Is Home Solar For Everyone? The Final Chapter With Manny Hernandez

Is home solar for everyone? Or is solar just snake oil? I have not been sold on solar because of past conversations with solar contractors and realtors as well as home owners. As of now no one has explained solar to me in a way i could understand it and how solar would benefit me. So does it really work? And is solar for all home owners or all homes?

Lets Ask Manny

I met the owner of Solar Service Professionals Manny Hernandez when he hired me to inspect his home from a referral courtesy of his realtor Larry Cook. I had no idea Manny was in the solar business, but when i found out i picked his brain and quickly asked him to be a guest on the podcast.

Manny has years of experience in all solar industry positions which makes him very knowledgeable about designing, installing, monitoring and inspecting solar systems for proper operation.

This multi part podcast will cover all things solar, so sit back and relax as Manny educates both you and me about the pros & cons of solar. Be sure to listen to all parts of this Solar podcast so you can make an informed decision if solar is right for you and your family.

You can contact Manny Hernandez Directly

https://solarserviceprofessionals.com/

866-765-7767

Transcript

John Laforme: 0:00

Buying a home. Don't panic. Just listen to the rest of this podcast Welcome to my podcast everybody. My name is John laforme. I'm a certified home inspector and the owner of home inspection authority. My podcast allows me to share my day to day home inspection experiences and knowledge to help homebuyers, homeowners, realtors and other home inspectors set realistic expectations with each other during the home buying process. So, you know, thanks for all your info. You've given us your shed some really good info today. I really appreciate that. I learned a few things. I love it. I love it when people teach me stuff. Yes, man, I do not don't know everything that is the damn sure. So I pulled some screengrabs off your websites. I really liked your site. Very simple to read. And once again, your website

Manny Hernandez: 0:52

is solar service. pro.com.

John Laforme: 0:56

That's a great website. Yeah. So easy to remember.

Manny Hernandez: 0:59

It's what we do we serve solar and our professionals are service professionals.

John Laforme: 1:03

Don't whatever you do, don't call Manny the CEO. It brings back memories. Yeah. Alright, so looking at looking at what you guys offer system repair, you'll give me a brief explanation when we

Manny Hernandez: 1:14

fix a broken solar system. As a home inspector, you should when you you don't go into the solar like you were saying, right. But you should see the solar breaker. Well, the one with the red sticker is on or off? Yep. And if it's on does it lead to some kind of solar inverter equipment? Okay, and if that installer, the for all my home home inspectors out there homeowners, most inverters that are on the wall will have a screen and error codes and lights saying green is good producing power. Red is bad. It's broken service alert. Okay, so if you see error codes or service error, something on the screen that it's supposed to be intuitive that says hey, this isn't working into red light, then call solar service professionals.

John Laforme: 2:01

Okay, cool. And also says you do solar leaf, I'm sorry, back to the system repair. So that's one thing you've given a tip to home inspectors what to look for, but in general, what is a common thing with a broken solar system? The breakers off

Manny Hernandez: 2:16

the cop? Well, the inverter has failed. So inverter units are our units that convert the electricity from the DC solar power of the panels to AC power that your microwave in your house.

John Laforme: 2:32

That's that's way too complicated. Okay, so let's make it simpler for people. So the sun is captured by the panel by the panels and then that DC power then the inverter converts that the power

Manny Hernandez: 2:43

to AC power AC power, right. Okay. So they're both power, they're you the bulk kill you, right. But once DC winds AC,

John Laforme: 2:49

AC and DC, that's my favorite band. That's right, my favorite band. So

Manny Hernandez: 2:55

most homeowners from 10 years ago that got the system 10 years ago, have this huge equipment or appliance hanging off the side of the wall? Have you probably seen them in your inspections? They'll have a red light or a green light if they have a red light and some kind of error message on there. Or this is not how it usually looks

John Laforme: 3:13

right? That's probably a furnace. Sometimes they have ever codes. And

Manny Hernandez: 3:16

that's right. Oh, and they only last 10 years. The inverters although the solar panels last 25 years, the inverters only last 10 years. So right now we're in 2023. I'm replacing inverters from 2013.

John Laforme: 3:30

Is there a way to look at those inverters? Is there a is there a serial number that I can decipher the age of it? Yep. On just say the date

Manny Hernandez: 3:39

it says the date or, or, or it does have a code that you have to decipher and tell you the week and the year that it was it was made. It's like a water heater as as a home inspector, the thing you should do is look for that sticker. Take a photo of it. And sometimes the sticker is on the left side right side or bottom. Take a sticker of it and include that in the report. And they will generally tell you we can't we can't do that. Oh, you can't include this this.

