Harmon Solar Podcast
The solar energy sector in Arizona is currently oversaturated, which has led to a scarcity of transparency. In response, we've created a podcast to provide an honest perspective on going solar in the state. Join us as we explore the intricacies of utilities, equipment, processes, and more. Our primary objective is to educate and empower you to make informed decisions on your solar journey.
Harmon Solar Podcast
Lat's Talk Solar Panel Cleaning
Solar panel cleaning might sound simple, but this eye-opening conversation reveals why it's anything but. We track the journey from dusty, bird-dropping-covered panels to pristine energy producers, with real-time data showing an immediate 8% production increase after a single cleaning. Whether you're considering maintenance for the first time or wondering if your current cleaning schedule makes financial sense, this practical discussion will help you protect your solar investment. As Rick puts it, "Panel cleaning is not for everyone, but everyone should take a look."
The solar energy market has become increasingly saturated, leading to widespread misinformation and a lack of transparency. Welcome to the HarmanSolar podcast, offering a straightforward, honest perspective on going solar. Each episode dives into key topics to help you better understand the industry. Our goal is to educate and empower you to make informed decisions about solar energy. While solar may not be the right fit for everyone, we believe everyone should take the time to explore it. Our mission is to increase your knowledge, not your bills.
Speaker 2:Welcome to another edition of the Harmon Solar Podcast. I'm Rob Romano, vp of Sales and Marketing for Harmon Solar, and with me, as always, I'm not going to say my friend this time, because I didn't like that last time, but my coworker. How's that? Coworker Ben Walschlager? You guys know him as Mr Everything. It's good to be here again.
Speaker 3:I don't know why that was funny. Is it really good to be here?
Speaker 2:You always say that, and I just never believe you, it's good to be here, and now in our new studios, you don't get free food, I don't get breakfast, so I've noticed that you've hangry.
Speaker 3:I went downstairs and got a snack.
Speaker 2:You got us, so it's just not the same. I got a granola bar. It was good. That's not the same. It's not the same. It's not like getting those tacos and those quesos and we'll work on our contract we'll hire somebody, yeah all right.
Speaker 3:So so, if you're a personal chef, yeah, please dm us.
Speaker 2:Yes, all right so today we're going to touch us a topic that um can be so to some people, can be controversial, um, some people um Not named Ben, but actually is very popular in the industry and is really growing, and it's something we thought it was time to really get in front of and talk about and bring somebody on board that actually has this business and does it. So we're going to talk panel cleaning yes, panel cleaning and today we've got Rick Elmer from Sun Bros.
Speaker 4:Yep, nice to meet you guys. I'm happy to be here and let's get into it. Sun Bros.
Speaker 2:I like the name Sun.
Speaker 4:Bros. It's a bunch of bros, bunch of bros. Me and my brother started it about two years ago.
Speaker 2:Oh, so two years ago, okay. So tell us a little bit about you and your background, and then we'll get into Sun Bros.
Speaker 4:Yeah, so quickly. I'm born and raised in Arizona, grew up out here, played hockey growing up and I went to GCU business major. So I did a project about building a business, and solar cleaning is what I fell on. I was selling solar at the time and I was like, you know, might as well look into solar cleaning. And so I built the whole project on it, kind of as like a like whatever, we'll see how it goes. And then my brother graduated high school and I was like, hey, dude, I have this, I had this business, like, do you want to do it? And we went for it. And now it's a two years in the making. So we were part-time at first. While I was getting through school, finished up playing, he was still working with my dad like doing plumbing and stuff. And then, uh, we just dove straight in and it's been, it's been great. We hired another guy and now we're just moving along.
Speaker 3:So this started as a school project.
Speaker 2:That's kind of cool. That's pretty cool. I think that's really cool. It's a school project you get a lot of that in college, though, where they stay in business classes and they start projects. I think that's really neat that you guys did that.
Speaker 3:Did you get an A on it?
Speaker 2:I did.
Speaker 4:Okay, good, yeah, kids, basically modeling a business that was already existing, like some dude was making, like a food truck and stuff you know, like it's like Nick Ronald's.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's like yeah.
Speaker 4:So it was one of those things where I was like I can either mess around with it or I actually take it serious and see what happens. You know I'm already at school. You might as well see what I can get out of it.
Speaker 4:So um, so that's what I did. I went for it. We bought the equipment off a guy that was retiring out of solar cleaning, which is that trailer that you guys saw, um and that basically gave us everything we needed to get started, started being indoors and then, um, that's how we got our first clients for a while, and now it's now it's grown into something where it's, uh, been able to provide us a full-time job. So two years, you said you're in May, may, may is two years, so just shy.
Speaker 3:All right, it's a cool story.
Speaker 2:Yep, that is kind of cool. I mean, what I got out of that is he went to college and he got a business class and he started a business, which I think is really cool. He recognized that his brother wasn't college material, so he pulled them from't know if that's true or not.
Speaker 3:I never saw your gpa. No, he's great. He's great. It's our first episode of being an entrepreneur. I mean, we'll start a new podcast on being an entrepreneur.
Speaker 2:It's a cool little story, so let's tell people because we've talked about panel cleaning now for a while, that we've been doing this over a year and ben's ben's never been the hugest fan of it and we'll get into that, we'll get into those details. Let's have the expert in the field, not the guy that thinks he's an expert. All right, but the expert Kind of tell us so why should a customer clean their panels? What's the benefit of cleaning a panel?
Speaker 4:Yeah. So other than aesthetics, obviously you're going to see a production increase. Now what I like to what me and Ben have talked about is it's not guaranteed you're going to see an increase. But what you do by cleaning is you're going to maximize that system's output. So systems have natural degradation rates as they get older, as sun beats on them, so naturally it's already going to drop in efficiency. So what you're doing by cleaning them is you're going to maximize what that system's able to do.
Speaker 4:Most people are on a fixed monthly rate for solar, so why not get everything you can get out of that monthly rate and then pay whatever's left over to your actual energy company? So cleaning one, it's going to boost the integrity of the system. So we've seen a little bit of warranty issues. When panels are super dirty they're like clearly you guys don't upkeep the system and that has sparked some issues where it kind of falls back on the homeowner. So by doing the cleaning, you're just one. Everything needs maintenance, so you're ensuring that it's going to be performing at its maximum Also gives us a chance when we're up there.
Speaker 4:We're not just going to go clean them off and leave. We're going to make sure there's no cracked panels, no burn spots from just over time, making sure the conduit's in place, not super loose. We just like to do a little checkup of everything too. So it's also the peace of mind of hey, they were out here, they checked everything, everything looks good, my system's producing. Another way you can look at it as like as a firsthand diagnostic, for, like, hey, my system's not producing well. Well, I've had it for a couple years like cool, have you had them cleaned? No, I haven't. We'll start with that, because if the panels are clean, at least you know that they have the capacity to to produce. Then, if something else is going wrong, okay, now, let's. Now let's see if it's inverters or other electrical components, sure, so that's kind of a long answer.
Speaker 3:Do you want me to get into my spiel now?
Speaker 2:well, I mean, I want you to talk to him, yeah lay into me a little bit.
Speaker 3:Let's see what okay well, I'm not a full skeptic. What's I mean, ralph? You know what's? What's our catchphrase that we say all the time on the show?
Speaker 2:which one we have, the one that solar is not for everybody, but everyone should take a look.
Speaker 3:Thank you, and I feel the same way about panel cleaning. Panel cleaning is not for everyone, but everyone should at least take a look. Explain that. Here's the reason why you guys don't work for free, do you? We do not, so you don't go up there and clean all the panels. Do all that work for free.
Speaker 4:Unfortunately not, so there's a cost to it right.
Speaker 3:Just like with solar, there's a cost to it and sometimes it's not financially beneficial to the homeowner to get solar. Same thing with panel cleanings. So here, here was my whole thoughts on it. If you're spending and I'm just throwing a number out there because I know pricing is going to depend on the system size and all that stuff if you're going to spend 200 to get your system cleaned, is that going to translate to a 200 savings on my bill? Now, fair, you know, if, if I have solar and oh my, my electric bill is 250 bucks still because it's not offsetting all my power, but I went out and got them cleaned, I spent $200 to get them cleaned Is my bill going to drop down to $50? No, it's not going to drop down that much because they were clean. I mean, I guess, if they were really dirty, maybe.
