Earth4Energy, Citizenre, and other Misleading Solar Energy Scam Info

[Jason]

Buyer Beware.

Keep in mind the people who make these ebooks are internet marketers looking for a quick buck, not solar guru's.

Why waste money on these ebooks? there's an abundance of information (for free) about DIY solar panels from folks who have took a stab at it. Our DIY solar forum here at Solar Panel Talk is a great place to start.



Below are the ebooks this post is directed at:

Earth4Energy




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HomemadeEnergy




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Energy4Green & Energy2Green




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EfficientPlanet




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Power4Home



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Earth 4 Electricity



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Free Energy Options



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Here are some good links from people who built their own solar panel and documented the process on their website:

DIY Solar Websites

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[Aussie Bob]

The sad thing is there's some good information in those ebooks and such. They should be realistic in their sales page, that it's not easy to make renewable energy and it's not going to cost less then $200.00, at least not on a usable scale.

[Jason]

Citizenre



The AMWAY of the Solar Industry.

How Citizenre works. You sign a fixed contract paying a flat rental rate for 1, 5, or 25 years. The rate for each homeowner is determined by the average rate of their local electric utility. They install a solar panel system designed to fit your electricity needs without you having to purchase it. They claim there is no installation cost, maintenance fees, permit hassles, and no rate increases.

Citizenre Sales Model. Citizenre is using a multi-level marketing approach for their sales. The president of sales is Robert Styler, who took part in a large pyramid scheme called Equinox. These “ecopreneurs” promote, market, and refer this service directly to homeowners. Citizenre claims to have over 1,000 “ecopreneurs” and 30,000 homeowners that have signed up.


The Problems with Citizenre.

1. In 2007, Citizenre publically claimed they raised $650 million to build the largest manufacturing plant in the world. To this day there is no plant in the process of being built.

2. Installations cannot begin until the manufacturing plant is built and the installer franchises are in place.

3. Citizenre claims to have a 4 to 6 hour installation time (for a 2 kW system). This is unreasonable for a sound pv system installation.

4. These individuals who sign up as a “ecopreneur” are wasting a lot of time and money promoting this company that has nothing but empty promises.

5. As soon as someone signs up for a Citizenre, they are removed from the pool of potential customers for other reputable solar dealers in the area. PV companies are losing business because potential customers are signing up with Citizenre and waiting for them to build their manufacturing plant and to install a system on their home.

[Aussie Bob]

. . . 3. Citizenre claims to have a 4 to 6 hour installation time (for a 2 kW system). This is unreasonable for a sound pv system installation.

If they had 10 installers working on the system they could install it in 6 hours.

But yeah, a 2kw system would take a full day with a few installers. 4 hours is a push indeed.

Solar systems goes MLM. heh. Was only a matter of time I guess.

[MarineLiner]

Solar systems goes MLM

Solar systems goes MLM. heh.
Was only a matter of time I guess.

[solarf.helen]

hi, Jasun

hi, Jasun,

It seems that you have read all the books above and found its not that good, am I right? Of course I do not have the chance to read it now.

But anyway thanks so much for kindly reminder.

Helen

[Aussie Bob]

. . . It seems that you have read all the books above and found its not that good, am I right?

There's actually a lot of good information in those DIY ebooks, but the claim you can go off the grid for $200.00, and it's simple to do so, is utterly ridiculous. I bought one (earth4energy I think) and some good info in there, but most of that info is available freely on the net anyways, for anyone willing to do some hunting about. Google is your friend. Also searching on youtube can be helpful too. Lots of DIY solar and wind project vids on youtube.

[Jason]

AussieBob is right.

I've seen the E4E book as well.

Any website claiming you can practically eliminate your electricity bills for under $200 is a scam. Period. All of these ebooks make this claim. They all have the same structure and agenda. If you see more that aren't listed here, than please make a post.

Thanks!

[Aussie Bob]

I reckon what would be a great idea is to put together a freely available page of links where folks can learn about DIY solar etc. I'm going to add a page like that to my enviergy.com blog. We should collaborate and compile our best links.

[Jason]

Here are a couple more. I'm going to have to build a separate website for these solar scams so they will get more traffic/views from the search engines!

edit: actually, i'll just add these to the top of the post for better exposure

[Off Grid Solar]

I guess scammers are everywhere.

[Aussie Bob]

In some ways it's good to see that there's so much demand out there in the market for renewable energies. If folks do spend $47.00 on these various ebooks, they'll soon realise it's not as easy and as cheap as they claim in the sales copy. This is something that can put them on the right path as they digest some of the information purchased in these ebooks. I don't think they're a total waste. A lot of good can come from them.

[MarineLiner]

Most of that info is available freely

...., but most of that info is available freely on the net anyways, for anyone willing to do some hunting about. Google is your friend. Also searching on youtube can be helpful too. Lots of DIY solar and wind project vids on youtube.

...., they'll soon realise it's not as easy and as cheap as they claim in the sales copy.

[Jason]

In some ways it's good to see that there's so much demand out there in the market for renewable energies. If folks do spend $47.00 on these various ebooks, they'll soon realise it's not as easy and as cheap as they claim in the sales copy. This is something that can put them on the right path as they digest some of the information purchased in these ebooks. I don't think they're a total waste. A lot of good can come from them.

I understand your POV in the following situation: Your average person (not intending on getting PV at the time) runs across the ad, gets caught in the sales trap, buys it, then starts to question. This leads to them (hopefully) seeking more information about PV. It's just unfortunate this is the way they had to be introduced to it. But I'm thinking a bigger percentage of people would read through it, realize it's not as easy as the sales pitch made it out to be, get pissed they wasted the money, end of story.

If someone is on this forum, they are already somewhat interested and seeking more information about PV. This post warns them of these ebooks and they save the $49.97. Also, I'm hoping this thread can get some search engine love to inform those who do a little research on the product before they purchase it.

[Aussie Bob]

Yes, it could discourage some folks, that's true. It didn't discourage me, as the ebook I got just made it clear to me that the DIY path was not for me, but it did say to use ebay for most purchases, so I then started buying completed panels and stuff off ebay. The first time I put a solar panel, regulator, inverter and a battery together, and got power, now that was some magic.

It is good that there's a demand out there, that these marketers recognise this demand and are chasing this demand. This demand is what is pushing us forward towards a clean renewable future.