On today's episode of survival Dispatch News we're with Bill Gallagher at Solarfit in Daytona Beach Florida [Music] Hey guys today's video is brought to you By uscca your source for education Training and self-defense liability Insurance And we're back and once again we're Joined by Bill Gallagher from solarfit Daytona Beach Florida he was a Pioneer In the industry and started this Business in 1975. good to see you Bill Thank you Chris I'll tell you I really Have to laugh every time you call me a Pioneer I went out and bought a Daniel Boone hat Uh well so being a solar Pioneer uh Starting solar fit in 1975. uh tell us About the history of the company yeah so I came down from the Adirondack Mountains in Upstate New York 1970 to go To Embry Riddle Aeronautical University Learn how to fly Upside down and all that stuff that I I Call my uh unusual attitude adjustment Okay I still like to do that but uh Started this business in 1975 so we're In our I think our 48th year right now And before we've seen a lot of stuff at That time yeah yeah that's absolutely Amazing so I'm explaining some of the You know crazy stuff that you've seen Over the years like the evolution of the
Business that's pretty crazy so you know Being from the Adirondacks and up in the Mountains you you're just a little bit Off to start with right in case any of My friends are watching this I grew up In a town called Irish Town everyone was Irish if you want to look at the Gravestones there you'd just be amazed At the lens of lens and Begins the Gallaher's they're all they're all They're all resting there but um kind of What I would call fiercely independent Right okay we love the environment we Love hunting and fishing and all those Things but uh I kind of instilled that Me and my father was uh really loved Auto racing so I came down here to Daytona to begin to get involved in auto Racing an airplane flying and stuff like That and I started this business in 1975 And there was no one really in that Space at the time so you could not buy a Solar panel so we had to make them so we Would actually make uh boxes and and I'd Get a copper plate and sweat copper Tubing to it and make a solar panel and Um so what for hot water or hot water Pool heating mostly mostly solar thermal For heating water in the home but also Pool heating we take six thousand feet Of pipe and put it up on the top of a Condominium and you know I'd figure out How the gallons per minute flow and Everything and put it all together and
Get the right pump size and I just Really really like that and over time They started making solar panels and Then after a while we stopped the Production of it to go buy panels and Then that more from solar thermal into Solar electric which we've been doing a Lot of now for about the past 15 years Okay that's that's really what's where The evolution is now from solar thermal To solar electric Interesting but I have to assume in Florida that the thermal still uh a Fairly decent component for the industry We still do a lot of solar thermal both Got residential and Commercial we just Finished the YMCA We've just finished pick tono with a Solar power system and you know locally Uh if you're familiar with Hudson Furniture these guys are really cool Guys we just finished the facility in Sanford and the one in Ormond Beach and We're doing the one in Ocala now along With some dealerships and stuff like That so solar is is taken off like Iraq Yeah that's really interesting and and Hudson's a you know very reputable Company that's done exceptionally well Cool people yeah absolutely Josh right Josh yeah Adam uh and I knew their dad Too that started the business but that That business was exploded and they're Doing so well yeah good good for them
Good for them so Bill you mentioned uh PV systems uh photo voltaic systems like Electricity generation has become a much Bigger thing in the past 15 years you Know we've been friends for about 10 Years and I know there's some big Differences in quality of panels could You educate us on that a little bit yeah I think it's important that people know The difference between a quality product And something that may not last I don't Know if people are familiar with a solar Cell but this little tiny guy right here Is a solar cell and I've got it in this Little plastic bag Okay just so that you can see the Differences between that and this is Another solar cell And they're both in plastic bags as you Can see I'm going to show you this one First so what how this whole thing works Is the sun comes up in the morning the Photons strike the Silicon okay and it Excites electrons that start moving Around and attach themselves to little Grid lines that are on the back of the Solar panel okay so this is a cell if You have a bunch of cells together it Makes an array Um makes a module a bunch of them and Together makes an array and you build a Whole system out of it so this is this Panel little cell there if you can see It you can see me moving it back and