Speaker 2:Maybe it would have to be caked on. We'll talk about that too, because there are different levels here.
Speaker 3:Sure, but my point is is that upfront cost of paying for the cleaning going to translate to a savings on my bill? Sure, the answer is depends, it might. So the people that are wanting to get their panels cleaned every single month, paying $200 every month, that doesn't make sense Because now you're paying way too much to get them clean and you're not seeing that overall net savings for the year paying way too much to get them clean and you're not seeing that overall net savings for the year. Now, if you're getting a panel cleaning like once a year, okay, that makes sense because you're like well, I've been saving about $800 every year and sometimes they get a little dirty, they go dusty. Maybe they need a cleaning here and there once, maybe twice a year. So it's okay that I upfront that money to get them cleaned and boost my savings now. But it's the people that say like, oh, should I be cleaning them like every week or every month? I'm like no, because that costs money.
Speaker 2:That's fair. Yes, and to your defense, you talk about that. When we first met, you talked about the fact that you won't do cleanings more than twice a year. So talk about your philosophy on that.
Speaker 4:Yeah, so I completely agree with you. I will straight up, do you hear?
Speaker 3:that he agrees. He's just being nice, we'll see. We put that on a loop.
Speaker 4:If a homeowner came to me and said, hey, I want to clean my panels every month, I'd be like why, right, why do you want to do that? Because I can tell you right now that if you're just doing it for efficiency, you're not going to you're going to spend more money doing it every month, right? Um, now, if you're like, hey, you know, I get my windows clean, I get my card detailed, I want my panels to look good. Okay, then we can explore that once a month. I still think it's a little too much. Um, what we recommend is once a year or twice a year. A lot of our clients are on twice a year. If you're like, hey, I don't know if I, if this is really for me, but cool, let's just do it one time. We don't even have to do once here. Let's just do it one time and see if you even see an increase, right, some people don't.
Speaker 4:So that's what me and Ralph spoke about when, or me and you too, when we first met, is like I'm never going to sit here and say every single person needs to clean their system. That would be like me saying every single person needs to detail their car because it don't need to. So it really depends on the situation where you live. I would say at least do it once a year, just for the well-being of the system. And like I said at the checkup, has a bird dropped the rock and broke something? Do I have nesting under there? Most homeowners aren't going on their roof. So for the $200, you're getting a clean system. We're going to make sure everything else looks good and we have all the proper safety equipment to do it too. So it saves if the homeowner wants to get them clean. You're better off paying $200 than you slipping off a roof or trying to sit up there with a rag and a hose. Then you ending up in hospital or something like that costing way more than that?
Speaker 2:And if you just used hose water, isn't there an issue with calcium buildup and other things, right?
Speaker 4:Yep, especially in Arizona. So it's not too much well water here, but like more on the outskirts there is. But even just normal faucet water it's has a super high TDS or parts per million. So what that means is there's a lot of particles within the water, a lot of calcium in the water, so you can create hard spots, make a dry weird on the panels, actually kind of holding the dirt to it. And as far as like the electrical side goes, you don't want to use water that has any chance of any like metal particles, like there's a lot of like little things in what you don't know what's in everything that's in the water. So to anyone that's looking to do it, I would always recommend making sure they either have like some sort of filtration and they're using the right brushes. You don't want to use a super thick brush on there that's going to scratch or damage the system, damage the seals on the side, so talk about the equipment that you use.
Speaker 2:I mean, let's get specific. So you've you've just getting gave us a really good issue and why you don't want to use a hose. Yeah, so tell us what are you doing to make sure that there's no issues with that stuff? What do you use?
Speaker 4:Yeah, so we use. It's a, the actual brand. It's called an IPC Eagle hydro station. So what that has is it has a carbon, a sediment filter. So there's a two stage right there and then it goes through two, four by 40 RO membranes. So what that does is that strips everything out of the water, getting 95% of the particles out of the water.
Speaker 4:So if you have a TDS meter, most faucets or most hose bibs in Arizona are going to be without a water softener, just out of the hose. You're looking anywhere from, I would say three, 50, I've seen all the way up to five, 50. Now our filtration is only going to get 95% of that. So if you have a 500 TDS, you're still probably going to end up with like a 50 TDS, which is a lot better than the 500. So that filtration system basically gets everything out of the water. That way we can confidently clean your system without leaving lines, without knowing if that water is safe or not.
Speaker 4:It's a peace of mind for us as well as the homeowners. And then, as far as the actual brush system, that water gets pumped up to us out the brush. It's not super high pressure, that's another thing. You don't want to use pressure washers on panels or anything like that. So it's a. It's about 100 psi, which is like if you put your thumb on a hose. It's nothing crazy, but that, mixed with the nylon bristles, you're able to scrub without being abrasive or damaging the system or anything like that so it's filtered water.
Speaker 3:Can you drink it?
Speaker 2:I have, yeah, yeah I just I mean a lot of people.
Speaker 3:I was thinking the same thing a lot of people think like I don't want chemicals and this and that you know, I don't know it'd be kind of cool to show a video like here's the water that we use it's the same.
Speaker 4:I mean, I'll also drink hose water, though, so I don't need to it's the best water it really is. It is. Yeah, it was like outside doing yard work just drinking the hose, oh yeah playing outside and the hose is the only thing there I love it. Um, no, it's the same.
Speaker 4:Like the ro's, a lot of people, especially in arizona, have ro systems in their house so it's nothing like crazy, like if a homeowner has a full ro setup and you really wanted to do it, I would say, at least get the right brush for it, because if you just hose the system off, it's like hosing your car off or hosing off your windows.
Speaker 4:It's really not going to do much. It'll get some of that surface dust. But if you're actually cleaning your system for production, then I would not recommend just hosing it off. You want to make sure there's a brush or something involved to actually I don't recommend a homeowner doing this at all. No, either do I, but there are DIY people out there. I get being a.
Speaker 2:DIY guy. But I mean, we'll talk about the fact that we actually did it on my house and we'll talk about the scariness of that.
Speaker 3:But because you have a two story house and I have a two story, so that makes it even worse. That's a long fall and I have a vaulted steep ceilings.
Speaker 2:So it's just, it scared me to watch, sure, but I mean, you know, if you're, you don't want to do that, so let's, let's talk. So we got the equipment down. Let's talk about the experience. If someone's going to use your service, from the time you get there, what's the experience for the customer? What's the process?
Speaker 4:Yeah. So that's one way we try to set ourselves apart a little bit, right, like, at the end of the day, panel cleaning it's a very once you have everything other than the safety. It's a very simple process, like you're really just scrubbing the panels. There's not a lot of complexity to it. So what we're going to do is we're going to make sure that you have an excellent experience, right? So I know every company says that, but that really does touch heart with us. When we show up, we're going to make sure our guys match. They're smiling, they're happy to be here. We're not, hey man, we're going to clean your panels. We want to make sure they're happy and energetic.
Speaker 4:Yeah, you don't want to show up and be like oh, it's the cleaners again. You know like we want to make sure you guys are happy to see us. So from the beginning, if you call us, you're going to get texting updates. So a lot of our clients will book six months out and I don't expect them to remember oh, they're coming on the 21st you know, so you'll get a two week text saying, hey, we're on our way.
Speaker 4:You also get a two day text saying, hey, here's your appointment, and then an on the way text. So we're super communicative when it comes to that side of things.
Speaker 2:Let me stop you so that I had this. I went through this process and it absolutely does work like that. I got a text when it got confirmed. I got a text a couple of days before. I got a text the day of let me know what time they're going to be there. So communication was phenomenal. Communication was phenomenal. Loved every bit of that. Go ahead, it's good.
Speaker 4:Yeah, so, and that's one like not to go too far off topic, but in a lot of home service they'll be like oh, I'll be by from eight to five.
