Tour local homes on Solar Tour

The annual Seattle Solar Tour gives homeowners a chance to see how incorporating solar energy into their homes could save their energy bills and the environment. The Solar Tour is from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and covers 30 homes and businesses.
Two of those homes are in our neck of the woods. The Galvin home at 111 N. 74th St. features a solar hot water system, with solar panels that do double duty as sun shades for the koi pond. The Herndon home at 808 NW 64th St. features a solar energy system and tubular solar skylights, plus a rain water harvest system to water plants and flush toilets.
See a list of participating homes here, with links to maps and directions.
The U.S. Department of Energy recently designated Seattle as one of 25 Solar America Cities. According to Seattle City Light, only about two dozen customers had solar electric installations in 2005. That number has now climbed to about 200 residential and business customers.