Another disclaimer: I am a terrible writer (which is ironic because I write a lot on my blogs) and I am probably the last person in the world that should be doing a book review.

First I want to say that is book does not fall in to the group of spammy ebooks out there right now that show you how to make a solar panel for low cost. This is a real ebook, you can tell he spent a ton of time putting it together and is more concerned about educating the public about solar than making money off the book.

I mostly wanted to review this book because I am thinking of creating a ebook (actually video series) on how to create your own solar panel diagram plans for your DIY solar system. I am partial to videos because I think it is very hard to read a 60+ page book online (ah, my eyes hurt). Most eco-friendly people who buy this ebook will not print it out because they don’t want to waste paper.

Does the ebook help you answer the question of it’s title: ‘Is Solar Right For Me?‘ Not really. The title of the book had me confused, because in appears to be more geared towards the layperson in offering a overview of solar power and not really helping you answer the question.

When I started reading the book I kind of expected to see it in a series of questions like, “does your roof face south, what type of roof do you have” and then providing an answer if solar power might be the right choice for you. But the books starts with an overview of solar power.

He does have a nice section on how to live more efficiently which is nice since Kriss lives off grid and he must be a pro at this.

The Getting Started Checklist on the last page should be at the front of the book since that is what the title is all about. Or perhaps he should rename it to General Overview of Solar Power. I guess I was just expecting something totally different.

He does offer good advice on what to look for in a contractor and what red flags you should watch out for, like does the contractor say he doesn’t need a permit.

The ebook is unfortunately outdated already because there is no mention of micro-inverters and how they differ from central inverters.

Is it worth $29? I am not sure. I think it might be if Kriss changed the format around a bit. Perhaps it would be if he asked more questions to see if you are in a good spot for solar to work, like the new Iphone app that came out (which I plan on review in the future) to see if you will have shading obstructions in the winter months.

Post from: Dave Dugdale SolarDave.com I will be offering Solar Panel Diagrams soon. Review of Solar Sphere Book – Is Solar Right For Me?

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Why do a spoof on off-topic link bait?

I was fascinated with Oatmeal’s (Matthew Inman) story about “Widgets Gone Wild” on the SEOMOZ blog. It will probably be one of the top 10 SEO blog post of 2008 because it brings up some new and interesting questions. I hope Oatmeal’s issue with Google on “Off-Topic Link Bait” will become a hot topic at the upcoming SMX Advanced conference. Perhaps this video will add a little more fuel to the conversation.

Oatmeal created some highly successful widgets that had nothing to do with online dating and in turn ranked #1 for some extremely competitive terms like “online dating”. But Google got wind of what he was doing and torched his site to the ground. So Oatmeal built another site from scratch and used clean SEO tactics this time but Google told him that he was still heading down the wrong path with his off-topic widget bait.

The reason I am so fascinated with this story was that Google used to whole heartedly endorsed link bait before in the past, but now there appears to be different shades of gray of link bait. I hope Google handles this issue carefully, because if not it will hurt creativity on the web.

I wonder if Greg Boser who is moderating the Blow Your Mind Link Building Techniques session can get Matt Cutts to comment on Oatmeal’s issue.

This is not my first spoof video I have oriented towards conferences.

I would like to thank Rand Fishkin for allowing me to use his video from his WhiteBoard Friday interview with Matt Cutts. And James Davidson for the use of the Matt Cutts photo, David Besnette for the voice of Rand Fiskin.

Note: This is only a spoof: as far as I know Matt Cutts is alive and well.

Transcription of the video:

I am Dave Dugdale, And you’re watching, SolarDave TV.

Google spam engineer Matt Cutts was electrocuted on top of the Google’s world headquarters yesterday.

Matt was sent up to fix the 1.6 mega watt solar array and touched the wrong wire.

On the news of Matt Cutts death, Google’s algorithm quickly became unstable and starting producing irrelevant results.

Matt Cutts has talked several times that if he got run over by a bus that Google would still run fine…

Apparently he was wrong.

The search industry is in shock of this news. Danny Sullivan had this to say. “The search community has suffered a great loss, but Oh, oh, oh, why have Google results become so crappy, was Matt’s brain somehow tied into the Google’s main frame?”

