Yesterday I attended a Living Green Expo. I was impressed by the number of exhibitors. Even more impressive was the number of attendees. I've been sensing for a while that there has been a change in momentum toward living green and interest in renewable energy. That's the good news.

Now the bad news. I talked to a lot of the vendor representatives in the booths. I didn't go with this intention but I starting asking the same questions to different people. I got a lot of different answers. None of them seemed to lack any confidence in their answers. Unfortunately, a lot of attendees were getting erroneous information. Some of the errors were perhaps innocuous The information that was provided may not have been critical but they were basic questions about the technology they were promoting.

There may be many thousands of dollars at stake for the system cost or for tax credits. The message is caveat emptor! You can't assume that the "expert" is in fact that. Get a second or third opinion. A lot of people have jumped on the bandwagon and have perhaps not committed the manuals to memory. Make them earn your trust.