Forth and you can imagine the wind Blowing and the amount of pressures and Tensions of stuff and then you notice That I can bend this thing without it Breaking kind of almost like a an Airplane wing wobbling along yeah then I Take this other one which is a similar Type thing and would you like to do this Chris I I can give it a try okay I've Seen you do this with other people I've Never done it myself so so if you just Take it real in the middle and just kind Of Bend It Go the Oh darn it because she broke that son of A gun I don't have to pay for that do I Okay so so Chris destroyed the solar Panel which is fine my Chris destroys a Lot of stuff so yeah but the more the Moral of the story is there's different Quality panels and you you want to make Sure you don't end up with something Like this so this is a proprietary cell This is what we use doing in our Solar Products So I mean I know we have uh some uh Pretty strict building codes now in Florida you know after all 405 we went From the most lenient building codes to Some of the toughest in the world if not The world between Miami-Dade noas as Well as the code for the rest of Florida And a lot of that was predicated on the Wind loads that we see so I have this Vague recollection of you speaking in
The past to this subject that constant Exposure to you know high wind loads Causes that type of breakdown maybe not Quite that dramatic but breaks down the Uh you know the continuity exactly yeah That could happen uh several different Things first of all you've got expansion And contraction we've got a lot of that Here in Florida we could have a 32 Degree temperatures in the winter in the In the afternoon it might go up to 80 Degrees less over 100 degrees Differences so you have to have some a Cell that's resilient to doing that and The same thing with the wind when you Have winds up to 120 100 30 miles an Hour you got to have something Substantial to do that that's what this Does okay that's interesting so I mean I'm a Layman on the solar stuff for the Most part I saw somebody recently say That I don't know there was you know Your typical solar panel was productive For about 10 years and I I thought it Was greater than that is that more so Like the if you buy like a a cheaper Unit it's got a much more limited Lifespan than a higher end unit yeah Absolutely that's called degradation so Every solar module or panel or module is Rated based on their degradation so on On year one you may have uh 98 Production in year 25 it may go down as Low as 75 percent okay okay so a high
Quality panel such as the one that we're Showing you here in year 25 is still at Like 92 percent holy cow yeah so that Makes a difference when you think about It when you when you're slicing a system Um When you're dropping from uh 98 down to 82 percent you you really need to think About adding more solar modules at a Certain period of time we're with the Higher quality it wouldn't happen yeah So as you know you know background in The tech industry and when you there's a Distinction we made between initial cost Of acquisition and total cost of Ownership over the service life of Whatever you know is being discussed so That's interesting what you just said so You might pay a little bit more for the Initial cost of acquisition for a high Quality panel but because it's a Lifespan is significantly longer than a Cheap panel the total cost of ownership At the end in the end is actually Cheaper just to you know buy the higher Quality stuff out of the gate yeah Absolutely perfect you know you've got Two things you've got price you've got Cost the price is what you pay for it Initially the cost is what it costs of Ownership so a higher quality solar Panel like this is much less expensive Long time over over the hall that's what You're looking for you you don't want to
Spend a certain amount of money and six Years down the road have to do it again All right yeah that makes a lot of sense I appreciate the demonstration this One's always a good one I've seen you do It a few times kind of cheated Um Do you want to talk about some of the Stuff on the wall back here in a minute Sure okay so Bill you've got uh you know Some demonstration equipment here let's Start at the beginning maybe you can Give us a description sure Chris this is A 80 gallon solar water heating tank you Know where your conventional water Heating tank would have two elements so It would have one here and one here in Each of those elements would be 4 500 Watts so basically what that means is Every time someone turns the faucet on In the home the hot water leaves the hot Water tank going in that direction the Cold water comes in and it triggers that Element to come on now 4 500 watt Element is just like turning on 45 100 Watt light bulbs okay so if your mom or Dad's caught you doing that it would be A severe punishment Billy come on Chris what are you brought Up at a bar how many times you hear that Right okay so with a solar tank we don't Have a bottom element we have an upper Element as a backup element okay in case We have inclement weather but we have a
