solar installer training

mattbatson
mattbatson Registered Users Posts: 22 ✭
in General Solar Power Topics #1
Okay, a little background...
I'm 41 and am a stay at home dad of a 2.5 yr old. The wife is the bread winner, and makes a decent paycheck as a senior software engineer.
I enjoy being a dad, and have gained a whole new respect for the kind of effort involved in raising a child.
anyways, I've begun to think about getting the ball rolling on a future part time business.
I plan to install a complete off grid system for our retirement home that we have broke ground on in western NC in the next year or so.
getting an education in this area will initially help me install my own system...but then I hope to start a small solar installation business after.

My question is this....

If you guys, the experts on here, were going to strike off down this path....where would you get your training? (okay, lets assume you arent experts :blush:)
I am considering the local university, UCF, which has solar training classes (they arent cheap). I want to be able to do some of the work online. This will make it easier with the toddler.
What would be perfect would be something like a one day a week "hands on" class/lab...with most of the academics done online.

Anybody have an ideas on how I could accomplish that?

Is there a really reputable solar training organization or school I should look at? Something recognized universally as reputable?

appreciate any advice you can give

thx

matt
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Comments

  • Volvo Farmer
    Volvo Farmer Solar Expert Posts: 209 ✭✭✭✭✭
    #2
    Re: solar installer training

    You know what I would do? I would go get a $9/hr job working for a solar installer. You will learn more doing that in six months than you would in two years of college. Also you would be getting paid to learn, rather than the other way around.
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  • solarix
    solarix Solar Expert Posts: 713 ✭✭
    #3
    Re: solar installer training

    Ditto on the do whatever you have to - to actually work for someone who is already doing it. Beyond that, take an online NABCEP training course ($1000) and then pass the NABCEP certification exam ($900). It is a good course for the theory of solar but not so good on the practical side of installing. Then work toward getting an Electrician's license (usually several years of experience req'd). Subscribe to HomePower magazine ($15/yr online). Get the CD of their back issues and enjoy reading all of them. Another one is SolarPRO magazine. Install your own system. Install for your friends. Become an expert in your local utility's rate structures and solar incentives. Get a low cost CAD program and learn how to draw the schematics and drawings needed for permits. Get setup with accounts at your choice of distributors and dealers. Think of a cute name for your business and get it trademarked before someone else takes it. Do something unique to set yourself apart (I built a custom electric car). Don't wait for someday. Get going - this world is going to pot and your kids will be grown up before you know it.
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  • mattbatson
    mattbatson Registered Users Posts: 22 ✭
    #4
    Re: solar installer training
    Volvo Farmer wrote: »
    You know what I would do? I would go get a $9/hr job working for a solar installer. You will learn more doing that in six months than you would in two years of college. Also you would be getting paid to learn, rather than the other way around.


    I did realize this already ;)
    my problem is my 2 yr old and current responsibilities dont allow this.
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  • mattbatson
    mattbatson Registered Users Posts: 22 ✭
    #5
    Re: solar installer training
    solarix wrote: »
    Ditto on the do whatever you have to - to actually work for someone who is already doing it. Beyond that, take an online NABCEP training course ($1000) and then pass the NABCEP certification exam ($900). It is a good course for the theory of solar but not so good on the practical side of installing. Then work toward getting an Electrician's license (usually several years of experience req'd). Subscribe to HomePower magazine ($15/yr online). Get the CD of their back issues and enjoy reading all of them. Another one is SolarPRO magazine. Install your own system. Install for your friends. Become an expert in your local utility's rate structures and solar incentives. Get a low cost CAD program and learn how to draw the schematics and drawings needed for permits. Get setup with accounts at your choice of distributors and dealers. Think of a cute name for your business and get it trademarked before someone else takes it. Do something unique to set yourself apart (I built a custom electric car). Don't wait for someday. Get going - this world is going to pot and your kids will be grown up before you know it.

    nice.
    I'm copying this post for future reference :D

    I've read homepower mag's articles online, and will look into solarPro mag also...
    Funnily enough, electric cars are another interest of mine.
    I have plans on building one with solar panels on the roof to help recharge the batteries while it sits in the sunny parking lot or driveway.
    Anyways, great advice, and I will look into the NABCEP also.

    thx
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  • ggunn
    ggunn Solar Expert Posts: 1,973 ✭✭✭
    #6
    Re: solar installer training
    solarix wrote: »
    ...take an online NABCEP training course ($1000) and then pass the NABCEP certification exam ($900). It is a good course for the theory of solar but not so good on the practical side of installing.

    A couple of points. One, merely taking an online NABCEP accredited training course is going to nowhere near prepare someone to take the NABCEP certification exam. Two, it doesn't cost $900 to take the exam, if you apply on line the total fees are $400. See http://www.nabcep.org/certification/how-to-apply-2.
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  • Solar Guppy
    Solar Guppy Solar Expert Posts: 1,989 ✭✭✭
    #7
    Re: solar installer training

    Save your money for something else.

    For starters, to be an installer you need to pass the State exam, and then you have to be a bonded licensed contractor to do work for anyone for pay. To run and fund a company is more than a full time job. In addition the exam, to sit for the test, you have to show you have worked at least 4 years full-time in the trade under someone whom is licensed.

    For Solar electric, you have to have a Master Electricians license or one on staff to meet the city/county code requirements for pulling permits. I personally know the owner of one of the largest installers in our area and work has dried up and he contracts out for workers on an as needed basis .. the point is in Florida, forget it

    Doing a one off system for yourself is a very rewarding and challenging prospect, but it isn't anywhere near the education needed to become qualified to sell your services to others.

