split second there, but no. So like an engineer is just dealing with so much math. Yeah.
01:12:51
Speaker
What, what type of math are you doing with algebra, geometry, basic math? Well, all loting okay. Yeah. And what I do, like we do, uh, ground amounts. Okay. Well, when you're doing a ground match, you've got to square things up. So you've got to use some geometry stuff. And then there's different methods of, of squaring things. But, uh, in,
01:13:18
Speaker
electrical, so like when you're doing anything that's three-phase, you're actually using the square root of three for a lot of things. to Yeah, just a lot of multiplication, division, um and then as you know i should get into more complex thing, you get more complex into the math.
01:13:45
Speaker
And so, you know, and I was a geometry was probably my favorite math thing, but I never got really good at complex math, you know, algebra, or, you know, I never even took calculus or any of that. Now, I certainly see the value in that, uh, in learning that and retaining that because it, it certainly is applicable, you know, maybe not for everybody like, but for what I do, um, you know, absolutely. Yeah.
01:14:16
Speaker
What's what is the best compliment that you have received in your career? So I get a lot of compliments that my employees. Are really good and that they play like them and I feel like that's a reflection of me down, which is something that might.
01:14:36
Speaker
and dad taught me when I was working for select one, your flight to customers, you ah pick up, clean up your mess. And I have good guys working for me. And I feel like I have shaken them a little bit. But so when I get that compliment, um that makes me happy because I'm not out on every job site all the time. And so my employees are true reflection of my company. That's what the people see. And so when they're happy with that, that makes me happy.
01:15:07
Speaker
That's good. It is funny how the little things as far as cleaning up job side and just common courtesy nowadays, they go so far. Yeah. Derek, thanks for taking the time to talk with me today. I know that you are a busy man. So I know you got a bunch of work to do after you leave here. But I learned a lot. I ah really like solar. So I was looking forward to talking to you about this. And how can people find you if they're looking for a solar system or electrical work or just whatever the services that you offer?
01:15:37
Speaker
Uh, so my company name is solar energy services. Uh, so you should be able to search it and find it, but my website is solar energy services, LLC.com. Um, and, uh, I've got website with contact links, my phone number, uh, text me, email me. Awesome. Thank you very much, Derek. I really appreciate it. Okay. Thank you. Have a good day. um You bet. joy stick michael And that wraps up another episode of the jobs podcast. Thank you so much for joining me today. Hopefully you found that interesting. As always, I wait until the end of an interview to ask you to like, subscribe and share. I feel it's important that I earn that support from you. Thanks again, and we will see you on the next one.