Guest Blog

Commercial construction professionals can rely on propane for lower emissions, enhanced resiliency

Commercial buildings are experiencing more and more unplanned power outages and it’s causing incredible strain on an already fragile electrical grid. In fact, the United States endures more blackouts than any other developed nation. And according to federal databases at the Department of Energy (DOE) and the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), the number of U.S. outages lasting more than an hour have increased steadily over the past decade. This has construction professionals looking to build more resilient buildings and one way to do that is microgrids.

A microgrid is a local energy grid with control capability, which means it can disconnect from the traditional grid and operate autonomously. Within microgrids are one or more kinds of distributed energy—solar panels, wind turbines, combined heat and power, and or, generators—that produce power and often energy storage solutions. This is helpful during sudden or planned power outages. The quest for a more reliable, secure, and clean energy system is driving investment in microgrid technologies that can deliver superior reliability and resiliency for the nation’s aging and vulnerable grid.

Propane, which is easily transported and stored on site for indefinite periods of time, offers economic and environmental benefits that make it a great low-carbon energy source for microgrids. The Propane Education & Research Council (PERC) has an analysis called, The Opportunity for Propane in Microgrids, that illustrates the benefits of using propane generators in hybrid microgrids in commercial applications. Propane offers lower emissions, comparable levelized costs of electricity, and added resiliency compared to diesel. It also helps minimize the impact of a power outage to a commercial building’s vital systems like smoke and fire detection, elevators, refrigeration units, heating and cooling equipment, health and safety equipment, communications, and many other applications.

Propane is an environmentally friendly energy source

Severe weather events coupled with natural disasters have led to increased electrical grid failures. Whether planned or unplanned, power outages can happen at any time. In response to the outages, there’s been a spike in generator sales. The rise is seen in storm-wrecked coastal areas, inland tornado alleys, and particularly in places like California and Texas with increased penetration of renewable energy. For many years, diesel has been the chosen generator fuel. As more and more diesel generators are being purchased, their harmful emissions are impacting local communities. According to data from PERC, propane is the better option and can help lower emissions.

A new study from PERC called, Power Generation: The Emissions Shifting Problem, looks at the recent trends in power generation, microgrids, and how propane systems can offer a low emissions and resilient solution for commercial construction professionals and their customers. Compared to diesel, propane significantly improves local air quality by mitigating nitrogen oxides and particulate matter which are known health hazards. Propane also emits significantly less carbon than diesel-powered generators. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), propane is 16 percent cleaner than diesel when it comes to CO2 per unit of energy.

Microgrids that utilize propane as an energy source get even cleaner when renewable propane is considered. Renewable propane is made from a mix of waste residues and sustainably sourced materials—including agricultural waste products, cooking oil, restaurant grease, and animal fats. Because it’s produced from renewable feedstocks, renewable propane is even cleaner than conventional propane—and far cleaner than other energy options. Renewable propane’s chemical structure and physical properties are the same as conventional propane, which means it can be used for all the same applications without any modifications to engines or equipment.

In its 2021 wildfire mitigation plan report, Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) identified that a technology combination of solar photovoltaic (PV) and battery energy storage with supplemental propane gensets is not only the most cost effective and reliable solution for initial remote grid sites, but also the cleanest.

Propane is a safe and resilient energy source

Microgrids help improve the resiliency of local electricity distribution systems, that’s part of why they’re growing in popularity. They represent a groundbreaking approach that helps solve several of the problems facing California’s cities.

To provide an alternate power solution to customers located in Mariposa County, solar energy company BoxPower and generator manufacturer Generac provided solar PV with battery backup and a propane generator as a solution to reduce wildfires in one of California’s high-risk areas. Instead of ruggedizing the transmission and distribution (T&D) lines, which could cost more than one million dollars per mile in remote locations, electric utilities deenergized the T&D lines and installed these microgrid solutions to avert forest fires. Based on the success of the microgrid applications, PG&E plans to install 20 more in the next year.