Speaker 3:It's like, uh, all right, you know, sit around and not do anything all day.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and then it's. The day goes on. I might be seven o'clock. It's like very, it's very wide range. So what we do is we have a two hour timeframe. So I think for you we did like nine to 11 or 11 to something like that.
Speaker 4:So at least if no one has to be home either, but if you want to be home, you know what, at least what timeframe we're coming in after that we're if you guys are working from home, that's another thing. We're not just going to sit there and bang on your door, get the dogs barking. We make sure we ask you before there, or do you want us to knock your door and let you know we're there? So that's another thing. I ask whenever I book a job. But we'll ask, we'll leave them with a little brochure just explaining our story a little bit.
Speaker 4:If you're not home, it's hard for us to leave our brand mark, you know, like without getting to talk to you. So we'll leave a little flyer saying hey, this is me and my brother's company, this is what we do. Here's a little coupon for next time, or little coupons if you want to hop on a plan After the cleaning, we would do. Put a little Sombra sign in the yard just saying, hey, we cleaned your panels, which I don't know if we did for you, but if not, I'll put a double in your yard next time. Two signs, I want two signs, yeah, but we put a sign in the yard, and then same thing. So when you paid your million dollar invoice with us, it was expensive oh my gosh, I was just throwing out 200.
Speaker 3:I don't want to say the actual because of this.
Speaker 4:It's crazy but when you get the, when you're done, you get a text saying hey, if you enjoyed our work, take the time to leave. Please leave us a review. Um, if you have any friends that want to do it, here's a referral code, this and that. So, um, as far as the goes, we just want to make sure that you guys enjoy us being there. We want our customers not to just call us because I mean, obviously, to get their panels clean, but, hey, we want to be a part of what you guys are doing, like this is cool.
Speaker 3:At the end of the day, I I'll tell, like you hey, anyone can clean your you can call any company to clean your panels, but at the end of the day, if I show up and I'm like, dude, move your damn car, I need to clean my panels.
Speaker 4:You know like if depending on, I actually had to move my car, and I think he said move your damn car. Sorry for my, for my language, but no, it's just an experience thing too. We like as far as setting us apart, cause, yeah, like, a lot of companies may have the filtered water, they may have the brushes, but are you going to get treated how you want to get treated? At the end of the day, we're working on your home, right, we're working on top of your roof. Trust is the number one thing.
Speaker 2:Um, yeah, that's a long-handed answer, but no, it's a good answer and I I will vouch for you because I had the experience and communication was fantastic. Um, the way you guys did your job was you can tell that you actually cared about what was going on. Your brother is crazy for getting on that roof and what he does. I mean we want, we had a, we had a GoPro attached to him, so we're going to have to give you, we're going to share some video with you guys, some in this podcast and some outside of it. Um, but you can kind of see the experience and what it was and it's I wouldn't get on my roof. It's just insane. He did it and it was fantastic. Um, really good experience. And then afterwards, what I really liked, after he came to me and explained everything, he he comes up to me and says, okay, this is what we've done, this is the invoice, this is how it works. Here's your pictures. You give me before and after photos, which I thought was phenomenal.
Speaker 2:So I got to see how the cleaning impacted, especially if the one thing we did on the, on the blue panel some people, some people have blue panels, we have black, the bluer ones. You can't see it as much, but you can in the pictures you can see, and he did this thing where he was touching the panels to see the dust and he was watching watch me on it and it was fun, but they were dirty. I I've so little background. I've had my system up since October of 2016. It's the dirt that was coming off of them. Yeah, and the cool thing was we were able to, because I have that that's like an off-grid on mine and we can actually look at the production of the panels real time. So we saw the production drop when he was sitting there and cleaning it and, putting you know, shading it basically yeah and then, once he stopped shading it, we saw an eight percent increase um in production and we're showing that.
Speaker 2:We'll show that on the on the podcast as well. You can see it real time. Eight percent's pretty impressive for me. Yeah, I thought that was really yeah, I mean they were.
Speaker 3:They were dirty, they weren't like filthy, which I'm sure you've seen horror stories, but I mean, you could definitely see that there was dust because you know, just looking at them you couldn't really tell. But then when you wiped your hand across, like okay, yeah, they are kind of they are a little bit dusty.
Speaker 2:So you know, an eight percent increase and we saw the brown water coming down, yeah right, and I was like, wow, I mean that's, it was impressive yeah, and I'm sure we'll touch on it, but we've seen, like no joke.
Speaker 4:we've seen all the way up to a 28% increase, which is insane. On the black panels, yeah, the blue panels, I think, since they're a little older, they're already like most blue panel systems are already like almost 10 years old. So, on those you've already lost, what is it? A natural degradation like one to 2% a year half a percent.
Speaker 4:So you've already lost a little bit. So it's hard to see a huge increase on those older systems. Even 8%, though, like our average is 12 to 20%, like actual average is 12 to 20%. So 8% is a lower on the side of the increase that we've seen, but even then it's still a big increase.
Speaker 2:I'm happy with 8%. Yeah, exactly, I wasn't expecting 8%, yeah, and I've noticed on my system itself, on the whole system, that I've seen an increase in production in the last two days over what it was prior to that. I know there's a lot of conditions and things that can play into that, sure, sure, but I'm going to look at it over time and I'll report back a month from now, two months from now, but it definitely looks like it had an impact.
Speaker 4:And just for the listeners too. Like you guys may not see an increase, like there's a chance you don't see one, like that's why I never and it's my, it's not, it's my business, you know and I'm out here saying you may not see an increase. Not everyone does so we don't guarantee it, but by doing it you're going to make sure that that system is at its max capacity.
Speaker 3:You know, if there's electrical issues, then that's one thing but if everything else is good and you clean them, your you know your honesty and integrity is everything matches our values as well. Um we're not the cheapest solar company out.
Speaker 2:There you can go get a cheaper solar system.
Speaker 4:Yeah, we're not the.
Speaker 3:My guess you're not the cheapest 99 guy, you know yeah, exactly, but I feel like you know you get what you pay for in this industry, like, yeah, we might be a little bit much more in for solar systems and for cleaning, but this is who you're going to be in a relationship with going forward. Is this the type of person that you want to be with? Or do you want to be in, you know, in a relationship with a company that's like, yeah, we got your money, see you later.
Speaker 4:Well, like that, and even if we like when we did his house, if we just showed up, cleaned them and like is that?
Speaker 1:all. We'll send you everything. How do?
Speaker 4:we know, you know, because being on a two story other than your patio, but being on a two story, you're not going to be like, oh, those are, those were cleaned.
Speaker 1:You know you can't see them.
Speaker 4:So that's another thing. It's like the photos. It's not just here's all your photos, it's before and after laid out and labeled so you can see before and after on top of each other. Is that the before Is?
Speaker 1:that the after is not the after, it says it you know.
Speaker 4:So that's another thing too. It's just leaving that mark of okay, we were here. It's same with the pool guy, like you know. How do you know your pool was cleaned if, if you weren't home, you know he leaves a little chemical stick or something to show that he was there, right?
Speaker 3:um, so that's another thing. Just my pool guy, yeah, just little stuff.
Speaker 2:I will tell you that the panels on the patio, they looked amazing. After you guys were, I I think I went out and looked at them like three more times after you left because it was just like, they were just so shiny and clean new it looks so cool. I was like man that just that just looks good. Yeah, and the production piece of it just kind of helps, kind of I think I mean you know, for me you got your priority switch but to the point we were talking about before, about reasons people would do it.
Speaker 2:Some people are. Is this going to? There's a lot, especially if they're in the front of your house. Yeah Right, no for sure. And I'll tell you the aesthetic, the difference in aesthetics is amazing. I was blown away by that. I wasn't expecting that, so you got my vote on that one. That was like and my wife? Of course, aesthetics are more important to the wife Usually.
