Solar Scam? The Truth.

In today’s economic climate, it is becoming increasingly important to make improvements in our homes and businesses to reduce consumption of energy and reduce our bills.  In the past two years alone, the American economy has seen inflation of about 10%, with some items rising in cost even more.  Inflation has left many of us with fewer dollars in our pockets for the necessities in our lives.  One of those necessities is of course, electricity.

In times like these, “amazing new products” come out of the woodwork vowing to save enough money so that you can retire early and enjoy the good life.  That’s a bit cynical but unfortunately, it’s true.  And sometimes our own government gets involved in the promotion of those products by spending millions to produce studies that say we must quickly add more solar power, wind power or battery storage to save our planet.

The hot topic today is Solar.  Our goal is to impress upon each of you that you should take the time to do serious research before making any solar purchase decisions.  You may believe CKenergy wishes to talk you out of solar, so we don’t lose kilowatt hour sales, but the reality is we want to help you make a financial decision that makes sense.  In our experience thus far, solar panels rarely make sense!  Why?  Because putting solar panels in your homes or business does NOT save energy.  It doesn’t make your appliances run less, it doesn’t reduce your hot water needs, it doesn’t keep your clothes clean longer, but it DOES put you deeper in debt and you still have a large portion of your electric bill.  Until you pay off that 20-year loan on your solar panels, all you’ve managed to do is simply change who you pay for your energy costs.

There is currently a scam that is running on Facebook encouraging CKenergy members to cut ties with your utility company because you could potentially lose tens of thousands of dollars over the next 10 years unless you install solar.  They even show a map of our service territory which they hijacked from our website.  They claim that you may qualify for solar panels with no upfront costs.

There are some practical things you need to know.  Solar doesn’t work in the dark.  Even moonlight falls on its face so forget any help there.  If you want power at night, you need your utility.  Furthermore, solar only works optimally during certain hours of the day.  It is best when facing south at the precise angle to the sun for Oklahoma’s latitude and must never be shaded.  If the panels face any other direction it takes more of them.  If they aren’t at a 26-degree angle it takes more of them.  Now think about your energy usage, does it all occur during the day?  What portion of your power do you use at night?  If you want to cover your kwh usage at night, you’ll need to oversize your solar system by the amount it would take to produce enough kWhs to keep you percolating after the sun goes down.  But, just like school, there are snow days and rain days and a few foggy days, so you must oversize even more to generate enough kWhs to bank for those days.  If you live on a dirt road you have blowing dirt days and the dirt sticks to your panels and reduces your output until you jump up there with a pail of water and a long-handled squeegee.

Here's the deal, at CKenergy…we…are you.  We are never going to scam you.  We realize we aren’t always perfect but everything we do is aimed at making life easier for you.  We don’t want you to be unhappy and looking for an alternative source of energy.  An acceptable alternative to your utility DOESN’T EXIST.  But we can help you reduce your energy consumption.  We have the most beneficial geothermal heating and cooling program in the entire United States.  For less than a third of the cost of solar panels you can insulate your home, control air infiltration, and install geothermal heating and cooling, and you can do it without mortgaging your retirement.  We’ve been in the electricity business for decades, most solar “experts” were doing something entirely different this time last year. Seriously, contact us first before you spend all that money on disappointment.  Better yet, call someone who has solar and is willing to show their before and after bills with you.  We haven’t met one yet that has achieved what they were told they would when you add in the solar payment.