Solar power is generated by the conversion of sunlight into electricity, either directly by making use of photovoltaic cells (PV) or indirectly using concentrated solar power (CSP) concentrated solar power systems use lenses or mirrors to focus a huge section of sunlight into a small beam.
Sunlight is converted into electric current due to ‘photovoltaic effect’. Solar power system is gaining in popularity these days due to increasing awareness among people that it is the cheaper, renewable source of electricity and is pollution-free than the conventional energy generated by fossil-fuels.
Apart from this, people are keen to contribute their bit to minimize greenhouse gas emissions by installing solar system at their homes. Although purchasing a solar power system is a thrilling event for many people, one should be careful in choosing the dealer for buying this type of equipment as huge investments are involved.
The following set of guidelines is meant to help people to avoid getting trapped by unscrupulous elements and buy the best home solar power system. As is common in any industry, the solar power sector has a fair measure of ruthless dealers, who have little concern for technology, environmental advantages and the buyer’s requirements. They are more interested in extracting money from those who are not familiar with solar systems.
Be careful of over enthusiastic sales personnel and particularly of video presentations. While some sales people are genuine, others, instead of explaining the features of the equipment, simply go on talking irrelevant details creating a lot of hype forcing the customer to buy the product without allowing him to understand the system.
The prospective buyer of solar power system should, therefore, insist upon getting all the answers to his queries before making a decision to buy from that salesman. Some sales personnel are fond of making a video presentation.
You should not get tempted by such sales gimmicks as most of it will be hype. On the other hand, an experienced sales person can properly explain the features of the system including about all its components by means of a single diagram.
Ignoring simple energy efficiency methods to decrease costs. Although a company dedicated to solar power business will also be interested in making decent profits, they will always come forward with several recommendations to reduce the cost of a solar power system. For instance, if a sales representative visits a customer’s house for a site inspection to assess the requirements, they may observe certain aspects such as the use of incandescent lights rather than compact fluorescent lamps.
A first-rate, principled company will highlight that incurring expenditure of a hundred dollars on changing over to compact fluorescent bulbs can result in savings of thousands of dollars on additional solar panels, which would be required to light the incandescent lights. In contrast, a sales person from an unscrupulous company will go all out to sell a bigger solar system.
High Pressure Tactics
As part of high pressure strategy, several companies give an impression to those looking for a new solar system that the offer would end soon or the same day, pressuring them to hurry up and buy their system. However, reputed companies will not pressure the customers into buying a solar system in a hurry as it is costly equipment and requires some time to study and do some research on various models of solar systems available in the market.
If you comes across a sales person rushing the customer to buy the equipment, it is an indication that the person is not from a good company and therefore, it is better to avoid dealing with such people.
Collusion With Related Industries
Some companies dealing in solar systems have close links with other industries, such repair to roof or roof renovation businesses. Although there is no irregularity in this, it may so happen that a householder calls a repairer for repairing the roof, who, after repairing the roof, applies pressure tactics to offer a deal on a solar power system.
It is not desirable to yield to such tactics as the buyer may not get the best bargain. Solar power system is very expensive and one should make a decision in buying the system after a comprehensive research and comparing packages of different companies Package deals are ideal for saving money. However, all packages are not alike.
For instance, a company might use superior quality solar panels, but compromise on the inverter, cable and quality of frame so that the brand name of the panel will lure the customers into buying that system ignoring the other parts. From this, it follows that when comparing two solar power systems, it should be like to like comparison.