    I have read medical coding is a legitimate, work from home job, but as hospitals are being required to go 100% digital records, even that work is going away.
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  • TnAndy
    TnAndy Solar Expert Posts: 249 ✭✭
    #8
    Re: solar installer training
    Solar Guppy wrote: »
    Save your money for something else.

    Yep.....I'd agree.


    Solar Guppy wrote: »
    ... the point is in Florida, forget it


    And I'd say for most places as well.

    I'm a retired builder, with a State electrical license, as I did much of my own electrical work along the way.

    I installed my own system in 2009, then though about doing solar installs as a part time thing, so I went over to Boone, NC to Appalachian State and took a course on solar, ($750), at the end of which, we took the exam for entry level NABCEP certification ( included in the price of the course ). I found the course very interesting, and picked up some points I'd missed on my own system ( and corrected ), but what I found MOST interesting was there were about 40 folks in the class, each with the idea that they were going to do something in the solar install field....and only one had any experience with an install other than me. Several were electricians, several were heat/air contractors, several were homebuilders looking to add solar as a sales catch for their homes, and the rest were individuals, like yourself, looking for a new career path.

    Since I took that course ( summer 09 ), I've done one other install, for a friend's off grid cabin. I've attended several other local seminars put on by a fair sized solar company out of Nashville with a local 'branch' (one guy) here, and tried to gauge the market for solar here.

    I've come to the conclusion it basically doesn't exist.
    Yes, there are some installs going on, the company I referenced above has done 4-5, a company out of Asheville, NC did a system on a bank building ( and took 4 months to get it commissioned AFTER the install ), but basically, there is no market for it. Even those companies aren't doing much, as they were doing mostly commercial installs as the State of TN had a 40% grant for business use of solar, and when you combined it with the 30% federal credit, a business could get 70% discount, and that State money has dried up.

    The seminars (2) I've attended are well stocked with interested folks....until they learn the real out-of-pocket costs, then it seems they all eat the free lunch provided and exit.

    I just don't think solar has arrived, yet, at least in our area.....and we have a really decent utility buyback program ( $1000 check on commission of system, plus 12 cents OVER retail for all solar production on 10 yr contract), YMMV for different parts of the country, but that's my view from East TN.
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  • ggunn
    ggunn Solar Expert Posts: 1,973 ✭✭✭
    #9
    Re: solar installer training

    I guess I am a counter example. I was an engineer for a semiconductor company for 20+ years until I got kicked to the curb in November of 2008 when the solid waste hit the air handler in the chip business along with everything else. I have always had a passion for solar power ever since I was a kid, but in the past there had never been a solar industry to speak of. I chose to look at this life changing event as an opportunity.

    I started with a 40 hour "boot camp" solar course that terminated with the entry level exam as well, but I could immediately see that I was only opening the door a crack and it would take a great deal more effort and dedication to realize any real benefit. Granted, I already had a degree in electrical engineering and a PE license, so I wasn't exactly starting from scratch, but still it took me nearly 3 years to work my way into an engineering position designing commercial PV systems, where I am today.

    Along the way it took working for months as an unpaid intern installing rooftop systems in the middle of summer in Texas (try that in your late 50's), many long hours in study for the NABCEP installers' exam (not to be mistaken for the entry level exam, which is a stroll in the park by comparison), working for a couple of doomed startup companies for slave wages, and networking, networking, networking.

    But in the end it paid off. Nothing worth a damn comes easy.
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  • Solar Guppy
    Solar Guppy Solar Expert Posts: 1,989 ✭✭✭
    #10
    Re: solar installer training
    ggunn wrote: »

    But in the end it paid off. Nothing worth a damn comes easy.

    How true

    There is work in commercial scale solar in a few states like California, Texas and a few in the East coast, but its your PE that allowed you the path you took, that alone is a 4 year degree plus certification.

    In installation, its the large firms like SunEdison that are getting the contracts, mom and pops not so much.

    In Florida, just forget anything solar .. we don't have true net-metering for all but a handful of city's and the grant money has dried up with the economy, which is what lead to what few solar install were done in the last few years.
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  • ggunn
    ggunn Solar Expert Posts: 1,973 ✭✭✭
    #11
    Re: solar installer training
    Solar Guppy wrote: »
    How true

    There is work in commercial scale solar in a few states like California, Texas and a few in the East coast, but its your PE that allowed you the path you took, that alone is a 4 year degree plus certification.
    True, but I guess the point of what I was saying is that some people seem to think that they can go take a boot camp course or go to a community college for a semester or two and vault up to a great paying job, just like that, and if they can't do that, then it's hopeless. Nothing in this world, especially these days, is that easy.
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  • Solar Guppy
    Solar Guppy Solar Expert Posts: 1,989 ✭✭✭
    #12
    Re: solar installer training

    I agree 100% ... Job competition is the fiercest I have ever seen in my lifetime
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  • ggunn
    ggunn Solar Expert Posts: 1,973 ✭✭✭
    #13
    Re: solar installer training
    Solar Guppy wrote: »
    I agree 100% ... Job competition is the fiercest I have ever seen in my lifetime
    Mine, too. Getting tossed out on the street at 59, losing my income, health insurance, and career continuity in one fell swoop is just about the scariest thing that has ever happened to me.
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