Little circulating pump in an automatic Temperature control and a sensor down Here that actually sends the water up to The solar panel and in this case we use What we call a solar thermal panel which Is this right here okay so the water Cold water that's in the bottom so it Runs up through here and out the top uh Top part of it and this is all copper Absorber plate so we're taking that Water that's cooler running in it and We're super heating it and sending it Back to the tank so through Stratification we fill the whole tank Full 80 gallons of hot water a day which Means you're not running that element And it needs additional savings for the Customer very very popular interesting Yeah very popular That we have over here we have actually A solar electric module so this is kind Of interesting if we're talking about Thermal we call them panels we're Talking about electric we call them Modules the solar panel but this is a Module gotcha and this is this is what Actually harnesses the sun's energy and Puts it right into your electric grid to Reduce your cost and so this is full of The cells that we looked at in the Plastic bags yep you can't really see Them but there's actually cells going All the way through here okay and this Would be called a module and everything
Is attached directly into the truss this Is no possibility of leaks or anything Like that interesting and the more Modules we have the more money we save Yeah yep then we have solar attic fans Which are really cool because it has a Solar cell embedded right into the fan Itself so the sun comes up in the Morning and Stripes the solar cell this Actually has a Mercedes uh brushless Motor in it nice so if you never had a Mercedes in your garage you could have One on your roof okay so I don't Remember the numbers but I do have a Vague recollection we mentioned it in The past so attic temperature without This type of fan versus with this type Of fan what's the drop so here in Florida because of our intense Temperature we can see 160 degrees holy Cow yeah we can drop it down too really As as little as ambient temperature Outside so if the outside temperature is 90 we could maybe we can get it down to 90 or 100 because when you think about This you know your air conditioning Ducts are running through your attic yes They're in a hostile environment so Every degree that we can reduce that Temperature is going to prolong the life Of the roof uh safe save energy yeah That's that's awesome yeah for sure that These other things like the solar pool Eating is like a really big part of our
Business now because here in Florida or Anywhere if you don't have some type of Heat in your pool you just can't use a Pool yeah you get maybe three months of Enjoyment here uh without you know Without heat with supplementary heat Like that you can go as much nine or ten Months and all you do is set the Temperature it's all automatic rotates The valve sets the water up there Through the solar panel Heats it now You've got a warm pool yeah so years ago I had one of these wasn't as Sophisticated as that control panel and More than once I turned it on in the Early summer and forgot to turn it back Off again and came out the next day and My pool temperature was over 100 degrees It could happen these things are Amazingly efficient they have very Efficient so that's why the automatic Control you know makes makes perfect Sense you know and that that's great Information bill yeah So Bill I see you've got some uh Additional Stuff over here this is there's cold air Coming out of this yes sir so this is a Solar powered mini split uh heat bump Okay so we've got okay yeah it's really Really cool we've got three solar panels Up on the Roof that are actually Operating US during the daytime they're Automatically segues back at night to uh
240 volt power so solar powered man this Is a very very little energy this thing Uses about 700 watts of energy compared To a conventional like a four ton maybe Four or five thousand Watts yeah really Really important when you're talking About uh battery backup yeah this is I Can't believe how cold the air is coming Out it's doing this hole it's nice and Quiet yeah yeah that's really cool I Think I recognize this next piece here Yeah so we had the Mercedes over there Right so now we're into the car issue Now we got the tests over here all right Very similar to uh the battery package In the Tesla automobiles itself this Actually has 13 500 watt hours of energy Significantly right so we can put these One two together like that now if we got 27 000 Watt hours and we have one Customer that we're installing now down At Ponce Inlet that has 10 of these holy Cow yeah which is like a lot wow which Is like a lot 135 000 uh wide hours of Energy but amazing the whole idea is if The grid were to go down for one reason Or another you've got battery backup Power I mean and there is a distinction Here in Florida where they pull the Governor Scott's admin pulled that fast One I think it was after Matthew or During Matthew that if you have solar in The State of Florida you have to have a Battery backup to run it during a grid
