Ricky Chu of Rayco Energy educates property managers on how to save money to increase profits. He explains, right now, property managers should consider solar energy sources to reduce costs. Chu notes that every building owner in every organization has an electrical bill, gas bill or water bill. He says, “It is time to take a look at ways of saving because those incremental increases and utility costs have crept up on a lot of building owners. Property managers are usually the front line of defense when it comes to energy bills. It’s in the best interest of the landlord or the building owner that the property manager look at their past bills and review their energy costs because we’ve seen five, even ten percent increases in water, in gas and electrical costs recently.”
Chu teaches that one of the main ways to impact electricity costs is solar power. He says, “We’ve seen a lot of property managers start to research and start to plan for the future. Right now many building owners may not be ready… many organizations may not be ready for solar, but the research and the planning – the community voting – have to start somewhere and it’s the best time to do it right now.
Why is now the time to look into solar energy?
Chu says that right now prices have slowly decreased, for the most part they’ve stayed relatively the same. Chu says, “They’ve leveled off. So with that comes maturity in the market, you are going to get apples to apples bids, the market is more mature. Building owners should be more comfortable going out and getting proposals and doing their homework and knowing that what people are selling them is what everybody else is using. A lot of electricians, roofers and many general contractors are now installing solar, so it is becoming more of a mainstream trade.”
Chu points out that the main reason why people should start looking to solar options now is because the federal tax credit for solar is a 30% investment tax credit, which goes away at the end of 2016. “The next couple years are going to be real busy and you don’t want to wait until the end,” he explains, “…we know in the solar business that there are changes in the panels, supply short falls, materials, lead times. All those things can affect your project, especially when you are at the end of your deadline as we are going to have at the end of 2016, and no one really knows what is going to happen after that. So it’s time, it is really time to look into it and go get a proposal, start researching it, and go from there.”
What types of buildings make good candidates for solar installations?
We are working with a lot of multi-unit buildings. That includes homeowners associations, senior active living communities, country clubs, churches and other religious organizations. Basically, a lot the buildings where you are not quite at the utility level or in the million dollar per year energy level, but perhaps, your energy costs are between $50,000 per year to half a million dollars per year.
To learn more about Ricky Chu and solar energy for multi-unit buildings, go to: http://RaycoEnergy.com.