Set sprinklers to water the lawn or garden only - not the street or sidewalk.
Use the microwave to cook small meals. (It uses less power than an oven.)
Purchase "Green Power" for your home's electricity. (Contact your power supplier to see where and if it is available.)
Scrape, rather than rinse, dishes before loading into the dishwasher; wash only full loads.
Cut back on air conditioning and heating use if you can.
Turn off appliances and lights when you leave the room.
Man says panels worth the investment CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Duke Energy is paying $100 million to install solar panels on houses in Charlotte.
WCNC wanted to know just how difficult it is to go solar at your house. For answers we talked to Bob Thomason, who has solar panels on his home in Myers Park.
"Right now it's showing about 1100 watts. That's about half of the total capacity, because it's early in the morning and the panels are still shaded," Thomason said.
"When the sun is shining, we're using the electricity that's produced by our panels. There are times when the panels are producing electricity like right now, where nobody's in the house, and we're not using the electricity. In that case, the electricity goes back out on the grid, and Duke Energy pays us for that electricity. Other people in our neighborhood get to use it. So it doesn't go to waste.
"For the year, we've saved about $841 on our utility expenses.
"These systems are set and forget. You put these panels up. They're guaranteed for 20 years. There's nothing that can hurt those panels that wouldn't hurt your roof.
"The disadvantage of solar, if there is one, is that you have to come up with a lump sum of money to buy the panels. It's sort of like buying 25 years of electricity and paying for it now. Right now. Write me a check.
"When we're sending electricity out to the grid, the meter actually spins backwards. That's a great feeling to see your meter spinning backwards.
"When people ask me about payback, I tell them it paid us back the day we turned it on and flipped the switch, and started producing energy from the sun. There is no better feeling than knowing we're doing that, and we'll do it for the next 25 years."
The panels last about 25 years.
Visit www.findsolar.org to find out how much it will cost to install panels, how big of a system you'd need, and how much you'd save on your power bill.