Speaker 4:She was like yeah, she loved it. Well, that's why we have people like I, have people on quarterly and triennial plans, so either every four months and some people even every three months, and I tell them, hey, everything or anything more than every six months, you, you're not really going to start seeing as much as a cost to production benefit at that and anything more than I would say. I mean, even Google will tell you I'll do it every four to six months. Six months, I would say. If you did every six months, you're on, you're changing your oil every five, that you're on top of it, you know. But the quarterly people, the three months, quarterly people, that's a lot of that's for aesthetics, a lot of homes with it on the front. You pull in, you have people over. First thing you see is panels with poop all over them or dust it's like ah, you know, Um, so yeah, aesthetics for sure.
Speaker 2:So I think that's good. I was going to go into that. That's a really good point. So, depending where you live, right, so I'm sure you have customers probably out in more rural areas too, outside of the city, right? Those panels, I would assume, are going to get a lot more dust, a lot more dirt on them a lot more frequently right, because there's a lot of those areas are heavy dust areas or like new construction areas.
Speaker 2:Yeah, then it makes sense to maybe do it more than once a year, right? You're going to have your aesthetics customer. If you have it on the front of your house, it just wants to look good. That makes sense, because I'm going to tell you something they are going to look better. There's no doubt about it. And then there's people like me in my neighborhood. It's a total bird neighborhood. There's pigeons everywhere, right? So there's always going to that. So some of the panels I had on the patio had that and it was impacting production and that instantly cleared up and that's where I got the 8% increase, and I'm sure I got some on the top too from the same thing. So you have to know wherever you live will determine, in my opinion, how often you would need this service. I think, the more I'm looking at it, there's a necessity to this, to the service. Sure, I understand what you're saying and I think you're right. Just like with solar, it's not for everybody right, right, right.
Speaker 3:Another thing um, that brings up the skepticism to um, let's say I, I book you guys. You guys, you're coming out on on monday, you do the cleaning panels look great, they're producing. Tuesday we get a dust storm, like I just wasted my money.
Speaker 4:Now my panels are dirty again so in a situation like that, like said, we're not the cheapest company out there, we're not going to be like oh, sucks to suck, man, you should have. Like we're going to make sure, like hey, if you call us, hey, man, we just had a dust storm, right, cool, well, we'll come out and do it. Sure, like I'm not going to, I rain guarantee, necessarily. But if it rains the same day and you're like hey, dude, like what the heck, you know, just let us know we're gonna come take care of you right, I mean that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I get that right. Yeah, you probably want to look seasonally when you want to want to do this. Right, you know when monsoon season is right, you know when spring hits and all the pollens are gonna be out. I mean, you can adjust.
Speaker 3:They did yours like what, like three or four days after it rained, right, yeah. So I was like, oh, that you know, and they were dirty. They're clean now. They rained right, but they were, but they were still a little dirty.
Speaker 4:Still saw an increase after the rain.
Speaker 1:So, that's a huge that's a huge misconception.
Speaker 4:is rain cleans panels? First thing I tell people is yeah yes and no.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly yes and no Like it might get the dust off.
Speaker 4:But the same thing I ask people. Well, does you? Are you going to detail your car knowing it's going to rain the next day? Probably not. Um, same thing with the panels, you know.
Speaker 2:If the rain doesn't clean them, it actually a lot of the water in arizona, since it's going through so much pollution, pollution, you know it could make it even worse after it dries, you know that's a good point, and I wanted to touch on that because when I look at the panels because I can see the ones on the patio really closely out of my bedroom window they used to have a film on them and that film is gone, that kind of shiny film, yeah, and now you just see the glass and the clean panel. Now, of course, since you've done it, there's there's translucent dust on there now a little bit, but we live in the desert. That's going to happen, and translate dust is not going to really impact my production?
Speaker 3:yeah, I can go through. It's certain layers of dust.
Speaker 2:I mean, if it's a now, if you have this much dust, yeah, but I mean it's the pigeon stuff, right, it's the film that from the pollution that you just talked about. When it rains, that's a really good point, because it is going through pollution, that water can be a bit dirty, no, for sure I'm not gonna sit there and drink rain water just straight out of the.
Speaker 2:I mean just god knows what's in it. But those panels don't have that film on them anymore. It's gone. It looked like they did when they were brand new.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:That's impressive, yeah, and I think that's probably the most important piece to get off the panel, and however long it takes for that to come back on, I'm going to see, but it's definitely gone.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and that's another thing. Like even coming back to the frequency, if a customer says, well, I don't know how your system's going to react. You may not see an increase. I may like for me to come out and clean them every six months. It may not be necessary for you. So what? I tell people if they're like no, I have some people that call us, hey, I need you guys out here every six months. Cool, I got it for you. I have some people are like hey, you know, I would like to do it. Maybe'm just going to call you in six months and we're just going to talk about it. We're going to see if you saw an increase.
Speaker 4:If you did see an increase, okay, maybe let's revisit it. If you didn't see an increase, let's push it out to a year. You know, I don't. At the end of the day, you go solar, save money. So, to your point, you don't want to clean it so much. To tell you my brother I don't know if he told you the blue ones he's like hey, man, these like the blue ones weren't as dirty as the black ones.
Speaker 4:Like it's hard to say that yeah, it's like we're going to tell you.
Speaker 2:We're not going to sit here and say, hey, they were the most dirty system we've ever seen. You just said because that's why you're on this podcast, because we feel you're a really good connection with us, right, you speak the things that we speak, which I like. The one thing that your brother brought up that I thought was interesting and this is a good point for people and why you should have somebody up there is he said that he commonly goes up there and sees burn spots on panels like very often.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it's weird man. Um, a lot of it. It's with the older systems, so a lot of the blue. I don't even know how to explain it. It almost looks like.
Speaker 4:I don't think it's a chemical burn. It literally looks like a brown like chemical spot. It's the weirdest thing, um, and typically we won't clean those ones because we don't know what's going on with that panel. But that's another reason to have people out there. We can take a photo of it and say hey, you have three panels that are having like these burn spots on them. Um, you should call your solar company I'm pretty sure that's impacting production.
Speaker 4:Yeah right, yeah that, or even even fire risk, like who knows if that's going to create a spark, you know and that, and then I know we'll talk about it. But that goes into the, the bird stuff underneath like the pine needles, if one of those inverters goes rogue and starts, I don't't know how that works, but if it goes rogue, it starts sparking a little bit, like that could cause a fire, you know.
Speaker 4:So it's um, it's a safety thing as well. And looking at the roof, making sure, hey man, you got your tiles that are messed up. You know like we've seen some crazy stuff.
Speaker 2:So, um no, but I think that's cool because, as a homeowner, the first time I saw my roof in a long time was the pictures that you guys took in the video I don't ever go up there. Yeah, right, it was cool to see what was up, but you found an old bird nest under my panels that was now encased in the cage. Yeah, the company that did my encasing didn't get rid of that nest, right, so, but there's no big deal about it. It's not a big deal.
Speaker 3:It's not gonna do anything yeah, there's nothing in the nest.
Speaker 2:Yeah, nice to have that cleaned out right exactly yeah, but it was cool to see that I mean, I had never gone up there to look normally it was also cool to see all the gunk and crud and stuff coming off your roof as they were cleaning it I was like your roof was dirty, yeah, clean your roof. It's a bird neighborhood, right.
Speaker 3:I guess that's part of it is roof cleaning a thing like he can clean my? Okay, yeah, he kind of cleaned it.
Speaker 4:We do do, uh, when we ever we do bird proofing jobs, we're not just gonna just do the system because now the system looks good. The rest of the roof? Looks like crap you know so whenever we do actual not with your typical cleaning, but when we do like bigger services, when we're getting the nesting out or putting the guards around, we'll clean off the roof for you.
Speaker 2:So so to that point, your company also does birdproofing, yep.
Speaker 4:So we hadn't talked about that, yep, so do you want me to touch on that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 4:So a lot of times when you so little thing for the listeners, if you guys do birdproofing, you get a free cleaning with it. So just to let you know, I didn't know that. Yeah, but with the bird proofing. We've had people that have had roof leaks from bird poop like collecting over over time.