Ultimately, microgrid systems provide peace of mind. Propane power generation equipment used in microgrid applications can help businesses increase safety and resiliency allowing them to retain their clean operation even with a power failure. Propane is an affordable energy choice capable of delivering efficient, on-site energy at all times, including during power outages. Replacing diesel assets with propane-powered equipment will continue to push us toward significant air quality improvements and decarbonization.

To see more of PERC’s research supporting the benefits of using propane in microgrid applications, visit Propane.com/Research.

Bryan Cordill is the director of residential and commercial business development at the Propane Education & Research Council. He can be reached at bryan.cordill@propane.com.

Promoting your website with the help of link building is just one of many SEO tactics. Being one of the oldest strategies to make your website more visible in search results, it is still one of the effective ways to significantly boost visibility and discoverability. What’s more, there are a lot of different tactics to grow the number of high-quality do-follow backlinks, and in this article, we will discuss the most effective ones.

Why Should You Use a Link Building Strategy?

Link building is a universal strategy that is suitable for promoting a website in any industry. Its essence is simple  – the more websites link back to your site, the more visible and authoritative it becomes in the opinion of Google. Even simpler, high-quality links attract traffic and increase the authority of the site, improving positions in the issue.

Most projects from different industries will not refuse such a result. But what tactic should you follow to get it? To be honest, there is only one link-building strategy that works. You can’t even imagine how simple it is. You need to post something that people want to link to.

What’s more, you don’t have to post huge blog posts or interactive guides to reach as many people as possible. But if you’re at the beginning of your SEO journey, a few tactics will help with link building. Below you will find the top 5 strategies that will be effective in this matter.

Top 5 SEO Link Building Strategies for Contractors

What link-building strategies should you focus on to promote your services? Given the specifics of the niche, it is necessary to adapt the strategies that are most effective for your business. Below we will look at 5 strategies that you should definitely pay attention to and make them part of your overall backlink strategy.

1.   Guest Posting

If you are looking for a backlink strategy that will allow you to get high-quality backlinks and an influx of your target audience, then you should definitely consider guest posting. The essence of this strategy is to find a semi-niche partner site that is ready to accept a guest post with a link to your site. The more authoritative the partner site is, the more weight the backlink will provide in the context of the rating.

An important point in the implementation of guest posting is the selection of a relevant platform for cooperation. In this case, quality is more important than quantity. Therefore, it is better to get one high-quality backlink than five links from low-quality platforms. Also, today there are many third-party services and tools for bloggers that allow you to effectively implement this strategy with an emphasis on quality. This saves money and also provides the ability to delegate content creation to a partner site.

2.   Outreach

What is outreach? This is when you reach out to people in your niche (for example, via email, feedback block, or social networks) and present your project to them. You can link to a blog article, landing page, video presentation, or online store.

However, the method works best with useful content. Tell experts, the media, and customers in your industry about the materials they might need. Offer to mention your content where appropriate. At the same time, it is worth focusing on the location, which will work in tandem with local SEO.

3.   Local SEO

Local SEO is something you can’t miss when it comes to delivering physical goods and services. Local SEO is an opportunity to improve brand recognition locally regarding a specific geographic region. The implementation of the local SEO strategy allows you to get the following benefits:

• Improve online and offline visibility.
• Provide more traffic, which increases the chances of conversion.
• Increase the level of trust.
• Attract potential consumers of goods/services.

To get started with this strategy, it is worth working out the following points:

1. Use GMB (Google my Business). It comes with the possibility to create free business listings. This factor will be considered when we talk about ranking businesses in organic local search.
2. Collect customer reviews. Reviews play a key role when we talk about local search and ranking.
3. Consider local link building. For example, you can use guest posting to collaborate with businesses from the same city or country as you.

Local SEO is a good way to get backlinks while still reaching your target audience. Therefore, you should not miss this opportunity and add local SEO to your overall backlink strategy.