John Laforme: 4:02

If if I'm not if I'm not reporting on a system. I don't report on any

Manny Hernandez: 4:07

of Oh, you don't even include it so you wouldn't even have the like say it has a solar and this is the model I

John Laforme: 4:12

let my customers know right up front when they hire me. Why is that touch solar? Because I don't know enough about it. I don't have a way to test it. I can't tell you if it's gonna work if you're if like you said that your backup your backup battery source is going to work I can't tell you any of that right tools for that right?

Manny Hernandez: 4:28

Well why not just say well, like like I can refer you like an air conditioner This is in our motto This is a

John Laforme: 4:36

part of my that's part of my job is to report on the heating and cooling system,

Manny Hernandez: 4:39

but not the solar at all. Yeah, makes sense. You don't want to open of course

John Laforme: 4:44

but from my own knowledge you know, as home inspectors are like very nosy about stuff so we want to look at I like to know about stuff even though I don't inspect it because I'm just learning. That's a common thing that we

Manny Hernandez: 4:56

do give homeowners informal info like hey, this is sticker Have you want to look it up and call the manufacturer if they ask if they ask. Okay, and if they're present? Sure. And if Larry told you who the buyers that that

John Laforme: 5:07

would be a good start. Thanks, Larry. Right. But anyway, so solar roof leak repair, we talked about that a bit because there isn't there's just poorly installed. It's all about flashings and ceiling waterproofing water come in common sense, common sense. And that's going to be in the top of the list from now on. Yeah. A panel washing, here's something that I see a lot, I'm on a roof and there's an don't bother, don't use a quarter inch of dirt on there. Don't bother, don't bother

Manny Hernandez: 5:36

what washing your panels, really. Most of the time, you don't need a panel washing room, unless you're having a wedding,

John Laforme: 5:47

I can't believe you're telling me this one. I'm like in shock, unless you're gonna have a wedding

Manny Hernandez: 5:51

or a baby shower in the backyard, and you want it to look nice for your relatives. But generally speaking, the solar system does not need to be washed. Just through the normal process of the rain. It'll produce, maybe maybe the soil will produce will make this produce 2%. Less. Wow. And people will say, well, a 2% 2%. Okay, but 2% of I don't know, let's say $1,000 a year that it's producing electricity is nothing, right? It's like 20 bucks, or whatever it is. What are you going to pay a power washer? Unless you're gonna do yourself, John. Right, unless you're able physically capable, and most homeowners are not. They're homeowners that have solar nowadays. They're like, 6570 years old, right? From a wall. Don't

John Laforme: 6:42

forget most new houses the two story

Manny Hernandez: 6:44

and then the two story so. So what you're going to pay a service guy like me and me, my view is this is going against my interest, right? Because I make money off solar panel washing. But I'm telling you the truth. You don't want that's good. But if if, because you paid me 150 bucks minimum to come out. Right? I gotta pay the employee, you got to pay the insurance and I got to pay the service. And it's so 150 bucks to $300 Depending on the house standard residential house, not a mansion. mansions are different price. Sure. Commercial dimension price mentioned price. They have huge and they have all over the house. So you got to jump from not a

John Laforme: 7:21

ladder out here we call McMansions. Yeah, so

Manny Hernandez: 7:25

what you're going to pay for that panel wash, your savings of that year of the electrical of the photovoltaic solar system is you just gave it away, you gave it from DWP or Burbank water power. Nice. And he gave it to this guy, right. And, and, as a homeowner, you should ask the new the seller, do we have a monitoring system. Solar Systems have a monitoring system that are connected to it. The solar the monitoring system is an electronic device that communicates electrically to the solar system. And then it communicates Wi Fi or internet, to your internet or the house or via cellular chip or somehow. And what that looks for the homeowners looks like is you got an app on your phone saying your system is working. And this is how much electricity has got a nice little graph. And if there's a problem, I'll tell you the problem. So when I set up new solar systems, I know what the system should produce. I've done the engineering. So I know based off the roof pitch of your house, the direction the brand of the panel's inverter, you're supposed to, you're supposed to produce x amount of electricity a year per month. If it produces less, that's, that's a production estimate, month over month, 1212 months. So if it doesn't produce that, then it alerts you. And if you if you live on a ranch, if you live next year freeway, then probably within three years, your production will go up and say hey, you're not producing as much as you should be, then maybe it's time to wash the panels. But I say 99% of the houses don't have that problem. So I said

John Laforme: 9:07

okay, all right. So two things. One, you need to fix that on your website. It says, Do you know that dirt, dust smog, bird droppings and grime will reduce your solar panel production? You don't really need it, but we'll do it. We'll do it for a fee. Yeah. Anyway, so you just brought up something that I didn't think of before roof pitch? Yes. So do you have to mount a panel to the roof pitch or can you angle it up higher?