Down situation theoretically to protect Crews which is not the case because they Switch off just like a generator but it Effectively doubled the cost of a PV System if you want to use it when the Grid's down correct yeah you know and It's it's really interesting when you When you talk about the economics of Solar which I'm sure we'll get to in Another another uh part here but I Always think of that I think of solar Power as an economic driver to save us Money okay so we can afford groceries or Health or health thing okay okay I think Of batteries as insurance so we ensure a Car we ensure Health we ensure Everything yeah we don't insure our Power so that's what these babies do Okay solar power comes up Fills this battery full if the grid goes Down for any reason the battery is Operate the critical loads in the home Interesting that's a good way of saying It yeah it just makes sense it's really When you think about it and you Amateurize the cost of a battery backup System over a period of time it's a Fraction of what we're paying for Insurance for everything else right and I don't know if you ever lived through One of these uh power outages I'm sure You have dress like we all have yeah is Like miserable it definitely while Hurricane season is extremely hot and
Humid here yeah so this is no fun yeah So if you don't if you don't have Something like this or even a generator We'll talk about that more but I mean You're faced with the prospect of Losing the groceries in your Refrigerator Grocery and then maybe Trying to find a place over in Orlando Or Gainesville to stay this allows you To have a level of comfort and safety in Your house big deal yeah you know and Some pundits are going to say well just Go buy you know a gas generator or Whatever we've seen situations here Where there's no gas for all kinds of Different reasons and uh really crazy Story you know when Charlie hit us there Was a rash of generator thefts where People were taking you know these cheap Lawn mowers that they could buy for next To nothing on Craigslist and they would Sneak up to people's homes at night While the generator is running they'd Start lawnmower up turn the generator Off and walk off with it and people Heard anything they'd be oh yeah the Generator's still running they get up The next morning and all their power is Gone there was a huge number of Generators stolen I mean we had we were In The Shores At the time Daytona Beach Shores we had no power for three weeks Um there were places in New Smyrna had No power for upwards of three months
After Charlie it was a cat five but uh You know what when you can't get gas This is still got power and somebody's Not likely going to steal your Tesla Powerwall inside your garage that's Bolted to the wall whereas a portable Gas generator they're pretty hot items For theft yeah yeah for sure you Probably have a very important part to It Chris when you think about it like The generators are great and they serve The purpose and stuff you know what Happens when we have a prolonged outage Getting fuel to that generator I mean we We they've closed the bridges we can't Get across the bridge the house I'm Going to deliver gas because we live on The peninsula that's right it's like Yeah I mean just on a side note there I don't think a lot of people realize That at 39 miles an hour in the State of Florida all the bridges across the Intracoastal are shut down nothing but You know First Responders and even then It's very little traffic so 39 mile an Hour ain't very much you know when you Have a significant hurricane coming Through you know the other thing that I Think about occasionally probably more Than I should is a security issues right Yeah but as good as now for one day it's Not a problem two days four five days All of a sudden seven days Security becomes a huge issue because
People were not the best and Texans are Prowling around doing uh things that They shouldn't be doing yeah so you got To keep your security system fired up And running and the least expensive way To do it really is the science energy And some kind of a battery backup yeah That's a great Point bill Um well let's sit down and discuss uh Some of the value adds of solar and a Really hot topic these days is off-grid Versus Grid down power yeah let's do it All right uh bill before we get into all The value ads for solar and it's a long List Um let's let's talk off-grid versus Grid Down get your thoughts on that okay so Grid down is kind of what we were Talking about earlier with the Tesla Powerwall so the grid goes down you've Got a solar power system you've got your Battery supply depending on the critical Loads we we have a critical load panel We break out whatever you want to put in There good to go power what happens here Chris as you're aware is we have Beautiful weather then we have a violent Storm and we have beautiful weather Which fortuitously allows us to charge That panel back up because of the Weather is sunny right so that that Would be like a grid down situation an Off-grid situation was I guess what you Could think of is well a couple
