Empowering Your Savings with Solar with Jake Kissack

Watch or Listen to the full episode

Interview Transcription

ADRIENNE: 
Okay, so our guest today he grew up in Wyoming and studied in the south of Spain. Three years ago, he came to Hawaii after being pursued to leave his Wyoming ranch and help people through the solar process. Being someone who loves helping local businesses he chose to be with SKYTA, a local roofing and solar contractor in Hawaii. Currently, he’s SKYTA’s Solar, Roof and AC Advisor. Please welcome welcome back. Yeah, he’s been on here.

ATTILIO:
repeat offender on the show. Welcome. And, Jake, I like that the fact you were raised in and Wyoming is what it is. Yeah. And educated in the south of France. If you’re or Spain. Yes. If you were you were raised here you would have been? He was raised in Waianae and educated in Kalihi.

JAKE: 
Yeah, we catch her bowls out there from Waianae to

ATTILIO: 
Yeah, yeah. But you’ve been here long enough people like Hey, Jake helped me with this. And you’re like, shoots. Okay, go ahead. What you got?

JAKE: 
Well, this week, little tip of the week here on the radio show is that I’m coming to you guys live here from Maui. So aloha to all my Maui people today. A bunch of them have been asking like, oh my gosh, Jake, I’m still out Lahaina. I still need help with my roof. So since the storm I’ve actually gotten to live out in Lahaina for some time with some friends and new Ohana out there. Who took me in and took some of my team in just to help serve the neighborhood. As there’s so many so much damage that’s happened out there. So anyway, if you’re out there in Lahaina, or in Maui where the windstorm happened or where the fire happened, we are still helping customers get roofs on their house. You And before all the rain comes, of course, we’re getting tarps up there, as we wait on the insurance process to help customers keep as much money in pocket and try to get, try to get them free. You know, free help,

ATTILIO: 
you know, I want to insert their jig that it’s good. It’s good that you get involved in the process, because what happens and we’re hearing this from attorneys that are represented other people in these kind of areas in the mainland, is the insurance company is going to be really quick to send you a check, because we got a ton of claims. And it’s kind of like a It’s kind of like a little, little poopoo appetizer of an amount because it’s not maybe in alignment. Realistic. Right? With the actual costs. You should get Jake in your corner. Because you I mean, you’re not gonna take a piece of that. You just you just want to do the roof.

ADRIENNE: 
He’s, he’s the insurance whisperer. And yeah,

ATTILIO: 
he’s, he’s he he said, I heard you, Jake. He was on the phone the other day. And I said, if you don’t get my clients this check for this roof. I’m going to open up a can of worms on you right now. No, no. Soft approach. Just keep calling you keep calling you keep calling

ADRIENNE: 
is very good at what he does. So one of our homes. That’s right. And that was a very interesting situation. It was unbelievable. It was and he got it done. Yeah. So So Jake, could you share with us maybe an example of one of your Maui families that you were able to help do this process? Tell us what happened?

JAKE: 
Yeah, so one of them is what we’re calling the worst home. It was the worst home. The insurance actually saw it was a squeak. A friend of mine named Jimmy Samara and his family, this fleet to house up their office behind Illumina. And they ended up having the wind actually blew off their shingles, their underlayment and then all the way down to the plywood. So the wood even got ripped off and all the insurance cuts, drove by up there said, Well, this is the worst house that we’ve seen, that actually is not burned. So it has the most damage, the most damage that had not been burned totally well.

ATTILIO:
Just to just to remind people, the reason why the fire was so massive was because of the high winds. Yes. So people who didn’t get burned, still still got affected by the high winds, but keep going.