Manny Hernandez: 9:35

You can angle it you can Okay, so a lot of homeowners that have a flat roof garage or a flat roof home technically called a low sloped low sloped roof right? It should have a slope, right?

John Laforme: 9:45

It should it's got a drain.

Manny Hernandez: 9:46

I've seen some homes that don't have the old ones don't don't they just

John Laforme: 9:50

pull up on this flat and just deteriorates. Yep, I agree with you.

Manny Hernandez: 9:53

So ideally in California, the pitch of your panels should be towards the south. At 17 degrees. So if you put your smartphone iPhone Android and put it on the panel and check the degrees, it should be at 17. Right?

John Laforme: 10:09

There's a good app for that called Pitch factor. Yeah,

Manny Hernandez: 10:11

there's a good app for that. And that's gonna cost a little bit more maybe 500 bucks more for the hardware and 500 bucks more for the labor I say, but the amount of electricity you're going to gain from from tilting it versus not tilting towards it.

John Laforme: 10:27

Now, do you? Is that something you give the homeowner the option to? Yes. You explain that to me explain it to them this way

Manny Hernandez: 10:34

or this way. And it depends on the home if if the pit if the low sloped roofs on the garage in the back, they don't care. And they usually want to do it. If the house is I have had a homeowner in Culver City that had a low sloped roof. The whole house was like that. And so the panels in the front he was remodeling were flat is no they were they were they were tilted. And you can see him from the street. So aesthetically, it's not. It's

John Laforme: 11:00

that's why you want to keep them clean, man. It looks ugly. It looks ugly, especially if they're

Manny Hernandez: 11:05

dirty. Wouldn't even that though, because because the glass was facing the opposite direction. So he was seen Oh, the ugly hardware, the hardware part of it from the from your lawn. Yeah. So when he remodeled that he asked us to move them and lower him down and get them out of the way.

John Laforme: 11:19

Right. Right. Some people will get creative and they think it's good idea. I've seen it with H vac systems. Yeah. Big package units on roofs and you see him right from the front of the house. They put these people put fences around them on the roof. Yeah. Mike, that's interesting. How'd you mount that fence?

Manny Hernandez: 11:34

Well, some you know, some of the roof some city. Yeah. Stupid. Some cities require that.

John Laforme: 11:39

Yes. Right. Yes. And I believe the that was Santa Monica.

Manny Hernandez: 11:43

Yeah. And they you have to build a little fence around them. It's stupid.

John Laforme: 11:48

Just built on the build a pitch roof in front of it. Yeah, that's all you got to do. So we almost forgot about something. And that is my neighbor's roof.

Manny Hernandez: 11:57

The Tesla system Tesla. So your neighbor? Yeah, I saw that pulling up. It looks you can tell it's a Tesla roof. Right? Yep. It's it's kind of glossy, it looks plasticky, can toyish I wouldn't want to walk on it. I wouldn't want to walk on it. So the thing I have for you know, this question goes out to Elon Musk, if anyone wants to tag Dr. Evil, Dr. Evil, okay. How do you service those. So I'll give you some context. We told our Service Pros replace, test and replace a faulty solar panels from the manufacturer. So panels from 2014 15, when there was a big solar boom, these manufacturers were just producing, producing, producing, there's rebates, there's money, let's push them. The the the people that provided the materials to these manufacturers ran out of a grade of material. This has been researched. And you can find this articles online. And so what they did is they sold them beam grade material to these manufacturers. And when they ran out of B grade, they sold them C grade. Great. They didn't tell the manufacturers so the manufacturers really almost have no blame in this, you can't really fault them. But they're their suppliers are where they're getting the raw material from, right. They just wanted to make money. So they sold them the shitty material. So these guys made the panels 10 years down the road solar service post comes out and test these panels and have failed. What that does is it causes the inverter Eriko to go up your system to shut down. And you don't know why you visually look at the panels and you don't understand it unless you're a solar professional. Right that has the testing equipment and the experience to figure it out. You're not going to know. Right? So it's very possible. You even with that was a material issue. There are some there's been some American companies that have done that have gone out of business. They didn't have that material issue, but they just had a manufacturing issue. And the panel failed. Now, solar panel systems, older solar panel systems are kind of like a Christmas light system. The old ones where if one bulb burned out

John Laforme: 14:04

the other ones download the Hello string went down well, the ones downstream, right?

