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Press Release
2005

Get Involved: Non-Profit Groups

Segue at Earth Day, Santa Monica



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  - About Us

Segue to Solar Online Store 

click here for: contact information


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Get involved: environmental groups

Our mission

K. Vonnegut on the environment
Our drought-resistant garden

Solar panels go up on the roof


   "Isn't it ironic," as the famous song by Alanis Morriset goes, that the idea behind Segue to Solar Online Store was born at the same time as the infamous California power outages and U.S. presidential political campaigns began gathering, like dark and erratic electrical storm clouds, over our house in the summer of 2000...

   As one electrical outage after another hit the southern California area, it sparked many discussions about the reasons our state/local electrical utility energy resources were unavailable (with candlelight and flashlights providing the ambience).  We wondered what was going on with all the manipulation of state/local electrical utilities -- and how there was the threat of a movie star governor making some kind of strong Republican sweep to the right. (And much later, after we learned all the "why" of California's outages, we joked that Segue to Solar is probably are the only solar product business that started up in part due to the last desperate act of an infamous energy corporation's greed; but that's another story, for another power outage, really.)

    We talked of many things that night, look out on the roofs of our community; new nannotechnology solar, an uber dark matter motor designed to run on magnet power.  (Some of the most interesting conversations we've had, it seems, have usually been in Hawaiian typhoons, the stark wilderness, or during power outages!)  But we kept coming back to one central theme: why were our state/local electrical utility energy resources running out, when renewable energy (in the form of wind, sun, water and geothermal) was so plentiful.  We kept coming back to this question:  why weren't local utility companies in California more prepared with alternative energy backup... why couldn't they made more backup electricity available?  The lives of people in  hospitals and those who depended on life support systems would not have been disrupted (not to mention discomfort for the rest of us).  Was there some kind of conspiracy by oil companies to keep solar and wind suppressed?  Renewable energy like solar and wind has less destructive effect on our fragile environment.  (As compared to electricity produced via gas/petroleum-driven turbines, or messy coal.)  And why isn't the federal government being more proactive to legislating/enforcing laws that will take more care of our fragile environment?

    This is when we first realized that we wanted to be part of the solution to the profound environment problems facing our community the earth. Segue to Solar believes that consumers have the power  to be part of the solution to the energy problem (
click here for Why Use Solar Energy).  Shouldn't an increase in renewable energy research and use be a priority?

    Finally, we get a lot of questions about "why did we pick 'segue to solar' for our business name?" 

Well, seeing that "segue" means to transition, or change smoothly, we feel that if consumers can get behind the concept of transitioning to using more solar and renewable energy products -- not only will the earth be healthier for it, but hopefully industrialized nations -- will have more peaceful options for accessing fuels and other precious resources.  As Howard Dean used to say, "Be part of the solution."

   * See our latest news and press release for more information about Segue to Solar
(click here for News)


Mission statement:  to foster sustainability in our community by offering consumers products, services and information that will help the environment and at the same time lower electrical usage for individuals and communities.  Make the change to solar and renewable energy, for the environment...


 Fine print: "there's a sign post up ahead...
and look, it's a solar light...  You are at the home page of Segue to Solar Online Store,
helping customers with renewable energy  needs since 2002.


    About us:
-
We started our company with solar lights and water fountains around 2001, to both promote solar and to support consumers
who want to get more solar in their lives (before or after investing in the whole-house, grid-tied route).  We use part of our profits to
support non-profit groups (like you will see throughout our web pages) and to maintain the website.  To see our current "out of site" links,
click here: links.


   To go directly to our wide variety of green, earth-friendly products, click on  all products.   Staying with products from U.S. helps to keep
products of the best quality and prices low.  We only offer new products, from high quality U. S. companies - all complete with warranties
and technical support.  We feel it is important to use all products you see on the website at our office first, to better tell you how they
work, and of course, to help keep more of our dwindling natural resources. 
Let us know if your organization does fundraising with renewable energy products by e-mailing us and we'll send you the non-profit bulk
pricing.  Speaking of non-profits, if you feel like getting involved in supporting organizations for some aspect of the environment, we have
put together some popular group's names and contact numbers: 
Just click here:
support good causes.
  (If you have a group you'd like to see on that page, just e-mail us...)  To see our most recent
customer comments,  just click here:
customer comments.   Questions?   Whether you are a pro, or brand new to the world of solar
and renewable energy, try our misc. info page - for free bits of information we've collected over the years for customers and visitors alike
- just click here:
misc. solar info.   And why should you use solar? click here.  And thank you, for visiting Segue to Solar.

