Tradesmen Who Tell Fibs, Don't Get 'Second Dibs'

I have always remarked that unless you have a very good memory; don't ever tell fibs because it's practically guaranteed that you will slip up somewhere, so why bother even going there?

For a trade's person who says they've done a job to 'pad out' their bill when they haven't done the work is losing a lot more than a bit of extra cash. Quite frankly, you simply don't know who is watching or why. It's probably not an original story but it happened to me yesterday.

My car was due for registration and as it was an interstate licence plate it had to go through all the checks etc. which meant I had to leave it at the garage and give them time to do their thing. I said I was going up to the shopping centre (mall) but on the way ran into a friend and she invited me up to her office for a coffee. Now her office just happened to overlook the garage where I had left my car. Long story short, the mechanic drove my car to the hoist and it was the next car in line after the one already up on the hoist. I watched all this as I enjoyed my coffee and chat with my friend.

I was asked to come back by 1500 and as the time approached; my car was still waiting to be done. I left my friend and went over to the garage expecting him to ask me to come back in another hour and I wasn't overly impressed but because I had been watching I knew the mechanic who was working on the car ahead of me really had been going 'flat chat'. Hey, you know, that's life. No big deal at least I was away from my computer for longer than anticipated and that can't be all bad, can it?

But then the mechanic started rattling off all these things that were wrong with my car~ it was going to cost me nearly $600 to get everything fixed! He had barely looked at the car (he hadn't even kicked the tyres) and he certainly hadn't even driven the car more than ten feet. But he did kindly offer me a 5% discount

There is no way that I will ever let him near my car again. If there is something wrong with my car it could kill me so why would I want to put my life in someone's hands who tells me lies?

So my message and advice to all our honest 'tradies' out there is never be tempted to tell 'porkies' 'cause they will come back and bite you on your "nether end".

Climate Change:Sydney Dust Storm

Climate Change is happening regardless of the nay-sayers and people in denial. Denying something doesn't make it not-so. It simply means you've got your head buried in the sand and your tail ready for a right royal kicking! This is the dust storm that hit Sydney on 21 September 2009 over the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Australia's prime top soil is now blown out over the Pacific Ocean.

Solar Energy: Why We Consumers Have to Drive it Ourselves

When you stop and think about the readily available power given to us each day by the sun, why aren't we making use of it?

Yes, there are a few relatively minor problems that need more Research and Development technology applied but with a bit of determined and concentrated effort and with more funding, our scientists can fix these problems pretty easily. All we need is a bit of 'political' will and market driven incentives to do so.

Once someone proves a way to implement this new technology in a way that will make money for company shareholders, I believe this alternative energy source will be quickly implemented. Alternatively, we could threaten our political representatives with removal at the next elections unless strong, concrete plans were put in place to install solar energy use for all domestic users.

Bold plans but if there was money to be made with the new technology you can bet we would start to see some real action. If we could only stop the lobbyists from accessing our politicians and subverting their will to fix this energy dilemma for all of us, we would all be better off.

As things stand at this point in time, it's not really in the big power corporation's interests to put too much effort into finding or developing an alternate power source, is it? I mean it's a bit like asking the fox to guard the hen house.

That is why I believe consumers who are fed up with being used and abused by these big power companies and is tired of seeing garbage emissions polluting our world; have to drive this new technology ourselves.

There is no reason why each domestic installation can't provide enough electricity for their domestic use and only access a 'back-up' supply when needed. Not every household will need to access the power grid because many consumers live alone and the solar power generated from their own roofs will more than fill their needs. Any excess power generated and unused from these domestic installations will need to be fed back into a sub-station so why do we need to have to fork out funds for clean coal technology?

Personally, I would prefer to see the funding put into developing better storage capacity for generated solar power than funding a stock exchange resource stock and their shareholders.

As a consumer of electricity, I think we all have to speak as one voice together and make a concerted effort to convince our political representatives that there are more votes with us 'little people' than there is from a big power corporation. We need to drive solar energy development by market demand rather than tax funded R&D monies to people with vested interests in seeing that solar energy is a long time in coming.