Manny Hernandez: 14:08

They would fail they would just turn off right? So that is what the older systems string systems you call them it's not fair to say oldest string system during system will go down. Okay, modern systems microinverter systems don't work that way. You don't have a big appliance on the side of your house you have many appliances or electronics underneath your solar panels. So if one goes down, the rest of them keep working. Or if the tree shades one of your panels, the rest of them keep working. So you minimize it.

John Laforme: 14:41

So they got smarter as they developed it.

Manny Hernandez: 14:43

Now, the Tesla roof systems are string systems ship. So now okay,

John Laforme: 14:52

this table is so foreign foreign shingle

Manny Hernandez: 14:55

goes down everything after it. And how do you know what shingle it is? By replacing each one, so the only way to service tests the only way to service it when you do anyone that knows roofing, you start from the top down and you start to have to lip take them all down and come down to the problem. So my first question that Ilan is how do I know which exact shingle is the problem? Because it may not look like a golf ball didn't hit my Oh, hang

John Laforme: 15:22

on, hang on. I think Elon is calling in right now to answer that. Elon? Is that you?

Manny Hernandez: 15:29

So how do you know what shingle it is?

John Laforme: 15:32

Elon to expect a phone call or an email, right? Let's do this.

Manny Hernandez: 15:35

How do you service? It?

John Laforme: 15:37

is a good question I have and I have another good question when you're done.

Manny Hernandez: 15:41

So to the homeowner, it's like, listen, most likely, you're gonna pay for it. And most likely, Tesla's gonna back it up. But the service, the level of service you're gonna get is poor. You're gonna call customer service agent, they're gonna put a ticket, they're gonna take a while. And meanwhile, you've paid for electricity. And you're not getting it. Now you gotta pay your utility company.

John Laforme: 16:04

And you don't even know how long you weren't getting it. Exactly. And so is there any is there any type of error code in the system that can tell you when it stopped?

Manny Hernandez: 16:13

No, yes, it'll if the whole unit fails, it'll tell you that it will timestamp the time the unit failed. And from then on, it didn't produce any power. So I asked, I have a few friends in the industry, obviously. And one of them does, there is an installer for those. And I told him, Hey, listen, you know what I do? Right? So how are you guys servicing? How? How can I benefit from you? How can I help you guys what? He's like, man, and we have no idea.

John Laforme: 16:42

Wow, he's like, right from the horse's mouth,

Manny Hernandez: 16:45

right? From an installer. He's like, it's a pain in the ass to install. And we haven't even begun servicing them yet.

John Laforme: 16:54

Wow. So I was out talking to my neighbor, by the way, like I said, I've only been here so long, but he's a really fun guy. We talk all the time. And he was talking about I said, Hey, I've said, Hey, I've been wanting to ask you about your solar shingles. Because as a home inspector, I'm looking at houses every day, and you are the first house I've seen with these on it. But I didn't inspect. It's rare. So I he goes, You know, I do have questions on it. You know, is that sick? I can't seem to get an answer to I go, what's that? He goes, ventilation. He goes, I can't put roof fence through the shingles. Right. So I was asking the installers, how do they vent it? And they didn't, nobody gave me a straight answer. And I said, well, that probably means there isn't one there isn't one. So I said to him, I can only imagine that there's a gap between the roof and the bottom of those tiles. Like it's built up. In other words, like maybe they put down strips of wood and put them like the old days of shingling with the with the skip sheathing. Yeah, so there's gotta be some way to get get air under the heat the way he explained to me what he thinks. That's what they told him is there's air traveling between the roof decking and the roof shingles. The so it's not nailed right to the roof itself. There's something there's a gap between there, something's built up. Here's the sheathing. Here's the bottom of the tile. There's airflow coming through. I said, Okay, well that but that doesn't ventilate the attic.

Manny Hernandez: 18:28

No. Oh, it keeps the panels cool. But it's

John Laforme: 18:31

keeping all that heat in your attic. Your gable vents on your house are not going to drain the attic of heat. Not even close. And he has no soffit vents. Don't know. So that's, that's another issue.