Getting involved: support non-profit environmental organizations

  With a combined collective background in energy conservation, organizational skills, marketing, solar electricity, customer support, training from southern California Edison, education, and a desire to help make our planet a healthy place to live, Segue To Solar supports the non-profit environmental organizations below.  (We are not a part of these companies, only have sent in money as donations after receiving solicitations in the mail - we do not necessarily advocate these groups over any other.)  Click on good causes, if you want to see other non-profit organizations we've collected. Click on our Misc.-Info page to see our list of reciprocal links of other companies who have been kind enough to include us in their databases.

American Solar Energy Society (www.ASES.org)

2400 Central Ave., Boulder, Colorado 80301
Phone: 303-443-3130   
click here for magazine name

American Solar Energy Society

The International Solar Energy Society (www.ISES.org)
Villa Tannheim, Wiesetalstr. 50-79115 Freiburg, Germany
Phone: +49-761-45906-0  
click here for magazine name

Sierra Club (www.Sierraclub.com)
85 Second Street, 2nd Floor, San Francisco, CA.  94105  
Phone: 415-977-5500   
click here for magazine name

Nature Conservancy (www.Nature.org)

4245 North Fairfax Dr. #100 - Arlington, VA.  22203
Phone: 800-628-6860  
click here for magazine name

and others, too numerous to list..

 

 Segue to Solar dips into water conservation

drought resistant native garden


- our latest energy-saving venture...  putting in our
native garden (drought resistant of course) - it's beautiful and of course reduces water usage in arid California.

California natives from Sunflower Farms (Gardena, CA)
Click on sunflower for Sunflower Farms' phone number.


Take some help from strong grass removal experts, amend the soil with a conditioner, dig holes and add plants; accent with gravel plus wood chips and there you have it...  a natural garden (that also attracts lots of butterflies and other wildlife). 

For information on drought resistant gardens, go to L.A.
County Waterworks - http://lacwaterworks.org/ - and
http://dpw.lacounty.gov/wwd/web/conserve.cfm.

Sunflower Farms' phone number: (310) 526-8371solar panel and solar foungtain plus frog

 

For planting, conservation and other drought-resistant garden ideas, don't forget www.lbwater.org (Long Beach, CA).  At right is a close up of our "do-it-yourself" frog solar fountain, put together by the Segue to Solar staff.  Like it?  We have ready made and custom made options.  Click here for how you can make your own solar fountain: Segue's solar fountains






Newsflash: Segue to Solar reinstalls office solar panels for better exposure to sun

- our backup system powers refrigerator and lamps... (no, we're not connected to the grid but we're thinking of it...
Here are some pre-installation photos of us re-wiring the back of the Uni-Solar panels (series parallel by the way).

our solar panels being wired Here we connected six 42w panels together (at left). We put everything through pvc to further protect the panel wiring from moisture.  Speaking of wiring, be sure to buy extra in case you make a mistake. By the way, thanks to the technical experts at Uni-Solar (pv panels) and Xantrex (inverter). Remember: if you are an amateur electrician, always get your array connections checked by a professional solar-certified contractor and have good amp breakers (fuses) plus ground wires.


Panels go "up on the roof"
-it was a real family affair lifting the panels up...  whose idea was it to frame them together before hoisting?  "Up on the Roof..." it became our theme song we hummed for mental survival while 105 degree sun rays heat you from the bottom up.  The desert heat of California sears the soles of your tennis shoes and gloved palms...

Segue to Solar's relocated panelsXantrex/Trace Solar Inverter takes care of the DC to AC mix











Panels (above, at left) just after we hoisted them to roof.  Still need to do a little more fastening and caulking. At right is our converted battery box (foreground) and Xantrex/Trace inverter (background) that takes care of the sun (DC) power to AC mix. Have a question?  We may not immediately know know the answer, but we can find it for you.


Here and there: Segue to Solar gets involved by marching to stop the war in Iraq, and increase renewable energy.  How different would it have been if an environmental president had been elected back in 2000?


Here's a protest march in Los Angeles

The protest march in Los Angeles, October, 2007 (left).
The loss of lives, destruction of the environment
and money spent on the war is beyond compre-
hension. We still wish Gore would run for president...


At right, John, wears and makes t-shirts-with-a-message,
produced through his busy "Human-Vise" company. To get
a t-shirt like the one he is wearing (or others), go to
ebay and search for "HumanVise."



Contact info:
Segue to Solar Online Store
Members, American Society for Solar Energy
Mailing Address:
4067 Hardwick St. #466
Lakewood, CA USA 90712


Call toll-free: 877-467-3483 (877-GO SEGUE)
Mon.-Sat. 8:30am to 7pm PST
Local: Tel. (562) 421-7499
website: www.seguetosolar.com

 

Copyright 2006-2007, Segue to Solar.


Segue's quote of the day:

 

- Kurt Vonnegut:  "I really wonder what gives us the right to wreck this poor planet of ours."


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