By Jamey Boyum
SMITH COUNTY, TX (KLTV) - The temperature is still up, and so is your electric bill.
August was the hottest on record in Tyler, and you may see record breaking costs when your electrical bill arrives.
One East Texas man cut his bill by 70%, but he did have to lay out some cash first.
Dr. Howard Beggs is beating the heat, and the system with an array of things. He has 24 solar panels baking up electricity to feed his house.
"If I don't change my usage, this will pay out in about eight years. But, it gives a return on investment of seven to eight percent, which is a lot better than you can do in a savings account," says Beggs.
It cost around $25,000, but various rebates brought it down to $9,000.
Beggs says he averaged a $182 electric bill before installing the solar panels. Now, he averages a $67 bill.
It's a 5,200 watt setup, so cool months when he doesn't use much power, he feeds electricity into the grid.
Guess what he gets when that happens. That's right, a check.
Greenlife Technologies installed the system. Beggs is partial to the company since his son Dale runs it.
Dale also heats his pool in the winter with the sun, and has a separate small array to power his pool pump.
If the power grid goes down, the solar panels do too. Unless you install a battery back-up system.
The batteries are pretty expensive, but if you're very frugal, you can keep power going to your house indefinitely.
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