Manny Hernandez: 18:44

Yeah, it's developing technology, just like anything else. Early adopters are gonna get the brunt of it. And

John Laforme: 18:50

that's why I didn't rush to buy an electric car. No, it does stuff go by let Lilium

Manny Hernandez: 18:54

let him get us the F one F ford f 150 laning. Burn and crash. And then I'll get the next one. Yeah,

John Laforme: 19:01

exactly. That's how I think it's just to the technology is too new. And I just don't trust it yet. Right. So it takes a while. But I do want to electric work fan. If I can get a Mercedes Metris electric version, I will most likely go by it.

Manny Hernandez: 19:14

So So at solar Service Pros, we partner up with Ford, and we get for transit connects in Ford transits. They have electric transit now. But you know, as a business owner, I think that's cool. It's, it could be a flagship kind of thing. Certain solar Service Pros or you know, you can mark it off that we can mark it off of it. Absolutely. But then I started thinking okay, just practically. So my employer, I give all my employees work vehicles, so I have them spread out throughout the state. So do I pay for electric vehicles out there electric vehicle chargers for their home? What if What about the guys that live in an apartment? Where do they charge it?

John Laforme: 19:58

Well, it's good point, you know, and

Manny Hernandez: 20:00

What about the guys that drive out two hours to Palm Springs are like out there in the desert? Where are they going to charge it?

John Laforme: 20:07

Well, if you had a main if you had a main business location with a parking lot with chargers and they have to come to work to pick up yeah, if you were to do have that you can do that for

Manny Hernandez: 20:18

flat for florist, right? The local florist yeah the vans are there they pick up the truck and they go but for a service company like us It just didn't make sense or contractors that have give the employees the trucks I mean No no,

John Laforme: 20:33

it's not going to work no you're not going to work would work for me because I know my distance that's right. No problem at all. Yeah,

Manny Hernandez: 20:38

any any you come back to the same and your homeowners so you can install your Evie charger. Right. So that will work out they don't have a metric Why don't you get it to

John Laforme: 20:48

have connect to have in Europe transit to me I didn't like the van itself. I don't feel safe in that van. Really do not feel safe. I've driven all of them. I've driven the transit, the Nissan's all of them and I'm like that Mercedes Metris the best.

Manny Hernandez: 21:01

We expect him to get into collision. You're expecting to get into collision.

John Laforme: 21:05

Well, if I do have a good drive, what is it? What is it when it sits up higher? You sit up higher? The transit you're sitting very low. Yeah, almost like almost like a go kart? Yes. Yes. I didn't like that. I felt like if I because you

Manny Hernandez: 21:20

don't have to be boned. You don't need a big van. You need to like the miniature bands. Yeah, I

John Laforme: 21:24

have a mattress with a smaller. Yeah, perfect for what I do.

Manny Hernandez: 21:27

Well, you know, I wanted to support America. And I bought American so yeah.

John Laforme: 21:35

Man. So anyway, going back to your site here. Critter guard installation,

Manny Hernandez: 21:40

it's talking about getting shit. pigeon shit is all over solar panels in this problem. Right? Okay, so a critter guard is a it's a mesh, it's a stainless steel mesh was coated with an epoxy or like a paint over it. And it goes around your solar panels. And if it's done, well, it looks good. And you won't even notice it. And it keeps pigeons getting under it from getting on or on. Okay. They they what they do is they go underneath your solar panels because it stays warm there. And they nest in there. And then they build a nest, they have eggs, they have little birds, and they even die under there. And what happens if you just had a customer and a camera Rio, if you have a tile system, that to any system really is a problem. So the nest under neath their, their, their water, the water when it rains will come, hit the nest, stay there stagnate and then cause the roof material to start deteriorating, I'm sure. And then you get a golf ball size hole in your roof of it just shit water coming into your attic.

John Laforme: 22:54

And let me explain why that happens. Roof materials are designed to repel water. Water is hot not to hold water. That's right. So if there's something moist on your shingle all the time, it's gonna deteriorate it and it's gonna wear out. That's how that happens. So

Manny Hernandez: 23:10

the pigeons wouldn't ask, and that's a problem. And then we'll even gross. More than that as it starts shitting all over your house because they live there. Yeah. And so then you have all these birds who come and maybe you have kids in the backyard. I mean, I've had customers in Santa Clarita, it's a big problem. It's just it's just feces all over the place. Yeah, dude, it's gross, nasty. And I never thought about it. And had customers call me Hey, your maintenance company cleaning come out and we came in and we abate it will lift panels up. And that's a difference between us and window washers window washer companies will put these fences and power wash it, but they won't lift the panels up. Right? You have to lift the panels up, get the shit out, you know, we come in there, because they're not equipped to do they're not equipped to do that now. So we know how to decommission every commission and put this card up. Right, right.

