video link

In the modern world, its my opinion everything is a scam, until proven otherwise.

Further, marketing literature never provides a standard of proof, so consumers must suffer the research investigation effort.

When I'm in the market for a product, here's what I do:

1) Individual background checks:
Many scam artists are exposed after criminal background checks on persons associated with the questionable product. Product names change frequently, but many civil suits and public policy issues are archived in local news sources, using the name of the prosecuted individual(s).

2) Legal database searches:
Many scam artists are exposed in litigation cases:
Unlike consumer forums like ripoffreport.com, court cases reliably identify verdicts and penalties decided by public policy and a jury of our peers.

The wiki on Ripoffreport shows the website operator embroiled in litigation for allowing competitors to slander legitimate businesses with impunity, and we don't know if its 41 complaints against John Russel's Power4Home system are inspired by a similar competitor.

Private Databases:
Available to most university students, the Lexis/Nexis private legal database has existing law and cases. A search for "John Russel" and Power4Home may be found in that database.

Public Databases:
Cornell's public database only searches existing law:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/search/index.html

Consumers suffer these decisions largely because Case Law databases were traditionally unavailable in the public domain.

Since my college professor dad was laid off, we lost our access to his university resources. And, I haven't looked for a public case-law database recently. It would help us all if someone knew of one, and could advise us where its located.

In the mean time, ask your local library if they have a case-law database, to perform a search for references to "John Russel" or Power4Home

That's a long video. How does it end?

It ends by offering a package of books & CD's for DIY's to get started.

I did some research on it. The basic read is the info is legit however it involves a bit a time and are mechanically inclined. The savings comes in you labor and doing your homework like used equipment like batteries. Be a good hobby I guess in your spare time. The panels in the books put out about 75 watts. Not sure on the panel dims. The panels I use are about twice the output and about twice the cost of the panels without giving up a weekend for them. I'm not too keen in using used parts in a "new" system. It will be constantly nickel and diming you along the way

Just my humble opinion from experience

That is 2 minutes out of my life that I am not getting back. I am glad I heard how it ended.

Yes I bet it is a scam or at least a raw deal on some overpriced DVDs that don't tell you anything you can't find on the Mother Earth News web site.

I know these Glen Beck people don't like it but in a lot of places these solar arrays need to be installed by a pro and they all do if you want the evil government rebate.

If anyone finds any reference to "John Russel" or Power4Home in case-law databases please let us know.

Here's a few for starters;

http://www.ripoffreport.com/directory/power4home.aspx
http://www.ripoffreport.com/power4h...s/power4home-this-is-a-rip-off-9C00C.htm [ note this latter is a UK victim, so this is not just an American operation.]

You don't need to be Albert H. Einstien III to realise there is something not quite right with an advertisement that claims any unskilled bozo with just a screwdriver can break into a poco supply, rig up a 200-buck home-made pv/windmill/capacitor bank array, make enough juice to run a family home off-grid in a Plains winter and get checks in the post! Trouble is, for every one of us technically trained people who can see the thing as improbable poppycock, there are dozens who can't. It only takes that tiny gullible minority to post off their checks for the operators to recoup their costs and make a killing, sad, but that's human nature. By the time the Feds turn up, they will be long gone.

In addition to all of the above, there are requirements in the new code that need to be met that will drive the cost waaaaay high. To feed the grid (or even parallel it) at any time requires expensive equipment, skills and knowledge far beyond the average HO. Besides, unless this is a charging battery style kind of system, it is impracticable to think that you can set up any sort of an array that is capable of supplying the average household without spending a lot of money on the arrays and there interconnection etc.

FWIW, I'm really going to dread the day that I get the first resi solar permit application "By Homeowner".

I have to be thankful that the big orange and blue don't have PV panels on the shelf. (yet)

The thing that stops homeowners from putting up an expensive array is the fact that they can't get the government rebate.

The real question I see is how you deal with the "plug in" arrays. These require no alteration to anything in the system. They just plug into a 5-15 receptacle, probably on orange cords and a tree of cube taps.

I'm sure the big box stores are looking into selling them

According to one of the mugs linked, this bunch was previously 'selling' perpetual motion machines! Wait till they turn up in the box stores!

From what I understand Lowes in California is already selling the Westinghouse plug in solar array

Hmmm....west coast to east coast timeline? 3-6 month??

http://guntherportfolio.com/2009/12/andalay-solar-shopping-at-lowes/

These panels are modular and each has a mini-inverter, making assembly easier. They can be expanded in the future by adding panels, subject to house wiring capacity. The DIY implications are frightening.
At $893 + sales tax, works out at over $5 a watt, much more than Greg's ideal of a buck-a-watt.
According to the above site, tax breaks / incentives are available for 8 units and over. You would still need batteries or a grid tie. I do hope some of you decent skilled chaps do get involved in this work. EDF's #Bleu Ciel# system has been plagued by sharp HP sales subcontractors and a raft of complaints about leaking roofs, months of delay in connections and false performance claims, which of course can't be blamed on the poco wot never sold you the system!

As a ham radio operator WA2ISE, I wonder if these things will generate any RFI (radio frequency interference), from the inverter circuit probably? Either radiated directly into the "air" (the RF spectrum) from the panel, or conducted over the powerline from the neighbor's wiring (from his plug in panel) into his service then the POCO feed and down my service into my powerline and into my ham radio?

I had the impression these just plugged into a 15 or 20a 120v receptacle.
We had a discussion about these a year or so ago.

https://www.electrical-contractor.n...id_connect_solar_panels_.html#Post203012

WA2ISE:
Have you noticed any interference from the PSE&G utility pole mounted Petra 200 watt, microinverter panels? You must have some up in Bergen County, there are 220,000 of them statewide. (Pic in Alternative Energy Section)

The 'plug-n-play' with the microinverters will hopefully be to $$$ for the HO, DIY crowd.

Since this thread was started, essentially the same pitch, using the same ad copy and teasers, has appeared all over the internet and in various media- each directing you to a different site.

The ads often pop up in the same places that formerly had 'secret trick' teasers for car insurance, work at home, and meet loving ladies near you TONIGHT.

I suppose that association is enough to set off my scam alert.

Guy keeps saying he's an electrician. Well, so am I, and I must be the dumbest one out there .... because I have no idea what collection of parts he got, or which parts house he went to. Heck, I can spend $200 easily, just on the plywood to support these panels.

The ad is more revealing in what it does NOT say. It's packed with pure emotional appeals and negative assumptions about everyone besides the listener and John Russel.

Fact is - and always overlooked - is that your stuff can break, and requires maintenance, just like the PoCo stuff.

Guy claims to have made 102,000 folks in Minnesota energy independent in Minnesota alone, in the past few years. OK ... let's see pics of just one - and not some pretty cartoons.

There's none in my immediate neighborhood. I did try parking my car under one, and listened between stations on the AM radio, I didn't hear any RFI. And with many thousands in the county, if they did make noise, I may be awash in RFI. So they may be pretty quiet.

I think your typical inverter is about 15-20kz. I know my dog goes nuts around them so there is an audible component.

Looks like a classic sales scam to me. Overprices junk with a janky sales page / video.

I would avoid this at all costs or, more to the point, lack thereof.