Dave Naylor had this too add: “What the f@ck is going on with the stock price, at this level Microsoft can forget Yahoo and instead buy Google!”

Rand Fiskin chimed in with, “Perhaps Matt committed suicide from being Rick Rolled to much.”

So if Matt is gone, and the algorithm has gone to the crapper, are we going to see a shift from white to black hat?

But then again this video really doesn’t have any thing to do with solar.

Post from: Dave Dugdale SolarDave.com I will be offering Solar Panel Diagrams soon. Matt Cutts Electrocuted By Solar Panels [Video]

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This is my 4th question I asked Sam Weaver in my interview with Sam, he is with Cool Solar Inc.

SolarDave: What brands of inverters do you like to install?

Sam Weaver: We use SMA inverters, SMA is the largest manufacturer in the world right now. It is a Germany company. One of the things we like about SMA they have a long partnership with an American distributor. So the guy that is the head of SMA America has been in this business quite a long time 20 years.

They have a lot of selection so you don’t have a lot of steps between the inverter sizes. You can general size an inverter for exactly the system installed there.

They also give a lot of help with the analysis whether your inverter will be over burdened so time of the year when it is cold outside so they give a lot support on their web site.

SolarDave: Do some of the inverters have cards in them for the Internet display?

Sam Weaver: SMA has a line of appliances that plug in to their inverters, one of them is called the SMA Sunnybeam which I believe they have discontinued but they are new model out – it is just a little display unit that is wireless, wire the transmitter to it SMA box and you get a little portable display on it that you can put in your kitchen or living room or where ever.

Then they have the SunnyWeb Box which is also wireless that you can access to your computer – then you can server that data out on to your web site / Internet where people can look at it.

Post from: Dave Dugdale SolarDave.com I will be offering Solar Panel Diagrams soon. SMA SunnyBoy Inverters and SunnyWeb Box

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This is one of the interviews I had with Sam Weaver of Cool Solar Inc. in Boulder Colorado.

SolarDave: Which solar panels do you like to use?

Sam Weaver: We use Sharp solar panels that is our first choice, Sharp makes about a 1/4 of all the solar panels distributed in the whole right now, they have a 25 year warranty and the panel is assembled here in America.

The one that we use the most of is the Sharp 187W ND-187U1 with the SRS racking system which is assemble in Memphis. We are a union supporting shop so we use union labor and we prefer to support materials that are made here in America as much as possible.

The warranty on the is good, it guarantees degradation rate as well as your initial install power so we favor the Sharp panel.

SolarDave: That was the Sharp 165W or..

Sam: 187W. The 187 is especially designed with the Sharp racking system is the one we prefer. Makes installation go a lot faster.

Post from: Dave Dugdale SolarDave.com I will be offering Solar Panel Diagrams soon. Sharp 187 W Solar Panel (ND-187U1)

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I have visiting contractors in the Denver / Boulder area to interview them on camera for this site, and I noticed that many of the contractors like using this Kyocera panel. The model number KC200GT stands for 200 watts.

This 16% efficiency panel has a 20 year warranty and costs about $900, perhaps that is why these Colorado contractors like it. In my next interview I will ask them why they like it some much.

I have a video of how these Kyocera panels are installed with the mounting bracket rail system.

Post from: Dave Dugdale SolarDave.com I will be offering Solar Panel Diagrams soon. Kyocera KC200GT

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• $755
• $870
• $791
• $695
• $870

I wondered out loud what a professional contractor buys them for – I am guessing 30% less than these prices.

So then a question pops in my head, “what do they sell for used”. So I went to Ebay.com and I couldn’t find any for sale. In fact I couldn’t find many used panels for sale on Ebay – most of them are for RV’s, trailers and such.

So my conclusion is that once a Sharp solar panel goes up on your house, it would be pretty rare for it to come off the roof and listed on Ebay.

I was talking with a heating contractor last week and he said something interesting – he mentioned that he lost count how many solar heating roof systems he has pulled off roofs in the past 5 years in the Boulder Colorado area.

He said that a ton of people installed them in the late 70′s and early 80′s and most did not make it to their 20 year life span or they cost too much to repair or new people move in to the house and thought it was an eye sore.

Post from: Dave Dugdale SolarDave.com I will be offering Solar Panel Diagrams soon. Sharp 165W NE-165U1

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