John Laforme: 23:58

So you do electric bill audits? Yep. As part of the service. Yep.

Manny Hernandez: 24:01

So how does that work? Homeowners would call us and say I have a solar system. And I have a high electric bill. Why? I never had it before. Because I can well, they have a high, you know, they have a high electric bill, that usually means the system has failed, or the system is poorly designed. Okay. And so then we'll we'll do the math for it. We'll look at their bill, we'll look at the system. And we'll see okay, you have a problem here. You don't have a problem here. A lot of homeowners, they'll get solar and the way solar is designed is based off of like right now if you want a solar for your home, you haven't even been here 12 months. So you probably I wouldn't even tell you, you're good candidates wait a year, and then we'll come back and assess. But let's say your neighbors they've been here for a while. So I'll take a look at their bill and they'll see how much they spend on electricity over the last 12 months. We're assuming that's how much you're going to spend the next 12 months in the next 20 years. A lot of homeowners once they get this Solar system that has been designed for how much they were spending before start leaving their lights on. I have solar Fuckit leave it on, right. It's easy dynamics, they change their lifestyle. Yep. So now they have a high electric bill. And then they call us and say, Hey, I was lied to my bill is high. And then we come out and do a service. Or we would come out and do a service and say, Hey, your systems fine. They're like, Well, what about my bill? So then we offered a service. So let's start with your bill. First. Let's see if you have a monitor. And before we even come out, we're not going to charge you a full a truck row, service technician, electrician comes out, we'll do it in office, we'll take a look at it and explain to you and educate you over the phone, the email of why your system is working the way it is, and you're fine. Is that a free service? No, we charge for it. It takes time for a technician in house to kind of look over it what what stuff like that cost? Like 150. Okay, and then versus a service call, or you're looking at 400 to $500 to fix up now it's

John Laforme: 26:02

a great way to start. Yeah, that's pretty cool. Yeah. So if, as me being a homeowner with solar, if I had it besides my yard lights, I had an actual solar system on the roof, is there something I should be doing, like weekly, monthly annually to look at my system to see if there is a problem.

Manny Hernandez: 26:20

So to start, if you have a monitor, on your solar system and an app, look at your app, a lot of homeowners don't even look at their app, their app will tell them your system stopped producing in January. And in September, when they get a true up, or a year round. reconciled bill from the utility company, they get hit with a $2,000 bill. So if you if you just look at your app that you already have, you're in good shape your systems working, if you if you don't have the app, right, we're looking at regularly look at your utility bill. And, and compare it to the last year. That was okay, that's that's the billing or financial standpoint, if you have an appliance on the side of your home, if the appliances buy your trash cans, when you go throw your trash cans, go look at your equipment, and see if there's really inverter inverter equipment, right? Go look at it and see if there's a red light green light. Just be familiar with it.

John Laforme: 27:20

That's it. I mean, that's I'm trying to get across to the Homeowners who do have it up. Don't ignore it, don't ignore

Manny Hernandez: 27:26

it. A lot of a lot of homeowners want to ask them, Do you have an inverter? Well, what's that? I mean, you didn't even tell me you have a$30,000 system? And you don't? It's like saying, Have you taken a look at your engine? Or what's an engineer? You have a car, right? You don't engineers? But it's so new that I don't even

John Laforme: 27:43

when gotcha got electric car? Yeah. It's so new that I blame

Manny Hernandez: 27:47

Right. Right. Right. And they were told it was maintenance free, don't worry about it. So be familiar with the system components. And if you have any questions, call the manufacturer cost someone call us and say hey, I have a solar system. And we'll walk you through it. We don't charge for that. I say okay, well, what do you go to the side of your house, follow the breaker, follow the conduit. Text me a photo of the thing? And I'll tell you, here's the man, here's the operation manual. And you know how to how it's supposed to

John Laforme: 28:13

wear out or what I don't understand is you mentioned inverter mentioned solar panels. Yeah. You mentioned the panel. Where's the monitor at?

Manny Hernandez: 28:21

You won't see it. Most homeowners won't see it. Unless you know what you're looking for. You won't even see it.

John Laforme: 28:25

Okay, so the monitor is what's connected to the app? Yep. It's not as Every system has an app option.

