By Jolene Toves

 

It was in 1989 that Joe and Doris Rivera first decided to take measures to protect the environment by investing in a solar water heater. But making that switch was just the beginning - dubbing their home "a hot box", the Riveras needed to find a way to keep their home cool and keep their power bill from heating up. Joe told KUAM News, "We've bought 64 solar panels and it gives us about 50 kilowatts of electricity and we are excited about it - VERY excited about it!" And while the Riveras have yet to see the savings they anticipate their power bill to be a fraction of the cost. "We were actually paying about $700 a month and that we don't really have too many energy efficient things here we have a hotbox it is a concrete hotbox," he continued. But the solar panels will not only help to lower their power bill but also help to keep the sun's rays from directly hitting their roof in effect becoming a sun shade. They now enjoy being able to run their appliances without worrying about a power bill that is through the roof. "It just made sense we wanted to pay something that we own and eventually the savings it will pay for itself and the rest of the money just goes into our pockets that one was attractive to us and the other one was we wanted to conserve and we wanted to go green and started to protect what we have on our island and take advantage of the sun," Joe added. Since switching to solar the Riveras say that the service they have received from Pacific Solar Photovoltaics has been wonderful allowing them not to worry about their solar panels but instead focus on the savings they are getting from soaking up the sun's rays.