SEIA announces poll solar poll results

[Naptown]

Here is the latest poll regarding solar among voters in the US

http://www.seia.org/research-resources/america-votes-solar-national-solar-survey-2012

[Jbergess]

This is a really good read. It's encouraging to hear how many people support and are in favor solar energy. (Former) President Clinton spoke about this at the SPI show in Florida a month or so ago, stating that the biggest job we have as people in the industry is one of education. Most people just don't know enough about solar energy, or about costs.

I still encounter people who assume that solar is "too expensive" (which of course is relative) or people that think that putting a small PV system on their house will cost them $50,000. We have our work cut out for us!

[SolarJoe]

Great read, thanks for sharing! Love how the US wants a energy change hope this is indicative of the whole country.

[russ]

"Hart Research undertook an online national survey of 1,206 registered voters on behalf of SEIA"

The above statement says the poll was voluntary and not at at scientific - it is meaningless. It should have s disclaimer saying so.

If you ask a group interested in solar this would certainly be the reply.

[Naptown]

Are you implying they targeted solar supporters specifically for the survey? I just read "registered voters"

[inetdog]

Are you implying they targeted solar supporters specifically for the survey? I just read "registered voters"

Same thing, right?

We do not know one way or the other from the article how the sample was taken or what normalization was done for those who chose to participate when asked and those who did not. At least it does not sound like a poll taken on the pages of an RE magazine.

There is always an element of suspicion when the poll is taken by an interested organization, or by a "neutral" polling company with a contract from an interested organization. But I do not see any a priori indication of bias.

[Sunking]

Yes just like the polls for POTUS. Problem is if you look into the pool of voters there are 8% more dems polled than Repbubs. At dead even means the Repubs have a large lead. Come Wednesday morning we will know.

[billvon]

The above statement says the poll was voluntary and not at at scientific - it is meaningless. It should have s disclaimer saying so.

All polls in the US are voluntary. That does not make them unscientific.

[inetdog]

Yes just like the polls for POTUS. Problem is if you look into the pool of voters there are 8% more dems polled than Repbubs. At dead even means the Repubs have a large lead. Come Wednesday morning we will know.

The main reason that more registered (and we know that does not determine which way they will actually vote) Democrats are polled than registered Republicans, is that there are more of them nationwide.

If you polled equal numbers of each, then you would have to multiply the Democrat number by the factor by which they outnumber Republicans in the population to correct for that.

But asking people who they will vote for and trying to determine how likely they are to actually vote has inherent problems. The pollsters usually try to correct for that by comparing what people said in previous polls to what they actually did. But all of that calibration can be thrown off by unusual circumstances (the current time are not unusual, are they? )

We may know the results as early late as 10-15 days after the election, since Ohio provisional ballots (maybe up to 200K) cannot be counted until 10 days after election day. Major stresses on the entire population if it comes down to depending on that.

[russ]

All polls in the US are voluntary. That does not make them unscientific.

That qualifies as--------------- When you take a pool with the members of a user group the results are so much BS and unscientific.

[russ]

Are you implying they targeted solar supporters specifically for the survey? I just read "registered voters"

An online survey of registered voters - right! I doubt they have any idea of what they are doing at all. The purpose of the survey was to get a particular reply - which they did.