Manny Hernandez: 28:30

Not every system. Not every system. I say not 99% of the systems today do if you install them today or this year, they do. But the systems we're talking about from 10 years ago don't because installers are cheap. And they didn't want to spend $500 to$750 in installing this other device. Because that's money out of their pocket. If you do $750 or 100 systems. That's a lot of money.

John Laforme: 28:56

So then people with an older system, how often should they have you come out and look if so if

Manny Hernandez: 29:01

they don't if they haven't ever looked at their system call us to do a multi point inspection service. Okay, similar to what you do. Except we focus solely on the solar system we do multipoint inspection we go on the on the roof, we check the electrical and we educate them. We give them the warranty information. The model information manufacturer

John Laforme: 29:21

is valuable man of Yeah, I love I love what you do, and we tell

Manny Hernandez: 29:25

them okay, this is what you have. This is how you protect it right? And this is what to look for. And in the process. If there's something broken, we are qualified and we'll give you a quote to fix it and bring it back up to operational standards.

John Laforme: 29:39

That's great man. I really I really liked your service and I really hope the listeners and viewers here are getting a lot out of this because most people I talked to have absolutely no

Manny Hernandez: 29:51

clue about their so they don't know about the system. Nobody so I started solar Service Pros because I worked for an installation company as I mentioned before and we will get A lot of calls and I was the general manager by the time I left there, and we would get calls and saying this homeowner wants to come out this company's out of business, they need help. And the owner, the ownership from top down, said, No, we don't service other people's systems. It's, we're not going to make five grand off of it. So we're not going to go out

John Laforme: 30:17

there. That's a bad business model right there.

Manny Hernandez: 30:19

So, you know, I felt bad. And over time, I knew I wanted to be in the green industry because I knew solar was new. All you under she's done. I can't come up on that airlines done. Trains are done. All these industries are being monopolized by Titans, the green solar energy, renewable energy industry is new. So anyone that does anything new, you have a chance at the American dream and maybe hasn't been abused yet as I've been abused yet, right. So I got that's why I got into solar. And then as I was in solar, I noticed people were neglecting service. So everyone wanted to be the car dealership. No one wants to be the mechanic, right? So I'm like, Okay,

John Laforme: 30:56

that's a good point, man. Oh, screw this, I'm

Manny Hernandez: 30:58

gonna go be the mechanic for it. And so when I opened up, change

John Laforme: 31:01

your car and put three other mechanics of soul so we were rebuilt, we rebranding

Manny Hernandez: 31:06

to we fix solar? Yeah, bottom line. There you go. You know, that's what we do. Now we'll install that. And some people are like, well, that's kind of contradictory, because then they gonna say you don't install, we do install.

John Laforme: 31:16

But I think solar inspections. Yeah, is a fantastic idea. I'm telling you, I'm interested in this. That's what we do. We need to talk after the show's over, because I'm really interested in learning about that. And becoming

Manny Hernandez: 31:28

and and when I when I went, when I first started, I was I mean, no stretch. I mean, I must have been 2425, or some somewhere around there. And I've always worked for a salary and as a general manager, solar company, I was making big bucks. I was good. And so now leaving and doing my own thing, I'm like, well, that's not a guaranteed thing. And but, you know, thank God. It worked out people just i My feeling was right. People were just like,

John Laforme: 31:55

that's also because you have intelligence. And you have the knowledge. You made it work and you driven Yeah, I could tell just by talking to you, you're driven people

Manny Hernandez: 32:03

call and the same. I have a solar system. I don't know if it's working. I don't know what to have come out. Come check it out. That is so solar service Pro, we focus on maintenance. invaluable. Yeah, yeah, we'll fix it. Right. That's, that's a great service and for and for realtors. You listen, you don't want to be that realtor that said the house is good. You brought over inspectors and then two months down the road, you find out the solar panels are never even connected. Right? So give us a call, we'll come out one inspector for your buyer, protect your buyer and make sure they don't get screwed over.

John Laforme: 32:37

Yeah, absolutely. And here's something I like to you put on your website as well. We specialize in making sure that home and business owners who have gone solar are getting what they paid for. Yep, that's great. It's another great slogan, you get their cleaning. You don't need to let your monitor tell you if you need it. Yeah, that's right. All your monitor. That's, that's really cool. So if Okay, let's say once I think I don't think I got the answer I was looking for on the amount of it is an annual maintenance for solar, what would you recommend for someone who doesn't have a monitor, if

Manny Hernandez: 33:10

you don't have a monitor, if you don't have a monitor, come out, have us come out once once we'll show you what your production should be. And we'll show you how to read it with your electric meter and your bill. And then if it if it goes away from that if you have a high electric bill and give us a call.