JAKE: 
Yeah, and they had smoke damage inside the house. They had the wind or their trees and got blown down on the truck in the front driveway. So they were in bad shape. And they just said, Hey, we need help. Can you help? Well, eight weeks later, it was just this last week that we ended up getting them completely done. And insurance covered the entire roof. And we helped them through that whole process to get our bid out to insurance. And to work that process forum to help alleviate as much stress as possible and be there to walk. It’s it’s a it’s a very stressful time for many of the families to just have somebody who’s local, helping out who’s living there. And then there is it was such, it was such a huge gift to them that they were just like, man, we’re so thankful that we got to work with us. And so that was one of our that was one of our biggest success stories so far. And they’re super happy with it, the roof turned out great. They’re still we were up there. And there’s still tons of work to be done. But that was our greatest success story. Just eight weeks.

ADRIENNE: 
So one of one of many, one of many success stories, I know that you guys are out there working really hard to help, you know, all of those home owners with the roof and any kind of insurance claims. So thank you, thank you for that and being out there to support the Lahaina owners. Let’s, let’s also make sure that we talk about the cost of electric I know that that’s kind of a hot topic. And yeah,

ATTILIO: 
let’s talk about the cost of electricity on Oahu. What’s happening with that with the time of use.

JAKE:
Yeah, the Time of Use very simply put, nobody’s gotten emails, they’ve gotten a lot of paper coming out this this time of use, and it’s time to save. And the Time of Use program is one where they’re changing the meter on the homes.

ATTILIO: 
They’ve changed my meter. They change your meter, you

ADRIENNE: 
know, I have a solar and a battery. And

ATTILIO: 
my meter got changed. Jake helped

ADRIENNE: 
Jake helps me to avoid that. Awesome.

ATTILIO: 
Yeah, so time of use.

JAKE: 
Time of view. So basically what it is, is it’s a new program that everyone’s getting on because the grid is having is it’s super stressed. So they’re trying to get people to use power from nine in the morning until five o’clock at night. Yeah, and there’s going to be a base rate during that time. Then from five until 9pm. during those peak hours, it’s going to triple so your cost is going to triple at that time. And then from 9pm back to 9am. You’re going to have double the daily rate. So that’s a lot of words to say whatever your bill is today, it’s going to be more than 100. Yeah, it’s gonna be more. And most of the customers who have switched over, that we’ve talked to have said that their bills more than double. And so though it sounded like a good program, and they thought they could change all of their power to go from like nine until five in the morning, evening, they’re like,

ATTILIO: 
think about it. They’re there. They’re the motivation is to get people to shift their behavior. What are we doing between nine and five? Working? We’re sitting on H1? No, I’m just kidding. I don’t know how you people are on H1, like at two o’clock? What is everybody doing at two o’clock to be on H1 at that anyway? So we’re not at home, cooking, cleaning and doing all of that stuff, we’re still going to be doing it between five and nine a triple the rate? What do you folks, what do you think is gonna happen to your electric bill? So

ADRIENNE: 
Well, Jake, is gonna help them with that.

JAKE: 
Yeah, we can, we can help you out with that. And now, I was going to chat about the last item, which is, there is a new solar player on the bottom block, we’re calling it basically it’s a it’s called power. Yeah. And you guys are gonna see more promo for it. Hear me now believe me later. Power is like the Amazon of solar now in Hawaii, and it’s on Maui. It’s on kawaii Big Island, and Oahu. And all islands have access to it. And what it is everyone wants the best panels at the best price, the best products, the best price. But their number one concern is like, hey, there’s going to be mainland companies that come in. And even the local companies is like what happens when it breaks and the company goes bottom up, and goes under. So that’s the number one concern, we have this company with power. Because it’s such a big platform and big network, they’re able to get the premium products at the lowest nationally set prices. So we’re not getting price hikes here in Hawaii, which has been typical for for decades. This is the first time that they’re able to really lower that price for homeowners and then give maximum warranty. So their big thing is warranty on your roof for 30 years. It’s a bulletproof warranty against leaks and penetration caused by solar panel installation, which is one of the number one reasons why people don’t get solar on their house and

ATTILIO: 
talk about the bundles. What does I mean the bundles so I can get solar on my roof. And I can get tickets to Vegas? No, that is not the bundle. That’s the oh wait, oh, it’s

