BY CHRISTINA HERNANDEZ

Because 24 solar panels in Cliff Roode’s yard produced more electrical energy than his Mount Sinai home needed last year, the Long Island Power Authority paid him $6.64.

Before the panels were installed in 2006, Roode paid nearly $200 in monthly energy costs. Since he bought the panels for $17,000 - and received $7,500 back in rebates and tax credits - his bills have fallen 85 percent. “I was very shocked,” he said yesterday.

Roode was among dozens of home and business owners who yesterday opened their doors to visitors as part of the fifth annual National Solar Tour on Long Island.

The event gave people interested in solar energy a chance to talk to those with the systems, rather than advocates and salespeople, said Gordian Raacke, executive director of Renewable Energy Long Island, an East Hampton nonprofit that promotes clean, sustainable energy use and organized yesterday’s local events.

When the sun hits them, solar panels turn the light into a direct current, the type of electricity that batteries produce. An inverter changes the direct current into an alternating current, electricity used in homes.

When the system generates more power than the home needs, extra energy is transferred to the local power grid and the home’s electric meter spins backward.

“It’s not only good for your pocketbook,” Raacke said. “It’s good for your health and for your planet” because the system does not create emissions.

Many people buy the systems for the money-saving benefits, said Kevin P. Harvey, president of K-Star Solar in Kings Park. An average system costs about $24,000, before rebates and tax credits. Harvey estimated the typical homeowner could save about $2,000 per year in energy costs.

The systems, made up of panels that are about 3 feet by 5 feet and weigh about 40 pounds, last decades, said John Moriarty, vice president of Alternative Power and Light in Port Jefferson Station.

Dozens of people yesterday visited Heritage Trust, a nonprofit dedicated to enhancing natural resources that was fitted with solar panels when it was built last year, said volunteer Fred Drewes.

Trish Poggio, 56, of Miller Place, said she would bring what she learned about solar energy back to her eighth-grade technology students at Longwood Junior High School.

“It’s a thing of the future,” she said.

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 5th, 2008 at 4:00 pm and is filed under solar energy. Tags: Cliff Roode, electrical energy, Gordian Raacke, Long Island, Long Island Power Authority, monthly energy costs, Mount Sinai, Renewable Energy Long Island, solar energy, sustainable energy use, USD. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.