Broadly speaking the Home Show this past weekend at the Miami Beach Convention Center was a success. While the remnants of Hurricane Erika probably kept some people at home on Friday and Saturday, overall turnout was good. I’m happy to report that our booths were generally pretty crowded. While there were definitely a number of “window shoppers” who were simply curious about solar and renewable technology, there were a lot of people who were beginning to feel like they might want to start spending money again. The sticker shock for solar PV still gets people, butwith the rebates and tax incentives currently offering almost a 60% rebate off the sticker price people were interested in getting quotes and having follow up visits at their homes. One thing I noticed were a lot of first time home buyers who were taking advantage of the depressed real estate prices to purchase homes, particularly young couples who wanted their homes to be energy efficient and eco-friendly.

There was a lot of interest in solar hot water, which isgreat. Solar hot water is an easy technology and bang for your buck, at an installed price of $6,000 to $7,000, is a great way to get clients familiar with solar technology – savings off of your electric bill are typically in the20 - 25% range. When clients see how effective solar hot water is typically they’ll come back to us to find out what other energy saving tricks we have up our sleeves.

The Home Show is targeted to residential consumers, however, in such a small community many of the business owners also live in the neighborhood. The show also provided an excellent opportunity for us to catch up with some of our outstanding commercial / business owners with whom we have outstanding contracts, a number stopped by to visit our booth and chat with us. Thank you to all of them and we look forward to follow up conversations this coming week.