Different things one you think cabin Jake up in the mountains yeah there are No power lines there's no way to get any Power to it so you've got uh solar Panels and you've got a battery bank and You're just running off Whatever God gave you so I just to be Clear you know on the battery side of Things that you know when we do have Overcast conditions we're not generating The full you know wattage that the Panels can create under Optimum Situations when it's night time the Panels aren't generating anything so the Batteries are are a necessary piece of The equation right so if you want to if You're going to be running 24 7 correct Yeah you have to have some kind of Something to get you through the evening Or inclement weather and that's where The battery is going to end yeah yeah Okay yeah that's really cool so uh let's Just speak in general terms as far as This point in time you know January 2023 The the values why would somebody buy a Solar system what's the value to them And uh like I said I'm sure there's some Stuff that's applicable today that Wasn't applicable in Years Gone by well What's happening uh because now is we're Seeing a rapid increase in utility rates It's not just gradual anymore and we Understand that to a certain degree Because when we have these hurricanes or
Anomalies the utility companies have to Keep us safe right so they they're Hardening the grid and they're they're Paying for uh bringing people in to Clean up the hurricane and all this Costs money well the way that the Utilities are made whole is they uh they Go ahead and spend the money and then They go to the Public Service Commission They get approval to to get reimbursed Well every time the reimbursement Happens of course the rates have to go Up because they are rate based okay so It's not just something that happens out Of the blue it's just okay the rates go Up well the rate when the rates go up The thing the thing you think about is Uh Where does that money come from to pay For the additional so let's suppose your Electric bill was 280 right now and the Rates continue to go up in five years From now is three hundred and ninety Dollars where does that additional money Come from so you could go to your boss And ask for a raise hardly ever works Right that doesn't work okay you can get A second job Okay but what if what if you know what If you're uh what if you're on uh Medication yeah who's going to feed the Kids where does this money come from so What people are doing now is they're Saying you know what I'm going to invest
In a system that's going to protect my Family from here on out and that's What's happening Interesting and you know we had some Changes the the solar tax credit was on The decline it was going to be phased Out now it's uh extended through 2032 Correct we're at 30 right so it was it Was scheduled to go from 26 down to 22 And down to 10 then proof gone okay uh They they passed the bill gosh what nine Seven eight nine months ago now yeah Where uh it'll extend it for 10 years at 30 percent which is really great it's Great for our country it's great for Citizens that want to be able to supply Their own energy needs I mean you know Don't get me wrong I love I love our Friends with the utilities I think that They they're doing a fine job and stuff Like that and I want their families to Be safe and prosperous forever but you Know our we also want our customers to Have the ability to power their homes if They want to not be penalized for it and And make their lives a little better and There's room for both util ability scale And for residential which we call Distributed solar So I have a question for you it's a Topic we haven't discussed probably in Five years just looking for an update on It there was a point in time when we Dove into a spreadsheet that you had
That was extremely comprehensive covered Every angle and I was looking at it and It appeared to me that financing a solar System was cheaper than buying a solar System so I asked you if there were some Formulas broken in the spreadsheet and You showed me how it worked and five Years ago it was cheaper to finance a System than to Shell out all the money Now I know interest rates have gone up And all that sort of stuff where does That stand today Well I think I think what's happened is We've got um More people going into the finance space There's more product available uh it's It's absolutely Well it's not a surety because a Customer would have to have access to The sun would have to have a roof that's A good condition right would have to Have enough roof space there's all these Qualifiers whether or not they'd have to Have reasonable credit but for for no Money down actually that's not true we Charge them a dollar okay we charge a Dollar only to let them know that look You know what it's a it's a dollar okay Everyone can afford the dollar but from There on out If everything uh works and the stars Align it will cost them less To own the solar system than it would to Continue to pay electricity now it's for