Speaker 3:I have a lady.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it gets gross. So the bird proofing is pretty important. They can damage underneath its system. We've pulled like connection wires out of a nest itself, like it was embedded in the nest, which could cause many other issues. As far as the solar goes, I've had a customer call us and say, hey, my solar company will not work on the system until all the nesting's gone. So we've had to go out and remove all the nesting just so they can come out and fix the panels, and that's like I've had that with two people.
Speaker 4:Now, um, I've had uh, yeah, we've had birds that have been very stubborn, like they will not leave the system, because you're essentially like taking them away from their home but at the end of the day it's causing it could cost the homeowner like thousands of dollars. Or we're up there for hours just getting bird poop out Cause you're in a, you're in a lock, like luckily that nest isn't obviously active. But if we were to say that nest was active today and you had a couple more, if we just went and threw the guards on, it's essentially you locking the door of your house and then being like yo, all my stuff's inside, like how do I get back in?
Speaker 3:you know, and that's what the yeah. Did you see your neighboring houses? Yes, all those pigeons. Yes, because you're, because you have the bird guard on your system, but the pigeons are all just around your house, on your neighbor's house, it's like that was supposed to be ours.
Speaker 4:No, and they're hanging around. So, yeah, if you don't get all that nesting out, which yours has been probably five years, it's been a while they ain't getting in there anymore. But right off the bat, if we go to a job and we don't get all that nesting out, it's going to make the problem. They and we don't get all that nesting out, it's going to make the problem. They're going to bring their friends. Hey, we got to get in this system.
Speaker 2:We got to get our babies our eggs.
Speaker 4:They did try for a while.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and they're going to continue to try to get back in, mainly because that nest or their scent is still there. Yeah, so we'll do a disinfectant, not on the actual surface of the bird, which in Arizona. You don't know how long term affected it is, but at least for the short term it's going to kill that scent of the bird, so they're not going to want to come back. We do wire along the ridge, so if you're like yo, I have the guards, but these birds are still hanging out. We have other precautions that we can take just to make your roof.
Speaker 2:Oh really.
Speaker 3:So you can put stuff on the ridges and, yep, yeah, stainless steel wire that runs across so they can't land on it. It's not like electrified or anything. That would be pretty cool, but yeah, that would be cool, but can you do it?
Speaker 2:oh, that's interesting because, yeah, they like to hang out on the ridges.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah so we can. We can wire the ridges, which is a little cleaner than spikes too. You'll see some people that spike the whole roof, which is just as effective, but it doesn't look as appealing. Hoas might not like that and stuff. So that's another thing with our bird proofing is yeah, it's going to work, but it's going to look really good. Um, I have to do that on the bridge. Yeah, people invest a lot in their solar system and doing a cheap bird guard job. It's like now what you know we've seen people use, or companies use, not coated bird guards, so it's basically just a stainless like chicken wire and it started. Every time it gets wet, rust literally runs down the system, like I had a homeowner that called us out for a cleaning. We get up there and it's like rust. The system itself has run down rust from the guards not being coated.
Speaker 4:So it's like, okay, well, we'll do our best to clean this, but you're going to want to talk to whoever installed these and get that.
Speaker 3:Right, you're putting a Band-Aid over a bullet wound right now.
Speaker 4:Exactly, and that's what a lot of like some bird-proofing companies will do. They'll just put a Band-Aid on what the actual problem is and not taking care of the root.
Speaker 2:See, I was going to actually get into you know why. Sun Bros versus other people, and you just kind, which is someone? If they're looking over a panel cleaning company, what should they look for? What are their key things?
Speaker 4:Yeah, so one thing is to make sure that whoever's doing your system is fully insured, not just to be cleaning your windows or your solar, but to actually be on your roof. So that was a little bit of an awakening for us. When we got started, I thought how much insurance can we need for solar cleaning or whatever? And since we're up on top of roofs, we automatically fall into the roofing bracket. So we pay roofing insurance along with actual like solar and bird proofing insurance also, which isn't like you can't just get like.
Speaker 4:We had to have someone the broker like build us a policy for it, cause it's not a super big industry yet. So if you're out looking on Google whether you don't want to use us, whatever the case is, you're just maybe not in our market. I would always check for the quality of what they're using Chemicals. If you want me to touch on that right now, we can. So at Sunbros, we do not use any chemicals, which could be pretty controversial. There's cleaners in Arizona that do use chemicals and they live by them. Chemicals work, but the problem is, is not every manufacturer approves the chemicals, so chemicals in the water.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 4:Okay, like a clean, like a cleaning solution.
Speaker 2:A cleaning solution.
Speaker 4:Okay, yep. So like you can go on Amazon and look up like solar cleaning solution and they'll bottles will pop up and stuff. But if it's not approved by that manufacturer, it voids the warranty.
Speaker 2:So wow, what a good point that is, yeah yeah, so it may work, you know.
Speaker 4:But if it voids the warranty, then what good does the cleaning do anyway, if now? Now your panels can't even be fixed and there's hundreds of different manufacturers. So many like so that just use not chemicals, yeah exactly so that's why we did invest into that filtration system is so that we can get the same result not using chemicals.
Speaker 2:Yeah, even that is really something we got to really harp on that for a second Right.
Speaker 4:I mean, I didn't even realize that. Yeah, no, there's actual like. I mean there's a company called uh, I mean shameless plug, I think it's called like chemitech, which is like solar chemicals. So they may be approved by more manufacturers. But for the volume like we do do personally, like on a cleaning, we can do four or five houses in a day, maybe more. The systems are smaller and drive time and stuff, but we're not checking with six different manufacturers on what to use, you know so, with water, especially the filtered water.
Speaker 4:You're pretty much in the clear. Our brushes are actual, like they're solar cleaning brushes that are meant for solar panels. Um, even though it's just, i'm'm pretty sure they're just nylon bristles, but they're meant like for solar. So you're not being a bracelet.
Speaker 2:It looked really soft and they did a good job cleaning.
Speaker 4:Yeah, super soft. That way we're not scratching anything. You know some of the older panels. They may not be as good a shape as they were Very easy terms to say like they wear down over time. So you don't want to use anything that could potentially harm the, harm the system, because at the end of the day you clean them to make it better. You don't want to clean them be like oh, now I have all these issues, you know yeah, and it's not just the, the modules that are getting the chemicals on there too.
Speaker 3:When you're up there cleaning, yeah, you have the racking, the stanchions. If you have micro inverters, the conduit, yeah, all that warranty stuff, you know. So're like oh, the panel, this cleaning solution is good for the panels, but then you notice that your you know your racking is deteriorating. You try to file a claim. They're like no, yeah.
Speaker 4:You use these chemicals.
Speaker 3:It's not approved by us, so no.
Speaker 4:Exactly that, or even a lot of components. Roofs out. Here are tile roofs, asphalt.
Speaker 2:That's a good point too, you know.
Speaker 4:So it may be good for the panels but it may not be good for it may not be for your dog run. That's right below the system. You know your dogs are sniffing that stuff now and that's another thing. With bird poop, like bird poop is not just for the sake of bird proofing, is not just for the sake of no poop on the roof. But if you have little kids, you have dogs a lot of times at the bottom of I mean that poop's going to fall. So if you have play stuff or a lot of people will have dog runs on the side of their house, like whatever your dog's stepping in and sniffing, it's bringing it into the house. I've had a guy which we're actually doing his house next week. That's disgusting, but they put the solar system over a vent Like. So they cut the vent on the roof and it installed the solar system on top of it. They started nesting on top of that vent.
Speaker 4:So now there's poop and fly he's like there's flies flying like coming through my airways, like there's literally poop going into his house maybe not directly onto his floor, but into the air vents it's like it's disgusting that smell yeah, no, it's disgusting, and bird poop has a very distinctive smell. It's not like normal, it's just, oh, it's gross I'll take your word for it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's disgusting. It's that smell. Yeah, no, it's disgusting, and bird poop has a very distinctive smell. It's not like normal, it's just. Oh, it's gross. I'll take your word for it. Yeah, it's disgusting. I'll bring some in next time. No, really, I've brought samples.