4.   Unique Content

Content can also be an effective tool for getting backlinks in the long run. Wondering how content can bring a backlink? It is enough to add unique data, statistics and research.

First, the use of unique data is one of the indicators of authority. Secondly, other writers can use your data when creating content and linking to your site. In this way, you will get a backlink for your site. At the same time, we are not talking about some incredible arrays of data that you need to process in order to get statistics. Even a few numbers can become a source for backlinks.

By doing so, you kill two birds with one stone. You generate high-quality content and get backlinks, which will increase the level of authority in the eyes of search algorithms. So, there is a need to reboot your content with such data. What’s more, organic backlinks are the most valuable ones so Google appreciates them most.

5.   Crowd Marketing

Crowd marketing involves building links through communities and forums. Reddit, Quora, online marketplaces, and social media are good places to promote your site and post mentions. You can also leave useful comments on blogs. This is a good way to get some extra links. This way you can get your content or ideas out to more people. It is possible that your comment will be noticed by the blog owner and will offer cooperation. Your potential consumers can be among the readers as well.

Wrapping Up

Use these strategies to get the backlinks that will help you get your coveted rankings. As you can see, most of them involve not only getting backlinks but also attracting potential customers, so you are welcome to kill two birds with one stone and drive ROI in the long run.

Guest Blogger: Mary Hunter is a successful American freelance lifestyle blogger with advanced writing skills. She had experience in editing, marketing, and her works appeared in different publications and website articles. Her main goal in life is not to set up any goals and keep working every day.

By Mike Fowler, Application Specialist – Kano Laboratories 

In most industrial settings there are tools and equipment caked in oils and grease that needs to be removed. The contaminants build up and can quickly damage different types of equipment and surfaces. Grease and oily build up need to be cleaned away to remove and work on equipment components. Tools become hard to handle and inefficient when they are greasy.

To cut through the crud – whether it’s grease, tar, ink, asphalt, oil, or dirt – industrial cleaners and degreasers are essential to maintain industrial sites, machinery, tools, and parts.

An industrial degreaser is an extra strong detergent designed to liquify oils and grease holding contaminants in place and makes it easy to remove. Degreasers are used across industries – automotive, agriculture, aviation, maritime, HVAC, manufacturing, oil and gas, utilities, and more.

What to look for in an industrial degreaser

• How well it works. Does it cut through grease? It should dissolve and liquify substances for easy removal on multiple surfaces. It should not damage or leave residue on the surface. The cleaning should be complete with no oily film left behind.
• Is it fast acting? A degreaser should work with a minimum amount of soak time to break down the grease for removal. Full removal should be accomplished with minimal physical effort. The pros look for efficacy and speed.
• Is it safe to use? The product label and safety data sheet should give clear direction for proper use including personal protection equipment
• Does it take one or multiple applications to get the job done? The two factors that contribute to the cost of a project are time and money. Getting the job done with one application saves you both. Using less is more efficient. If a degreaser takes 2 to 3 applications, it’s not as cost effective.

“That’s what we found in the lab, working with different thicknesses and layers of grease,” said Jeffrey Stewart, Kano Laboratories – Technical Sales Engineer, producer of Kano Floway Degreaser. “We only needed one application to wipe away grease and it would take 2-3 applications with the competitors’ product. It works fast and it works well.”

Liquid and aerosol

In liquid form, an industrial degreaser can be brushed on or wiped with a rag. It can also be used to soak parts. Soaking works well for parts that are tough to clean and have heavy carbon deposits with the oily buildup.

An aerosol degreaser can be sprayed on and wiped off. It uses a direct stream that can be concentrated on a specific area.

“Ease of application, whether sprayed, soaked, or dipped, are attributes to look for,” said Stewart.

Safety

As with all solvents, use these products in a well-ventilated area and using proper personal protection equipment (PPE). Instructions on the product label should be followed closely. Consult the product safety data sheet (SDS) for product handling and storage.

