Solar Water Heating Cowboys Secrets. Which? Magazine Exposé Exposed. Viral video.

Solar Water Heating Investigation UK. Are today's environmental, performance, safety and payback claims for solar hot water systems 100% true? Does the solar industry want well informed consumers? Are green consumer watchdogs toothless or asleep? Is the renewable energy industry capable of cleaning up? Are these issues worthy of OFT investigation? Quiz: When is a false claim not a false claim? It is when it is made by influential people? Complements the Which? solar greenwash news video by Solaryes.

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[solaryes]

Market-cornering in action...

Sorry if you were unable to view this video between 7-13 April 2011. This is because as a (rejected) goodwill gesture towards the injured vanity of leaders of UK's Solar Trade Association, I stopped it from being public.

I'd hoped STA would respond by letting us have inquiries off their website and a link into our website from theirs. But STA ignored our self-censorship. STA still deny us membership benefits.

So fewer people hear about or buy Solartwin products.

[solaryes]

"Helpful" members of the UK solar industry tell us that Solar Trade Association luddites boycott Solartwin BECAUSE we to expose the false claims of STA leaders.

Odd? Yes, because the boycott started long before we posted this video. Solartwin is inherently superior. It threatens their businesses - hence the boycott.

Rather than ordering us to censor - to protect their mates in the STA, perhaps they should be asking those at the top of the solar industry to STOP MISLEADING SOLAR CONSUMERS.

[solaryes]

It is high noon for some of these riders to step aside.

The dreadful news that the Renewable Heat Incentive has been delayed for 18 MONTHS pending the underlying regulations for domestic solar water heating being sorted out is a testament to their years of obstructive control-freakery.

If the changes which we and others had proposed on boosting legionella safety / stopping overclaiming had not been blackballed by the STA and their cabal then we would probably have domestic RHI in place by now.

[solaryes]

News on the OFT investigation. It is called the "off-grid study". It includes heating oil, LPG and renewable energy, including solar.

The renewables industry today started a greenwash campaign saying: We are clean! Exempt us from the OFT study because last year only a handful of industry members were sanctioned by the "industry watchdog" the REAL Code.

But last year we notified REAL of dozens of solar companies including industry leaders making false performance claims. REAL did nothing.

[solaryes]

Amazing news: the solar heating industry is to be examined by the UK Government's consumer protection agency, the Office of Fair Trading. All ahead of schedule. It looks as if viewers' lobbying has paid off. Many thanks indeed. There is an article on the OFT and solar industry subject on a Solartwin news page.

[solaryes]

Will the forthcoming £860M Renewable Heat Incentive, RHI subsidy

1/ overspend £millions: via MCS-legitimised solar thermal performance inflation fraud in mains-pumped solar heating systems?

2/ fund unsafe plumbing: legionella risky twin solar coil cylinders / heat pumps?

3/ fund pointless installations: minimal carbon benefit from electric powered heat pumps in “on-gas-grid” homes?

4/ fund dirty technology: epidemic of air pollution deaths / asthma from wood fuel heating in polluted London.

[solaryes]

Yesterday I was honoured to be thanked by the REAL Code, the renewable energy industry consumer code (which bans misleading claims) for a “supportive attitude” to the work that we are doing in cleaning up the solar water heating industry. This happened after I we submitted to REAL evidence of 40 solar heating websites which appeared to be making exaggerated or misleading claims about the financial or environmental performance of solar water heating systems. More on the site.

[solaryes]

Regarding Which?'s dismissal of companies which sell by phone they have finally clarified that Which's

"expert's comment was made in the context of the 'indirect' solar thermal technology, which is far more commonplace in the UK, and the type that all of the companies in our investigation had proposed to install. As this would have required, at a minimum, replacement of the hot water cylinder, we considered a site visit necessary. Hence the reason to dismiss the use of telephone survey."

Aha!

[solaryes]

Asking why blatant false claims by Southern Solar are apparently not investigated, today I wrote again to our industry watchdog (the REAL Code) which: "covers all the factors that contribute to the overall consumer service, including... clear information on the systems planned and their performance."

[solaryes]

In vino veritas? A funny thing happened to me in Westminster yesterday at a reception for the Energy Minister. After free wine had flowed for a while, Howard Johns squared up to me. I am not sure if he was ranting with a Southern Solar cowboy hat on, or with a Solar Trade Association cowboy hat on, but... He ORDERED me to take down this video and insisted he was NOT A LIAR - insisting he NEVER made zero carbon lies. Google this for the truth:

"howard johns" "only zero carbon" solar technology