Month: March 2009

How to Choose a Top Car Insurance Company

Sometimes an individual will become dissatisfied with their old car insurance company and will start the process of looking for a top car insurance company to replace the old one. When this is the case, individuals will not only want to know how to choose a top car insurance company, but also how to smoothly do the transfer from the old company to the new one so that they do not have to pay two car insurance companies at once.


Normally the transfer will be done at the end of the term for the old policy, so that the new policy is written to activate a day or two before the old one expires, with the old company notified that they will not be renewing for the next term. This means that individuals will normally have about three months from making the payment on their old policy to research and find a new one to get in place at the end of that time. Some individuals may pay monthly, every six months or yearly, so they would have to do the same thing or see if their insurance company will pro-rate the money on the old policy.

Where to Look

When looking for a top car insurance policy, individuals will often check car insurance company comparisons. These can be found in different magazines as well as online at different websites which allow users to input their basic information and will give them a list of different car insurance companies with the quotes to go with them. This allows individuals to compare pricing and also car insurance plans in order to choose the one that is right for them and their family.

Another place to look for a top car insurance company is to check the state’s department of car insurance since they will often have car insurance companies and the ratio of customer complaints that have been listed with them for each company. In addition, body shops are another great place to get a feel for the quality of customer care given by a car insurance company since body shops have to deal with car insurance companies on a regular basis. They will usually be able to tell customers which companies seem the easiest to deal with and have the least amount of complaints from the customers.


J.D. Power and Associates is another resource that individuals should check when searching for a top car insurance company to switch over to since they collect information from car insurance policy holders across the country so that they can list out the findings from that research. They tell what the overall customer satisfaction is with all different areas of the car insurance coverage experience, from pricing to claims.

Disadvantages Of Active Solar Heating: High Initial Costs Is Certainly

Disadvantages Of Active Solar Heating: High Initial Costs Is Certainly Something To Contend With

There are three main disadvantages of active solar heating with the first being that the initial costs involved are on the high side. The second disadvantage of active solar heating is that use of an active solar heating system is limited to its location as well as power density while the third most important disadvantage of active solar heating is that the solar cells can only produce direct current (DC) which then needs to be converted into alternating current (AC) before it can be useful to the consumer. During this transformation from DC to AC, there is loss of energy to the tune of between four and twelve percent.

More Advantages Than Disadvantages

More and more households in the US are being heated by active solar heating systems as there are obviously a lot more advantages to such systems that help offset many of the disadvantages of active solar heating. The main reason why even more households have not switched over to use of active solar heating systems are the initial costs involved as well as contending with the need for sufficient amount of sunlight to make the active solar heating system worthwhile.

If however you are willing to invest approximately between six to twenty thousand dollars to install an active solar heating system then chances are that you will not pay much heed to the disadvantages of active solar heating and will go ahead and make use of this form of solar energy. In fact, the market for active solar heating systems continues to grow and industries too are expending greater effort in researching and finding cheaper solutions and so the future looks bright.

One thing that does help you disregard the disadvantages of active solar heating is that these systems are easy to use and the accompanying DIY instruction manuals make it easy to educate consumers as to how they can install their own active solar heating system and so save on the high costs involved.

The other major disadvantage of active solar heating is that there is need to install the system where there is abundant sunlight and so in case you happen to be living in areas such as in Alaska, using an active solar heating system might not make much sense.

Also, once you have installed the active solar heating system on your roof it becomes part and parcel of your home and so when selling your home you might have to part with the active solar heating system which is certainly one more of the disadvantages of active solar heating to take into account.

Examples of active solar heating can be seen in the use of such solar heating systems being employed in places such as Fairbanks, Alaska where sunlight is not readily available. Nevertheless, an active solar heating system can still provide good service despite the constraints in regard to sufficient sunlight.