Mike Fowler is the Application Specialist at Kano Laboratories based in Nashville, Tennessee. Kano, founded in 1939, is the producer of the iconic, Kroil-branded penetrating oils and lubricants for the industrial maintenance, repair, and operations (“MRO”) and professional specialty trade markets.

By Jeff Stagnoli, Nexstar Network Business Coach

Sometimes we leave things until the last minute. I know I do – it’s human nature! Once a year, a few days before Christmas, I realize I haven’t gotten (or even thought about) any gifts yet, and it never goes well. I end up panic-buying gifts I’m not sure people will like, when I know I could have taken a little extra time to make sure each gift was special. Every year, I think, I really wish I would have planned this better.

The holidays come around every year, yet they always seem to catch me by surprise. And as a business coach for the owners of plumbing, heating, cooling, and electrical shops, I know that planning season is just like the holidays for a lot of them – it happens every year, but every year, owners are caught by surprise when it’s time to have their business plans ready to go for the new year.

Now, I know it’s just the tail-end of the summer, most people’s busiest season. You might be wondering why we’re talking about this at all. But this is the time to start talking about reviewing and refining your business plan for the new year. Now. Here’s why:

An early start = reliable data.

Most company budgets are put together in September, October, or November. In order to put together a reliable budget, you’re going to need good numbers and data. When you start now, you’re going to have a little bit of time, going into a shoulder season, when you can make sure you have accurate numbers that you can use to build your action plan.

And just how do you get good numbers and data? Simple! Most businesses use the last three years of tracking to predict the upcoming year. As you gather your numbers, you’ll want to look at your monthly trends for calls/leads run; your conversion rate/closing ratio, and your average sale.

Some basic business planning math:

Take the monthly calls/leads you ran (the homeowners your technicians/sales staff visited)

x

your conversion rate/closing ratio

x

your average sale

=

Your total monthly revenue

This formula works for any business! I’ll prove it to you. Let’s say you and I own a souvenir t-shirt shop on the boardwalk of a resort town. If we wanted to make a business plan for next year, we’d need to be able to plan for the amount of revenue we’ll be pulling in. But how could we predict that?

Well, let’s say we had an electronic headcounter that beeps whenever someone walks in the store. OK: we know how many people visit our store in a year. But how many people buy something? We’d have to look at our number of sales for that. Let’s say 40% of the people who walk in our store buy something. So how much is our average sale? If we looked at our receipts, we’d find out that, on average, each person buying something in our store spent $22. So how do we find our total revenue for last year?

Foot traffic x conversion rate x average sale = our total revenue!

If we know these numbers, and we know them for the past three years, what’s to say that next July we won’t have the same foot traffic? The past nearly always repeats itself. If you use the last three years of data, the numbers will get you so close to exactly how the next year is going to be. You’ll be amazed at how well this works.

But what if we wanted to grow our t-shirt business? This is where we can tinker and try out new ideas. For our t-shirt store, we could put signs out along the boardwalk to get more people to come inside. What if we could get 10% more people to enter the store? What do we predict this will do to sales? What if we rented a second place on the boardwalk a few blocks up? We could likely already predict how many t-shirts we’re going to sell at a second location, based on our data.

You can do this math with any business. Including yours. Look at the past to predict the future. The data isn’t hard to get.

The only way you’re going to be able to have your business plan ready to go in the new year is if you start gathering your data and numbers now. Don’t be the person who just puts two days aside in late November to sit in a conference room with your leadership team, looking at them, saying, “OK, it’s time to plan! Where do we start?” Get prepared – get your numbers in order now. You’ll find business planning for next year is easier than you think, especially if you start early.

 

Jeff Stagnoli has been in the industry since 1991. As a business coach for Nexstar Network, he loves helping members create individualized paths to success, and especially enjoys connecting with owners on a one-to-one level. He looks forward to helping members build the businesses of their dreams. Jeff can be reached at jeffs@nexstarnetwork.com.