Solar Energy: Construction Contractors will be the Builders

Today I have updated our website at http://www.constructingprofits.com/ as I will be following the progress of how many 'trsdies' will pick up this new technology in their towns and run with it.

As you know there is a meeting today and tommorw in NY,USA on climate change. It is happening much faster than most people want to know about. It's time to take an active role towards helping fix the problem instead of becoming part of it!

This is a brand new opening for tradies and they need to grab it with both hands.

I belive China will conquer the market on the manufacture of solar panels. I think this becuase they are already far more along than many of us in the west who are being happered by corporations and govts. with vested interests in maintaining the status quo.

I can only encourage you guys I can't break your power saws to do it ~

Solar Power Use on Freeways

Solar power is used in Australia to power up those emergency telephones dotted along our freeways. Between the Gold Coast and Brisbane they are strategically and conveniently placed so any motorist who has a breakdown doesn't have to walk any huge distance for help if needed.

These days many people have mobile (cell) phones but there are still a lot of people who don't have this convenience so emergency phones are still urgently required. The traffic moves very fast along this motorway and particularly at peak times there is a lot of traffic on that motorway. Many people live on the Gold Coast and commute to work in Brisbane every day, so any breakdown along the motorway needs to be removed as soon as possible.

Solar Panels are also used to power up emergency phones in the outback of western Queensland particularly along the Barkly Highway heading towards the Northern Territory. Here the distances are hundred's of kilometres between road houses so it is life saving to have access to emergency assistance.

Years ago, I was travelling on the Nullarbor Highway between Perth and Adelaide when we came across a road train accident. A road train is a semi-trailer pulling one or two extra trailers and they can measure 50metres long. This road train was pulling three trailers and they were all full of Kimberley baby Nappies (diapers) being transported to Perth from Melbourne. There were white nappies littering the red soil for 100 metres in every direction.

Unfortunately the driver was badly injured. Luckily for him though that another road train was not far behind him and he had a Satphone and was able to call for help. This probably saved his life because there were no solar powered emergency phones anywhere along these desolate stretches of outback roads in the early 90's.

The use of solar power on our highways, freeways and motorways has probably saved countless lives. And to think that now solar panels can be made in a trade contractors shed is a wonderful step towards energy efficiency.

Solar Power Light

Anyone who would have dared mention getting light in our homes from the sun via Solar Power when I was growing up would have had some very queer looks cast their way.

It would be hard to estimate today how many people around the world were born into a rural community. In Australia, many 'baby boomers' were born while their parents were living on the land. Some of these properties (ranches) were the result of land being given to returning soldiers from the first and second world wars but it did open up large tracts of land and created communities in the bush. As the children of these 'soldier settlers' grew up, parents discouraged their children from going onto the land for a living because it was a hard way to eke out a living.

Over time, some of these communities turned into towns while others lagged; sagged into disrepair and now many have not managed to survive beyond the odd general store / post office combination or pub. A Pub is short for "public house" and once was a thriving business to be in, in Australia, but not any more. Still, that's another story for another day. If I had the temerity or foresight to mention that the day was fast approaching when I would get my house lighting at night from the sun I would have politely been asked if I had been at the pub for too long!

Solar Power lighting today is an absolute gift for people still living in the Australian bush. The distance between properties is too far and it is too expensive to get connected into a main grid.

Up until this point many properties not conveniently located close enough to a main power line had to make do with 240volt diesel generators. These are expensive to run and noisy. They could also only be turned on occasionally because of the cost of running them so conveniences like electrical toasters, jugs, TV's, Vacuum cleaners etc were used sparingly.

Now that people can make their own solar panels and have solar power lighting available all the time, means people living anywhere in the bush will have lighting available to them whenever and for whatever, reason they need it. What a gift!

Solar Power Supply

Solar power is supplied by the sun and that is why it is known as solar power. Here in Australia we are blessed with sunshine. Here in Queensland solar power pours down on us like a blessing from heaven. But there are parts of Queensland where they are still in drought and have been in drought for nearly a decade so there can be such a thing as too much sun too.

Up to this point in time there have been two major drawbacks to extending solar power supply availability to more homes and business. The first one was the battery capacity available.

In the last 2 years research and development have made some huge leaps with technology for battery storage capacity but it still requires a lot of Research and Development (R&D) funding to investigate longer and safer storage capabilities.