Speaker 2:It looks like customers. So what you should be asking are they insured? So the company you're working with? Do they have? What kind of water are they using? Do they put chemicals in the water? Which, gosh, I didn't realize. I didn't even realize that they were doing that. Yeah, but boy, that brings up a whole sort of red flag with a warranty losing, warranty hurting the components of your system, that stuff coming down the side of your house onto the ground. If you have pets, there's just a lot there. That man I wouldn't want to use. Somebody that uses chemicals, I think. Do they. Do they offer you a before and after photos of what they've done?
Speaker 4:I think that's really important, and that's all little stuff too.
Speaker 2:That's little, but that was big to me.
Speaker 4:Yeah Right, it's the little things that go a long way, leaving a brochure showing, hey, this is me and my brother, this is why we started and this is what we do, you know. So so if I, so if I given someone like a brochure, or hey, follow us on Instagram, or by just by giving them something too, it's like hey, these guys, I'm going to put it on my fridge. You know like I had a guy call us the other day, which again out of our services, but he's like hey, man, you're, you're the only guy I know that can get on roofs and I'm having some weird trouble, like trouble with my sky. It was just weird, like weird phone call. But the fact that he can trust us to come out there again just says says a lot. You know, like a lot of roofers, you never know what you're getting. You may hire a great roofing company, but who knows who they're actually subbing it're not.
Speaker 2:You're going to know before we get there who's coming.
Speaker 4:So on that link that we send you, you click that link, it'll show you the selfie of who's coming. So, like I, for example, I put me, my brother and David all on that job form. So when you click on it, nice beautiful photo of all three of our faces is going to come up. Who's coming to my house? It's, it's David, it's Andrew and it's Rick. And that's just another thing where it's like you know who you're, who you're getting. It's like Uber, right.
Speaker 1:If you, when you order an Uber you're like who's this guy?
Speaker 4:Like, this guy looks sketchy, you know.
Speaker 2:So it's just a just on something that I was not 100 sold on that honestly now and I get ben's points yeah, but honestly now it's probably something I'll do once a year because I think there's value to it. Yeah, for me in my situation there's value I'm curious to see.
Speaker 3:I'm a long-term guy, so I'm curious to see what your production is going to be like. It's day one of cleaning, yeah. The next 365 days, yeah, and then I'll compare that to last year's production.
Speaker 2:Yeah and I'm I'm gonna do that too, because I'm curious, I mean so being in the industry.
Speaker 3:We can do that kind of stuff, and we'll have you again next year at this time don't speak. For me it didn't work. We waited a year for this. I also liked the personal touch that you had. You had the hired actors that drove by Ralph's house and walked by. It was pretty cool. We're a big production. Yeah, hired actors.
Speaker 4:What he's referring to is when we are cleaning. We do a lot. In our branding we have signs out. We had two people stop by asking for flyers asking what we're doing.
Speaker 3:It's just they're of. You know they're a contract.
Speaker 4:Now that happens more often than you think we've. I can't count on my like how many times we've gotten more jobs just because we're already there. You know that's the biggest proof of concept is when my neighbor's getting it done. You know, especially if you like your neighbor, depending where you live you know, if you like your neighbor and they're getting it done. You're much more accepting to whatever that service is.
Speaker 2:We have a lot of solar in our neighborhood and, like I said, it's a bird neighborhood. So and I've never, ever, one time and I've lived there now for 10 years have seen a panel cleaning company there. So I think when people saw your trucks there, it was a shock to the system and they want to get their panels cleaned because they get so dirty with the birds and all that stuff. So it just that neighborhood is it makes sense to have a company like yours come out. It just does yeah, right. So I thought that was cool and I want referral bonuses on both those people. But I thought that.
Speaker 2:I thought that was cool that people stopped by and asked you for your card and stuff. That's neat. Yeah, you know it's funny. I'm looking at what we want to talk about and we're hitting everything without even trying. I mean, we wanted to talk about the warranty impacts which we kind of talked about already, monitoring impacts and performance. We've kind of touched on that a little bit too, and that'll be to be determined as we continue to go forward. You know me at this every month and then we'll look at it and we'll talk about it and see what the impact is.
Speaker 3:I've got your logins, yeah.
Speaker 2:And we're getting into what we're looking for. I love the fact that the insurance, the chemicals in the water that's real important. The before and after photos is there anything else that really kind of sets you apart or you really feel that I mean, that's a lot.
Speaker 4:Yeah, our reviews. If you look up Sumbro's on Google, we're very reputable for what we do and that's a huge thing that for me. I can do all the marketing in the world, but if we can't keep our current customers happy, then what kind of company are we, you know? And that's a big thing. For me, it's like I would rather just nurture my current clientele than continue to try to just keep finding more. So as far as setting us apart one at the end, we have a cool story too, which you don't see a lot these days, which is another little thing. It's not so much of our process alone, but in the safety we didn't really touch on safety. Yeah, let's talk about that.
Speaker 4:So a lot of times you're not a lot of safety. That comes with roofing. Stuff happens on and off the ladder Once you're on the roof. I know you were watching that video getting motion sickness. Once you're on the roof, I know you were watching that video getting motion sickness. Yeah, I was. Once you're on the roof, especially out here in Arizona, the roofs are pretty grippy, except when it's raining, but once you're on the roof you're pretty safe. Like it's hard to fall, like even if we're cleaning and we trip. It's hard to fall off the roof.
Speaker 4:Honestly, a lot of the safety comes on getting on and off the ladder. So obviously OSHA has their rules. We have our own like three point rule. So at all times you must have three points of contact both feet and at least one hand. So if you're holding the brush or something, you can at least have one hand on it. You're also going to find ladder straps on every job we go to. So it's basically a strap that that clips to the facial board underneath and then Velcros to the ladder itself. So if I'm sitting there like dancing on the ladder or something, I'm not going to fall off. Now, if I slip in some of that it's different. But as far as the ladder slipping out or the ladder actually tipping backwards on any job we do especially two stories we always make sure to have a ladder strap on there.
Speaker 2:I saw that.
Speaker 4:I wasn't sure what that was, but I did see that. Yeah, so that's a safety precaution. Yep, uh, we also have, like gutter guards and stuff. So a lot of not a ton of homes out here, but some people get gutters installed, and leaning a metal ladder up against a nice painted gutter doesn't really go hand in hand typically. Um, so we have gutter guards and stuff.
Speaker 4:At the end of the day, we're going to take care of your property. Um, and all that poop, water and everything that falls. We're also going to go our way and make sure it's picked up. Because what I even with birdproofing at the end of the day. I mean, ralph goes outside and looks at his panels and loves how they look, but a lot of people, if they can't see them, they're going to also, but they're going to remember how we left their property. You know, so if we're doing a birdproofing job and we did a killer job on the roof and then the rest of the house looks like like bird, poopy and not good, and it's like, okay, well, they did good, but look how they left the house, yeah, you know, and that kills the entire reputation if we did a great job and and told ralph that the dodgers suck or something.
Speaker 3:Then it's like yeah you know, but then it. But then you do that kind of ruins the experience. I'll pay extra for that.
Speaker 4:I go, I dive into any job we do. I dive in and I hammer on the experience and just hammering that, hey, with us we're going to make sure your home's in good care. If, if we break a tile, you're going to know about it. We're not going to be like, oh, they won't see it. You know, we're going to make sure you guys are aware. In that app we take photos.
Speaker 4:Another just added thing we do a lot of companies charge, not when they break a tile, but if we're already up there and there's broken tiles, a lot of companies will be like, hey, I'll fix these tiles for a hundred bucks, whatever, we're just going to glue them for you. We fix a lot of tiles for free. Now, if it's the entire roof, we ain't doing that, but if it's like four or five tiles and we're already there, we typically have two man cleaning. We're going to make sure that other guy is either cleaning stuff up, making sure the property looks good, just little things. I had one of my guys pick up dog poop on the side of that. It's just little stuff to leave our mark.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's just little things. Can they come back over? Maybe you should have panel cleaning once a month.