ADRIENNE: 
a different bundle? No, that’s not the bundle and the financing. Talking about the bundle. I know that there’s like with this whole like new platform of power. Yeah, there’s additional like options for financing, and bundling,

ATTILIO:
bundling and the financing. Okay, so

JAKE: 
the if you’re one of the homeowners out there who’s listening and has been told, Hey, Auntie, you can’t go solar right now, because your roof is not going to sustain the weight or your roof is too old. You need to reroute, well, now you can bundle in that roofing costs into the solar loan. And you’ll just pay a little bit more per month through you can keep your hard earned cash in your pocket. And you can bundle those together under one payment stretched over the term of the loan, which is typically 25 years they get you locked in at a rate and there’s as long as you qualify. I wish I could lock people in for 50 years whatever. You got to lock in the price of gas 50 years ago.

ATTILIO: 
Yeah. Yeah, I wish I could have locked in cupcakes. I eat a lot of cupcakes, hostess cupcakes.

ADRIENNE: 
Snickers I want to I want to give my testimonial testimonial I am a client of SKYTA and I had actually had solar on my house. I think I started the first panels were installed maybe in 2008 Yeah. And then I noticed that my electric bill kept going up and I wasn’t sure why and Jake and his team they came out and they verified that the panels were just not as productive as they once were. And I was able to sign up with a program I don’t think this one’s available anymore but I was able to get like a 0% This was back in the day Yeah, but got a battery more panels and then a charging station and then bring back down my electric bill to I mean print on pretty much 00 Did out. Yeah. And there’s been like a couple little glitches and I want to see that SKYTA is like watching like they’re watching my system. And they’re like, oh, like there’s this doesn’t this Yeah, this doesn’t. This doesn’t look right monitor and then I’m giving like phone calls and text messages work. coming out to your house to check on your system. Is this okay? You know, so like,

ATTILIO: 
Hey, tell them damn kids shut the lights off at night? No, no, they’re not doing that.

ADRIENNE: 
No, but they’re very, they’re very proactive. And just monitoring. Because I mean, as a consumer, I don’t know what that means or what it should be or shouldn’t be doing. So I’ve been very appreciative of how proactive they’ve been in monitoring my system, making sure that it’s, you know, operating the right way, you

ATTILIO: 
know, and and Jake, talk about the logic of this, everybody’s gonna get pissed off at HECO when you bill goes from 500 to, you know, 900. But just folks, you got to think of the logic of this. Why are those bills having to go up again, besides the stress of the system? What’s what else is causing that?

JAKE: 
Well, right now it as you see, many people are going to solar sets in Hawaiian Electric. Yeah, doesn’t it? It’s not like we’re magically getting more customers out here. Sure. Some homes are built here and there. Yeah. But really, they have their customer base, that as people exit, and everyone will be exiting the grid at some point, we’re gonna be 100%. Green. That’s the goal here in Hawaii.

ATTILIO:
2045. Now,

JAKE: 
yeah, yeah, that’s right. And by that time, everyone who is slow to transition into solar will continue to get more and more bills, they’ll see the price hikes of Hawaiian Electric. And

ATTILIO: 
it’s like when you go business when you go out dinner with all your friends and relatives, and then everybody gets the T Rex arms when the bill comes out. And then everybody went to the bathroom, but they actually went home. And then you got the bill. Yeah. And you got to pay for everybody. That is what’s happening with the HECO electric bill. Everybody, all your neighbors, they got the solar, they got the T Rex arms, they’re not paying, they’re paying you they went from 800 to 80. Do the math folks. It’s a public utility, they still mean need to maintain the system. We’re in the middle of the island. There’s no other grid to rely upon. Except Oh my You see, you went out okay, go outside and go lay in your yard. And it’s so that’s it. So if there was one last thing that you wanted to share with our audience that would blow their minds like literally brain matter everywhere. What would it be?

