While most of us will be cranking up the heat if the snow falls, its more complicated from one valley man. He needs the sun to power his house.

The sun is Rockingham County Resident George Arey's best friend.

"I've always wanted to produce electricity from the sun," says Arey.

For the past few years he has with 40 solar panels on the top of his roof.

It runs everything from his lights to his water plus its good for the environment.

"Just by the instruments that I have I already have saved 5 thousand pounds of carbon dioxide from going into the air. So i can measure, at this point, the difference I've made."

The panels simply convert the sunlight into energy, which follows wires down to his basement where its converted into usable electricity.

It took him years to complete.

"It was tough because I didn't know how to do it, I couldn't find any information, no one wanted to volunteer anything from the sources I found they wanted to come out and charge a certain amount of money to do it," says Arey.

He says its worth it, 80% of his power comes from his roof and that means money saved in his pocket.

"Free energy, once you get over all the initial costs is pretty neat thing to do, that was the ultimate goal was to finally sit back and watch the place produce its own electricity and to see the meter run backwards and to know that some months, the power company owes me money," says Arey.