Before you crank up the air conditioner, you might want to put some film on that window.

Consider this....the Navy in Hawai'i just completed a solar window film project that is estimated to save it $130,000 annually on energy costs.

"For this particular project we installed window film on 11 facilities, five of those facilities were historical buildings, 6 were non historical buildings for the historical buildings because of regulations we installed a neutral film," says Krista Stehn, NAVFAC Hawaii Energy Program.

The neutral film on the historical headquarters building rejects about 42 percent of the incoming solar energy.

The non-historical buildings like this barracks got a reflective film that rejects even more.

Experts say applying solar window film or tint can reject 80 percent or more of the incoming solar energy and that can reduce your energy costs by 30 to 50 percent.


"We have a duel-reflective film that gets 83 percent heat reduction," says Rick Ambler, AMCO Glass Tinting. "The higher the metal content usually the higher the heat reduction."

Rick Ambler at Amco Glass Tinting says business is booming and the difference for homeowners or businesses is like night and day.

"Even if you've just got the old barely working stuck in the hole in the wall air conditioner, you'll run it less often and you won't have it turned up as high and you'll notice a difference," says Ambler.

Ambler says it can take as little as one to 3 years to recoup your tinting cost through energy savings, the Navy will get a return on its investment in 2 years, and it's not done yet....

"We're exploring renewable energy opportunities as well and those are to meet our own energy goals and federal energy reduction requirements," says Stehn.

Solar window tinting qualified for a federal tax credit last year. Check with your tax preparer for your 2008 taxes.