JAKE: 
Is right now, if you guys want to check in if you guys have been sitting on the fence and waiting and saying, I’m not going to get solar, I’m just not going to do it, the prices are gonna go lower, the you know, the technology is going to get better. Well, with this new power platform, it is the time to recheck if you’ve been told you don’t qualify before, or your roof is bad, we will blow your mind with the prices it tippet it currently, there’s been no other competitors to like the big companies you see and Home Depot, and in Costco, that one called Sunrun. But right now, even our prices are more competitive than Sunrun across the board and there are some great warranties that we can provide through local vendors. And it’s all through local like they just use local which blows my mind that all this is just being worked through local which is going to help the island and

ATTILIO:
help the economy and keep people working and all that good stuff. All right.

ADRIENNE: 
Keep the money here Yeah,

ATTILIO: 
so money here. Why buy local try buy local? All right now try do All right. Thank you, Jake, so much.

ADRIENNE: 
Thank you, Jake for the update. Everything and all that you’re doing over there on Maui. Keep up the the work over there

ATTILIO: 
taking care of our people, our people in Latino. Thank you so much, Jake. Yeah. Aloha. Aloha. Hey, by the way, you know, how are we gonna know? Literally, we’re gonna have people out on the streets walking down the middle of the street at the end of the month, when the electric bill come in. And we didn’t even even look at the roof. We’re gonna start knocking on the doors of the people that when they get the electric bill at the end of the month, they’re like, oh, there we go knock on the door and say, Hey, have you thought about solar got a solution, we’re gonna bring tissue tissue box, so you can stop crying after they seen their electric bill. And then it’s so easy, folks. And by the way the name is Go Local Powur, P O W U R. If you want any information, it’s so easy. All you gotta go to do is Teamlally.com/Golocalpowur. And you’re going to see our next events and stuff and any information regarding that is going to be constantly updated. There. But I’m gonna make it super easy for you. You’re flipping out, you’re freaking out on this electric bill thing. All you got to do is send us an email info@Teamlally.com or give us a call 7999596 Ask for Adrienne and Attilio and tell him I’m going to have a nervous breakdown. If I don’t keep my electric bill low. We’re on a fixed income. We really can’t afford to have our bill going from 500 to 1200 800. Whatever. Please help us with some solutions folks. These are No Money Down solutions. If you qualify to go green, and lock in your energy rates, energy security is going to be a big thing moving forward into the future. Yes, sir. Yes, Adrienne,

ADRIENNE: 
so no money down and you’ll be decreasing your monthly spend on power. That’s just why wouldn’t you do that?

ATTILIO: 
What are the two things we know about home sales regarding solar, and we’ve known this for the last 10 or 15 years?

ADRIENNE: 
So you’re gonna get at least two benefits? Yeah, so you’re gonna get more money for your home when you go to sell. And, you know, if you’re holding on to it, like the tenants, you’re gonna always gonna be more rents, and then the tenants aren’t gonna want to leave?

ATTILIO: 
Yeah, because they got the low electric bill at your place. Yes, and all the kids and everybody cooking,

ADRIENNE:
and you’re saving the environment, environment.

ATTILIO:
So here’s the deal, folks, if you got an electric bill, it’s that simple. You can send just your electric bill and get make sure you give us your phone number, so we can call you back and we’ll do we’ll have our pros down and go local power, give you an analysis, and it’s not a bum’s rush and close your heart. And all we coming out to install tomorrow is going to be a determination does it make sense does going to renewable energy makes sense? You no global warming as a fact, there’s an addendum now that we have to give out to anybody with selling property on the ocean front, that we didn’t have before. And it talks about sea level rise, this is for real. So you’re going to be one of those people that are gonna go oh, man, I wish I did that, or you’re going to jump on now. And I think the time to do it now is because if everybody’s doing it, you know, rushing gonna be more expensive and less calm, you’re gonna have to wait longer and pay a higher electric bill for a longer period of time before you go to solar. 

Follow Us On Social Media