I'm an engineer based out of San Francisco working with new sustainable, lighting technology.
I recently met with an architect friend in Las Vegas that had done some work for the city. He did some research on this product that has been on the market for some time now called a Solar Tracking Skylight. He did his research and made a decision not to suggest the product for the final design due to some shady results of the product's installation in a local warehouse.
After discovering the large investment made and the guarantees that the product would withstand the wear and tear of weather extremes, the tracking system of these skylights had continual fail and would spiral 360 degrees until the motor was completely exhausted (or as he had described "fried").
After additional research, he contacted the site in Nevada where this product was installed at a Patagonia warehouse some years ago and found out that product failure was common place with this product.
The Patagonia company recently worked with Tate, Snyder, Kimsey Architects (702-456-3000, www.tatesnyderkimsey.com to correct the technological breakdown and they are in turn working with the former FedEx Executive Michael Basch and his company Ciralight (www.ciralight.com) to utilize his redesigned and tested "Sun Trackers".
During this time, he was also informed that the Solar Tracking Skylights sold by the Chicago based company is actually a one-man operation out of a shared office/apartment space. This past year, the company has continued to sell the faulty product on a 15-year guarantee.
I also became interested in this product and spoke with some people about the product and was directed to an automobile repair garage in Las Vegas that was very pleased with the Ciralight "Sun Trackers" as they had their Sun Tracking Skylights replaced due to the same tech breakdowns.
Other breakthroughs in this area are companies developing similar technology, with similar results at much more affordable costs: www.sunoptics.com (recommended by WalMart), www.classicpressroom.com/daystar/hires.html (equal to Solar-Track), http://www.renpower.co.uk/solar/tracking.htm (Panel Solar Tracking), http://www.builditsolar.com/...
Beware of start-ups trying to pass off research on products that are untested over time... Be sure to look into not just the clients the company suggests but do your own research to find the companies that have the technology installed for more than a 5 year period. Be sure to ask when the company was incorporated. Ask for official documentation. Visit the offices of the vendor — that usually tells a lot about the product being sold. Ask about the manufacturing location of the product and visit that as well. And again, ask for documentation.
When the economy booms for a particular technology, the result is often duped consumers that cash in on empty promises and faked, documented test results.
Good luck going Green!
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