Everyone everyone yeah but going back to That if if someone had the cash and uh You say you had cash sitting somewhere And I wasn't making a great return we Know what that's like yeah yeah you know Our 401K everything yeah we'll say They're say they're making three percent On their money And that three percent really isn't all Theirs because they have to pay taxes That's right so now they're walking away With one and a half 1.8 percent they Might as well keep it under the pillow Well if they take that money and they Put it in a solar power system that's Giving them seven eight nine percent Interest interest tax free that's pretty Good and it's increasing the value of The home at the same time so this is to Me is like this is the biggest No-brainer ever yeah and the question is Why is everyone doing this they just Don't know about it the only thing I Gotta say right now Justin you know me Well enough to know this is you've got To research you got to do your homework And please try to deal locally because We're having Florida's having this Influx of people from all over the Country coming in here They're not they're subcontracting the Work that's just it's not a good thing Just please anyone listening today do Your due diligence and and don't just
Buy from someone knocking on the door Just because it sounds good yeah I mean We've had a history of being Particularly vulnerable to Hurricane Chasing out of Staters who have done no Justice to homeowners who've hired them Not just for solar but for other stuff As well so then you know we had some Laws change you have to be licensed in The State of Florida but there's Opportunistic people who are licensed in Florida Florida that will uh you know Take payments from out of state Contractors to operate under their License it's it's not allowed it's Unscrupulous and the end of the day the Customer ends up you know paying the Price for it that's what we we almost See ourselves more as Educators at this Point than anything else people need to Be aware that that this is happening It's it's a great thing if you're Dealing with the right company you get The right product and you know someplace Like you know here you can you can walk Into this office at any time you can Talk to management to staff you could See the materials that's what I would Look for if I was going to make an Investment doesn't have to be us but It's got to be somebody that operates Like us because if I have something go Wrong I don't want to call a number That's been disconnected that's right
Yeah and I mean you employ people in the Local area I mean there's just a Plethora of Benefits to hiring somebody local So Speaking of which what exactly is your Footprint for installing and servicing Solar bill so we stay really kind of on The East Coast from Volusia County all The way up to uh Duval County okay every Now and then we'll go to Nassau if Somebody begs us to but I love Nassau County but it's quite a dry but you know We serve as a pretty good area it's Probably 120 miles one way and maybe 70 Miles the other gotcha yeah that's it All go to Orlando as well because we got Plenty to do over here we've got 22 23 000 customers now and they all are Special they're friends and they need Service who are going to be there for Them yeah 23 000 customers that's a Testament in itself it's taken a couple Weeks yeah a couple minutes right yeah Absolutely but what about you've made You made mention about uh grid down and And everything like that and there's There's some other products out there That I think are pretty cool for backup Power you know maybe if you didn't want To do the full Avanti with the the solar Panels the whole nine yards uh you you Could probably talk about that because You're pretty cool yeah I mean actually As we're recording this video there's a
You know video that's airing on our YouTube channel right now discussing you Know grid down and how you know affects Everybody in the country except for the Handful of people who are truly off-grid And you know I know that well the only Thing stays the same in life is that Nothing stays the same and obviously You've evolved you know over the past 48 Years and you know we had an off-camera Discussion with regards to you know some Of the the new things that you'll be Doing uh you know this year and I'm not Going to let the cat out of the bag Would like to have you back at some Point in the future to actually dive in Though to grid down in a little bit more Depth as far as it being a gateway to to Getting to a complete system yeah I love To do that I think I think because the Important thing is to convey is It it it's not okay just to do nothing Because at some point in time something Could happen that we have no control Over you know whether it's You know whether it's just a man-made Catastrophe or if it's or if it's Something that's happened globally don't Don't just think that things are going To be okay yeah exactly you know yep all Right well listen bill I appreciate you Coming on the channel and uh we'll look Forward to another interview with you Sometime later this year okay thanks so
Much all right thanks Bill [Music]