John Laforme: 33:28

And then you then you can recommend after that time that what's you know, we should come back yearly or whatever homeowners,

Manny Hernandez: 33:34

if they call us the first time, we'll come out and assess it fix the immediate problem, and then we'll recommend a monitoring solution. So listen, in the an average monitor is going to go anywhere between 500 to $1,500. But it's for life of the system, you set it and you're good. It's like driving a car with no check engine light. Right? So you can drive without the check engine light. But when you blow the engine, it's gonna cost you 20 You know, whatever, it's gonna cost you to fix it. Right? So invest in it, and then we can actually fix it from our office. And we don't charge you for that. But if we have to, we have to come out then we're gonna have to bill you. servicii

John Laforme: 34:13

Right, right, right. Traveling and all that stuff. Yeah, all time. Yeah. Yeah, you know, I do read inspections on properties. And I have to charge for that too. Because taking my time, I gotta, I gotta square off my schedule to fit you in there to work for free. I can't take other jobs when I'm somewhere else. Right. And that's in Yeah, that's the biggest thing. So, you know, that's a great episode. Man. I really appreciate everything. We learned a lot about snake oil. Or solar. We learned about solar and snake oil. Yeah. And PV systems. How do you pronounce that again?

Manny Hernandez: 34:47

Photovoltaic,

John Laforme: 34:48

photovoltaic. Makes me want to say prophylactic your prophylactic system. That's right. You're right. Anyway. This is good stuff. Manny, great meeting you. I'm

Manny Hernandez: 35:02

glad you're having me on man.

John Laforme: 35:03

I'm glad you're one of my customers. Once again, your website,

Manny Hernandez: 35:07

solar service pro.com. You can google us solar service professionals. And we service all southern California. Everything from Antelope Valley, down to San Diego, Ventura to Palm Springs will help you up. Right. So

John Laforme: 35:21

if you get solar, don't panic. Just call Manny. That's right. That's my son. That's my slogan. I end up buying a home don't panic, don't panic.

Manny Hernandez: 35:27

You know, it's funny you say that because when you do buy a home, you do kind of have you do panic. You know, my personal experience. I was, oh my god, I had so much anxiety and I will be in a business owner and having my own stress of that. Now I have. So now I'm in escrow. So now I'm on a time crunch to make sure I'm not getting fucked. So I need someone to come over

John Laforme: 35:48

they did you enjoy the financial colonoscopy. You got it seriously, right.

Manny Hernandez: 35:52

They come in, they see you. They want to see everything. Yep. And okay, now. And so now you got to protect yourself and make sure the home you're buying, especially if you have if you have no experience in buying a home, you're a first time buyer. You want someone that knows what to do. And John, I'll tell you, you know what you're doing. Thank you, my entire family. They were there that day? Yes. And then okay, that guy, you know, he's got a good vibe. He's, he explained to us, in layman's terms, what he's doing right. So then we got educated and I have, this is why he's opening the fastest at the same time. This is why he's checking that you found things that I wouldn't have even found, right, the mold coming in through the garage thing, the water in the sub panel, just little meticulous

John Laforme: 36:32

things that as That's right, you have water coming in the side of the garage

Manny Hernandez: 36:35

as inside of the garage. And as a as a buyer. You're just kind of overwhelmed with the property. You go in there systematically and you pinpoint your

John Laforme: 36:44

drive system. That's what you do. That's the value of inspections, whether it's home solar or anything, because you know, we we do this for a living. Yeah. And you I guarantee you, your dad is not going to find right what I'm looking for now. Yeah, I just the other day that I did a home inspection and that they had an electrical inspector come out to just an electrician. And he didn't go in the attic. And I'm like, I found a ton of problems up area and I looked at the realtor and I said Did he go in the attic? And she goes no, he didn't. I said look, you need to make sure whoever you're paying for these things are going through this house. He should have went under the house. This is a 1912 house right you got to look in the attic. Yeah, that's where all the shit is in the underneath the house. old wiring mix at new wiring junction boxes open everywhere. You need inspected. Yeah, because you don't do this for a living. That's what I tell people just give us a call. Give me a call. Give me a call. You got a phone number you want people to use? Yeah, give us

Manny Hernandez: 37:47

a call at 866-765-7767 If you can't remember that just bootless solar service professional

John Laforme: 37:55

solar service proz.com That's right. That's correct. Thanks, Manny. Great having you. And good luck on the new half. Alright, bye everybody.