Solar Research Check-In Week 3
Focus Statement
What have Central Texas homeowners learned in the process of transitioning to solar energy, and what were the gaps in their expectations versus the realities of their lived experience?
Initial Findings
Below are some initial findings from our first interview with Scott, a retired man from Wimberly who installed solar panels on his home very recently.
1. Trust is valuable when buying into solar power.
When Scott was looking into the logistics of installing solar panels on his house, he reached out to several contractors. From then on, he started receiving a large number of emails from salespeople. Scott didn't like that the conversations were more about financing than solar. Scott eventually found a contractor that he liked, and to his surprise, the contractor said that Scott's home was not fit for solar energy. After that, Scott put off solar for five years - convinced it wouldn’t work for his home.
One day, he went to visit a friend, who had installed solar on her home, which convinced him again that it could work for him. Because he received a recommendation from a friend - he was all in, and decided to re-start his solar journey. The company she recommended almost received the status of extended friend - he trusted them completely and did not do any additional research as they were guiding him through the process.
“It is very hard to trust these people that are advertising. […] You can’t hardly trust anything that comes across your phone [...] so actual human conversation is much nicer.”
2. Seeing the visual representation of energy use made him more aware of his impact.
Scott is OBSESSED with his solar tracking app, Enphase. As a retired man, he has a lot of free time, and looks at the app all throughout the day. Because he is constantly checking the app to learn about how his home produces energy, he has gamified his home’s efficiency. One time, he became bewildered when he realized how much energy his dryer uses.
Overall, the app has really expanded his understanding of energy use; and being able to see that information visually has put everything into perspective. While it is not the reason why he became invested in solar, the app has become a useful side effect of the installation.
“So notice that right now we're producing 2.2 kilowatts. We're consuming only .6. We love that. That’s very little…I've never I've never gotten it down to zero. What the hell is it looking for?”
Recruiting & Next Steps
We plan to interview 12 participants by April 22. We have used a variety of recruiting methods such as:
Emailing solar businesses for referrals.
Posting on online forums.
Leaving flyers at houses with solar panels.
To date, we have:
Completed 1 interview.
Scheduled 2 interviews.
Engaged with 5 other participants who are in the process of booking an interview.
Our next steps will be to continue recruiting participants, and secure interviews with the 5 participants pending booking. As we gather data from our interviews, we will continue to expand and develop our growing list of themes.
Work produced by Olivia Posner, Jacob Pfeifer, & Patricia Nuñez