To give you some thinking to do, remember when mobile (cell) phones first became available? Remember the size of those building brick batteries we used to carry around and think we were all as smart as a 'rat with a gold tooth'? Well if you compare those memories with your latest mobile (cell) phone today you will see for yourself how much further along technology has progressed.

I am not suggesting solar batteries need to be or will ever get to the size of mobile phones at least not in my lifetime and probably not my cat's either but one day it will happen.

The second problem hampering development and manufacture of solar panels was the horrendous cost per panel.

But like many things, the technology is now available to cut costs down to a manageable price for the majority of home owners. The costs are more likely to stay affordable for the majority of people in our communities if we can get enough small businesses in each town to manufacture and install their own version of solar panels based on an industry conforming code of practice so we don't get any 'cowboys' in the industry and burn people out of their homes.

This is a fast opening gap in the construction industry and it is going to be a tradesperson who runs with it simply because they are the ones with the ability to do the job. If everyone works within their area of expertise then the sooner that happens the sooner we will all have access to a solar power supply. So if you are a trade business why are you waiting?

Solar Power Products

Solar Power products, or rather the method of manufacturing solar power panels, are now available on the internet. Up until this point in time the solar panel's development has been left up to the big manufacturers that have had access to huge quantities of Research and Development (R&D) start up capital either through Government programs or through venture capitalists.

These venture capitalists are sometimes referred to as "business Angels" because they are prepared to fund new projects or industries usually because of the tax breaks involved

The solar power industry in Australia received a huge boost in sales and Research and Development (R&D) monies when Prime Minister Kevin Rudd took office and again a year later in the US when President Obama took office.

When both had taken up the reigns of power, much had been promised to the development of finding alternative energy sources. Solar power was a front runner in this program along with funding research for the technology to make clean coal. Since then, the world has undergone the worst recession since the 1930's and finances have had to have been reallocated to prop up the world economy. Unless you have been living without human contact for a year and a half you no doubt already know all this.

But what you may not already be aware of is the impact this is having on existing manufacturers of solar panels and the gap that is opening up for 'business' savvy tradespeople who are physically capable of building, devising and trialling new technology.

It is this widening gap that I want all construction businesses to take note of and start giving some serious thought to the matter.

The first people to build these panels and test them won't be 'the suits' or the financial whiz-kids because few of them have the needed skills to do so but 'tradies' do! This is their field of expertise.

Yes, we need the scientists, engineers and all the rest but leave them to do it on their own and it simply won't happen. To get this job done everyone needs to work in their field of expertise.

It is my believe from reading and listening that the best and first way the solar industry is going to become a reality for everyone will be from smaller town communities.

Someone in a town (perhaps your town) is going to follow a blueprint, improve it for local conditions and install it on their own property, then their neighbours and down the street, out of the town, through the state and across the world. People are crying out for cheaper power sources and so far the only thing our 'powers that be' have done is fight and scramble for top spot so they can rule the market.

While they are squabbling over who's going to be boss leaves a huge gap for ability and I fervently hope this small article gets a few of you thinking. I know many of you have already given it some thought but now is the time to get practical and "do" to make cheap solar panel products readily available for all.

Solar Panel

Hi everyone,

Today I was surfing through some stuff on clickbank and I came across this excellent product that I thought you may have been interested in.

Over the years I've had many interesting discussions about solar panels and how I think every building roof around the western world (and everywhere on the planet, actually!) should have solar panels for their roofing to generate their own electricity and then feed any excess back into a grid.

Can you imagine how much electricity could be gathered and saved? And all the money we could all save? All those public buildings, schools, council chambers, universities, theatres, malls ~

And, of course, the argument has always been the expense of solar panels. Which, unfortunately, has always won the argument.

Until today. :-)

Now I know you blokes are a very bright mob (otherwise you wouldn't be part of our group, right :-))

So, if you are interested in installing your own solar panels and saving hundreds and hundreds of dollars a year, do yourself and the planet a favour and check out How to make Your Own Solar Panels

I'm wrapped! What a "Bonza" Idea!

Click here NOW before you forget what the heck I'm on about