Speaker 4:But roof tile is another thing. With barely any rain we get out here. You want to make sure that your roof is in good condition and not paying I mean, some roofers do it for like free estimates and stuff, but the free inspections to like, we're going to be up there. We're going to tell you, hey, you have six broken tiles. We went ahead and just glued them for you. Now, if we break a tile, we're always going to fix it. Um, like full transparency.
Speaker 4:We broke a tile the other day that we couldn't fix just because it was in like three pieces or I don't even I'm not going to puzzle this together and try to hold it for an hour. So we will go get you a new tile and I never make the homeowner pay for that. Um, so anything that we do or say, we do make a mistake, we're always going to go. We'll eat that. Um, that's another thing. With birdproofing too, I'm not going to tell you hey, mr Homeowner, it's, it's a thousand bucks and then actually, now that we've been here for two hours, it's now 1200, you know, we're never going to up the price on you. The price that we tell you, that is the final price If we go an extra day, if we go an extra hour, if we run out of material. Whatever the case is, we eat that as a company because we didn't do our proper due diligence in the estimating process.
Speaker 2:See, and everything you're just saying. So we just talked about in the beginning about you know, we're not the cheapest way we do business. You said you're not the cheapest and you get what you pay for, Right, Right. And everything he just said is exactly it. It speaks to that You're getting what you pay for, Right he's. He's given you everything up front. He's telling you his experience and how they do things and that's why he's not the cheapest. If he was the cheapest, I guarantee it'd be a totally different experience. To me. It's so important and our company at Harman it's so important that our crews, when they go out there, when they're done, that they clean up, that they do the right stuff, that they leave the place immaculate. And if they don't, guys focus on that. And I saw that when you were at the house. I just saw how you did things. It was, it was just, it was primo.
Speaker 4:Yeah, no doubt about it and that, honestly, that wasn't just us trying to be like, oh, this is like we got to do, right this.
Speaker 2:No, like that's just a standard. I didn't get that feel.
Speaker 4:No, that's our standard process. Like my brother, he has that little spiel that he told you hey, this is your invoice. Like he has that on record like memory. Now it's just second nature to him to go through that little spiel yeah.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it's, it's not. Oh, uh, here is your invoice here. Like you know it's, it's very smooth, it's you. We make the homeowner feel like they're getting something more than just cleaning. You guys are getting a good experience and I think that is a lot what's missing in the home service industry, whether it's cleaning plumbing, solar itself, like you guys can do a killer system. But if you break a bunch of tiles and make the homeowner feel like crap, drop a pant, like whatever the case is, it kind of kills the whole experience. And at the end of the day I'll straight up tell any homeowner like like hey, you might be able to get this for cheaper, but what you're not going to get is us not to be like cocky or anything, but that's true but you're not going to get the experience that we're able to provide for you
Speaker 2:that's exactly that's our pitch right the harman difference right. Why are we different?
Speaker 3:why are we and that's why you see all those, you know, those bad reviews out there for you know, our industry or any industry, really it's like, no, that was you in your specific situation. Don't blame the industry. That was because you went with the cheaper company. You went with, you know, a non-reputable company. You know, we're not like that.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So, so I also want to mention that you offer one more thing you do window cleaning, right?
Speaker 4:We do, yeah, so that's a newer service for us, so our specialty. Another hinting back on what customers should look for don't look for a company that does everything like they do it all.
Speaker 3:You want niche, a niche, and we're done, dang it. No, I'm saying, like we don't do auto repair, all right, yeah, we're gonna do like every no it's.
Speaker 4:We're very niche in bird proofing and solar cleaning, like I've had people hey, can you clean our uh chimney and stuff like that? Honestly, just weird stuff like the outside, just like we can, but that's not our, that's not our niche. So window cleaning is newer for us. We started doing that just because it's the same equipment.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it's glass window cleaning takes longer than solar cleanings and it's a cheaper service. So it's kind of like we're still trying to figure out the pricing with it. Um, but window cleaning is newer for us. Uh, we do screen cleaning too. What's hard, though? In Arizona a lot of these screens are absolutely beat. So, um, that's a tough one.
Speaker 4:Yeah, so that's a little bit not a battle necessarily, but just when we're moving screens like I'm not a professional screen fixer, um, I know one of our customers. Actually he does screen repair, so I kind of have his contact. But, yeah, window cleaning is a newer service of ours. It's definitely we're not as good on window cleaning as we are solar cleaning and birdproofing just being transparent, but that's one of those services where what we're probably going to do is market it to our current clients first. That way, if we do mess up a little bit, you know we have a little bit of a buffer, but in all, in all honesty, we want to just make sure that whatever services you guys are getting, we can provide with full confidence. So, um, yeah, window cleaning is is in the works. Um, I haven't advertised it on like social media yet. Um, it's on our website, if you like really go throughout and fill out a form you'll see search yeah.
Speaker 4:If you research for it, you'll see window washing. But that's definitely a service like moving into more into 2025 that with the new van setup we're doing, it will be fully capable of doing windows.
Speaker 2:Very good. So I want everybody listening and watching to go on their website and get window.
Speaker 3:They're not great at it yet so get them now, which means the pricing is fantastic.
Speaker 4:It is cheaper. Now I've thrown it in for a couple clients, just, hey, we'll do it, just so we could see how it goes and we could learn. It's all little stuff. Leaving that little squeegee, it's kind of tough. That's an art man. Yeah, it's kind of tough.
Speaker 4:Which window cleaners are probably watching this, being like, oh, you guys don't know how to do it. You know, but it's, it's a? Yeah, it is, it's just reps. Um, so messing with that water fed systems. Uh, we have a really sick screen cleaner. That's actually kind of fun to use. So we've been using that a little more.
Speaker 4:Um, but yeah, it's just an added service, especially on birdproofing jobs. If bird poop falls and gets the window a mess like, even if we spray off your window, you're still going to see those water spots. So it's mainly that too. Like we want to be able to clean windows so that, hey, if we get your house, your windows, messy in the process, we can take care of it for you before we leave. So we clean neighbor's yards too. Whenever we do bad poop jobs and it's going over into the neighbor's yard, we'll do that for free Also, we clean the neighbor's yard. So it's just like we don't want any way, for I mean, there's courses, probably ways people could try to like come at us for little things, but we like to mitigate that as much, as as much as possible. We were trying to do everything we can to provide that.
Speaker 3:I don't think anyone's going to be mad for cleaning up your yard. You cleaned my yard. I wanted it messy.
Speaker 4:If we cleaned like that, that homeowner's house. But like some of those two stories, that poop is going off Like, so it's into the neighbor's yard too. So like, technically we were hired by that house. You know we don't have to do the neighbor's house, but we made the mess.
Speaker 2:That's the right thing to do. Yeah, so we do it. Yeah, I mean that says everything about your company.
Speaker 4:That's the right thing. That neighbor standing out there, you guys, you guys have to clean this up. We'd make you stand. We make you stand underneath it and be like watch, tell us when the poop's coming down, okay. So for anyone listening if you just mentioned that, you saw us on the harman podcast we are doing 25 off initial solar cleaning as well as window cleaning. If you bundle it together, we'll do 20 off on that and then when you do bird proofing, you get 10 off and a free solar cleaning with that so just a little thing for the listeners, just let us know.
Speaker 4:I heard you fumble your words a few times on the podcast. We'll take care of it for you.
Speaker 2:So to our 3 million listeners, there you go, I mean your phone's going to be ringing off.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah you, let us know you just lost it.
Speaker 2:Dude Just mentioned that you saw him on the Harmon Solar podcast.
Speaker 4:Yeah, we lost it, dude Just mentioned that you saw him on the Harmon Solar Podcast. Yeah, we'll hook you up. There's only three of us that do this, so it's either gonna be me, my brother Andrew or David coming by. So that's another thing I like. I mean we do plan on obviously expanding, but right now we're able to hone in on that quality control, making sure every job is treated equally. Yeah, and yeah, there's a little stuff like that, guys I mean at the end of the day, and yeah, just all little stuff like that, guys I mean at the end of the day.
