Your Video Could Win a Solar Water Heater

Just in time for Earth Day 2009, you can enter to win a Solar Water Heater and join millions in Earth Day’s Green Generation campaign. Get your video cameras ready and enter your five-minute video explaining what you’re doing to live a “green” lifestyle.

Your video will be judged on creativity and your reason for entering. You can detail your interest in technology, existing commitment to green living or any reason why you believe you should win. Your entry must be postmarked by
5:00 p.m. May 20, 2009.

April 22, 2009, marks the beginning of Earth Day’s Green Generation campaign scheduled to culminate on Earth Day’s 40th anniversary in 2010. Amy Bryan, Jackson EMC Residential Marketing director, says launching the Solar Power contest on Earth Day shows our support for new technology and the environment. “This contest is the perfect way to show our support for clean, green technologies that power the appliances we depend on today, such as water heaters,” says Bryan. “Contests provide an avenue for educating the 21st century generation of customers to learn the costs and benefits of new technologies that will fuel our future.”

The Green Generation campaign’s core principles include:

• A carbon-free future based on renewable energy that will end our common dependency on fossil fuels, including coal.
• An individual’s commitment to responsible, sustainable consumption.
• Creation of a new green economy that lifts people out of poverty by creating millions of quality green jobs and transforms the global education system into a green one.

For more information on Earth Day and the Green Generation, go to www.earthday.net.

Staying in Hot Water

Water heating is the second largest energy user in your home. A solar water heater can save from 45 to 75 percent on your annual water heating cost while helping save the environment (average savings for a family of four).

The water heater uses heat from the sun to make hot water. An absorber panel is normally placed on your rooftop. Tubes inside the panel heat the transfer fluid flowing through them, which warms the heat exchanger. The heat exchanger warms water in a storage tank.

For more about solar water heating and how to enter the contest, go to www.jacksonemc.com/winsolar.