Background
John's expertise in solar hot water technology:
- John Patterson is the inventor of Sol-Reliant, the solar water heater built to last. He installs and services solar water and pool heating systems, and ships water heating kits worldwide. His former company, Mr. Sun Solar, installed over 3,000 solar energy systems including solar electric (photovoltaic), solar water heating and pool heating systems until he sold the company to Neil Kelly Solar Energy in 2013. Over 1,000 of those were solar hot water heating systems.
- John is the inventor and manufacturer of Sol Reliant™, the most advanced technology in solar hot water heating in the industry.
- John is regarded as one of the foremost experts in the country on solar water heating. He has experience with every type of solar water heating system ever manufactured.
- John has published multiple magazine and newsletter articles on solar energy topics, including solar water heating, solar attic fans, and practical uses of solar energy. (He also published an article in that magazine about Solar Attic Fans.)
- John has worked with builders in new construction, preplumbing and prewiring homes for solar electric and solar hot water to produce solar ready homes.
In the last year his company did close to 100 new construction solar water heating systems.
- He has had an active real estate license for 30 years, and has a contractors license. John understands marketing from a real estate perspective - what makes homes attractive and marketable. Statistics show that solar panels and photovoltaic cells as part of the design of a new house elevate the value of a home.
- John has statistics about financing options and opportunities through FHA and SELP (Solar Energy Loan Program). Solar provides long term financing advantages because the systems amortize their own costs. With new construction, the cost of solar can be rolled into the loan and paid out over 30 years; the homeowner saves money on utilities and earns incentives for using solar.
- John's has experience working with architects who design solar into new construction, most notably the Dolph Creek townhomes in Portland, Oregon, in which John's Sol Reliant water heating systems were part of the blueprints. John also worked on the Mississippi Overlook project, partnered with innovative green builder Reworks, Inc., and worked on the Mosier Creek Townhomes in Hood River, Oregon. John has advice on ways architects and designers act as catalysts for solar.
- New construction utilizing solar makes a home more salable because it appeals to a green market. In his presentation John will show a before and after picture of an ordinary house that was enhanced a design which used solar panels and photovoltaic cells to nearly cover the roof.
- John knows that in new construction, it's good for the builder to provide a product that is solar ready, good for any buyer who has a proclivity toward green, and good for the solar industry because solar is easier to install in new construction.
- To see John's book on global warming, visit FOOTPRINT: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Extinction