Speaker 4:One thing me and Ben and we've all talked about not everyone needs to get their solar panels clean. So do your own due diligence on if it's right for you. Look at your. If you're an APS, look at your production on what your solar is producing versus what it was doing last year. Or if your solar company gave you the login a lot of companies don't, but if they give you your, your login, look at it, take the time and look at it, because that 10, 15 minutes looking at your production, you may find other issues. You may find out a guy the other day. We're looking at his box and he's like I don't think it's supposed to be like red blinking light. I'm like, yeah, dude, I don't think that's supposed. A look at everything and that's just, it's all little stuff. You know, it might not be the cleaning by itself, but all the little.
Speaker 4:Hey, by the way, you have a broken panel. That's another thing we didn't talk about. A lot of times, on golf courses or whatnot, golf balls will hit panels and they they shatter. Um, so we will never clean a shattered panel. We'll rinse it off Like without the brush touching it. You know that's the same thing as like rain hitting it right. So I'll rinse it off to get the dust off. But never have a cleaners out there that are going to say, oh, we'll take care that we'll clean the broken panel because that one their own safety.
Speaker 4:You can get electrocuted. You know, I'm assuming it's grounded, but you never know. It's water and electricity. Yeah, yeah, like you never know what could happen. So never clean broken. Yeah, I mean other cleaners might be listening to this, but yeah, that's what I would recommend. And then, yeah, just making sure at the end of the day you're in it for the homeowner, not in it to make a quick buck. And that's the difference between. We have a lot of these guys that may be beating us on pricing now, but in a year or two, when they're not operating anymore.
Speaker 2:Boy, that sounds familiar, I know.
Speaker 4:Yeah, like it's the same thing in the solar industry. I came from the solar industry and you have all these people that will permit pool. They'll go after all. These permits are like permit poachers. Yep, you know, it's not as bad in solar cleaning, but as birdproofing goes like, I had a lady that was telling us oh, you guys are double the price. I told her straight up. I was like I don't know how they're in business like doing that, like just in material alone. They're kind of putting themselves at risk. I don't know how we get that all the time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly, most of those guys aren't in business anymore.
Speaker 4:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2:So, you may take the, the cheap route for the short term but I mean we'll probably to see that tagline on their website now that says you know, may not need to do this, but everybody should look at it, we should get royalty for that.
Speaker 3:We should, yeah, we should.
Speaker 2:Number two I think you've given people good questions that they need to start asking the other companies. I don't care, Forget, never ask about price. I know price. Yeah, you want a good price, but you should ask the questions the chemicals, this, that stuff's important. I don't know if that's on your website, but I would recommend you should. Hey, if you're looking for this service, ask these questions.
Speaker 4:So, on the insurance too, you'll find a lot of window cleaning companies that are insured for window cleaning not actually to be up on your roof.
Speaker 4:So, that's a completely different insurance bracket. So, um, I have a couple like window cleaning companies that we work with and we'll clean their any solar systems that they get in, just for the insurance factor. Because if one of those kids fall, falls off the roof or they break a panel or the roof, they're not most times they're not insured for that. So I encourage customers hey, if you want to look at our insurance documents I always provide upon request, I'll provide insurance documentation. Make sure they're actually insured to clean and be on your roof, because that is a huge thing. A company will tell you hey, we're insured. What are you insured for?
Speaker 1:Are you?
Speaker 4:insured just to clean my windows, because you don't have to get on a roof and you're just using a little squeegee, you know, because they have. Yeah, exactly Like there's insurance is huge we're insured.
Speaker 3:You have dental insurance.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we have car insurance, you know? Um no, that's a really good point. People need to be looking at that stuff exactly. Yeah, so if people want to find you, how?
Speaker 4:do they find you? Yeah, uh, sumbrose cleaning on one google, instagram, facebook. Easy way to get a hold of me is my personal account is just rick elmer um, but just message us on instagram, give us a follow. We try to post more engaging content on instagram, not so much like um, like technical stuff, it's more of us having fun. What music do we listen to on the job? Just little stuff like that. Yeah, just all little things. Sunbrose Cleaning. Sunbrose Cleaning on Instagram, sunbrose Cleaning on Facebook. Sunbrosecleaningcom is our website. Take a look at that. Yeah, guys, just let us know. Google, my business. We have Sunbrow Solar Panel Cleaning. You'll see a ton of photos that homeowners have put up. There's us like on the roof that people take and stuff and that's like I don't know. I just I really love the fact that people just like when we're, when we're there you know, homeowners are out there smiling.
Speaker 4:They're watching us Like it just feels good.
Speaker 2:No, no matter what service we provide and we are going to post a bunch of clips and videos and some photos of the work that they did at my house so you guys can kind of get a feel for it. Some of it you've seen in this podcast as it's been running, but we'll post more of that stuff because it was just kind of it was cool and it's just good to see. Yeah, you know, we talk about solar is an investment, right, and it is an investment. It's a big investment and you should take care of your investment and this is one of the ways that you take care of your investment. I mean, if anything else, if you don't 100% believe in the whole cleaning aspect of it, having somebody on your roof taking a look and seeing things and be able to share that information with you that's pretty important. So I always think back to the burn spots and everything else. That your brother was saying that he sees all the time, that's just good information. Yeah, that your brother was saying that he sees all the time, that's just good information. Yeah, you know.
Speaker 2:But I think the cleaning has some benefit. We're going to see financially in the long term what it does. We know instantly it did and we'll be convinced and we'll get Ben convinced 100% too One day. But we're definitely at Harmon here. We're going to start offering this service because we do see value in it and we are going to use Assembro's for the service because they are aligned with us and the way that we do business and that's important to us. You all know that we talk about that all the time. So we found I think we found a really good partner.
Speaker 4:Yeah. And if anyone's skeptical on it, call me. I would love to just talk to you about it. Um, at the end of the day, like I'm here to educate just as much as I am to actually clean your home or clean your system. So just call, call one of us and me and my brother will answer and we'll take you through, write down your questions, hassle us like like Ben, does you know? No, all jokes aside, they'll call us and let us know and we'll be happy to just talk to you about it and see if it's the right fit for you. And if someone calls me and is like, hey, my system's not working, I need them clean. But no, you don't need them clean, you get fix right. Um, that's another thing. The cleaning is not a one-all fix-all.
Speaker 2:It's going to boost the production. It's going to maximize what the current the system can currently do, but it's not going to fix every problem. That's wrong. So we're going to work with you guys. If you find systems that need help or need work, yeah, they're going to get with us and we'll help the system. So it's going to be a cool little team thing that we're going to have going on. So sure, I, I appreciate it, I'm done. You have anything else you know?
Speaker 4:you want to add you're very quiet today.
Speaker 3:I was, I was listening, I just feel like you're very vocal usually I was listening and learning today.
Speaker 2:I learned a lot today okay, good I told me three things you learned, and that's our show so don't forget, if you do call sun bros or look them up, mention that you saw them on the harman solar podcast and you'll get some discounts and some things and some free gifts and I don't know about that. You'll definitely get some discounts and stuff, so don't forget to mention that. All right, ben. So what are we doing next?
Speaker 3:What are we doing next? I think we have an AC company coming in. Yeah, oh, okay, next week. So we're going to talk AC, the importance of getting your AC checked and maintained, and because that's the biggest impact on your, your, your bill. So we're going to, we're talking with AC. Gay, that's next, that's next.
Speaker 2:All right. So thanks, thanks for joining us again. Thanks Thanks for joining us on the podcast. Really good topic that we finally were able to get to. We've been wanting to do this for a while so I'm glad we finally did it and we appreciate your guys support and watching us and we will see you again soon.
Speaker 1:Thank you. With Ben and Ralph bringing clarity to the intersection of solar power and smart home ownership. If you found this episode helpful, don't forget to like, comment and subscribe, and also share the show with others navigating the solar journey. For questions and topic suggestions, call 800-281-3189 or visit harmandsolarcom. You can also connect with the team on social media. See you next episode.
