Many homeowners are always looking for ways to cut down on their energy costs.

We look at technology making it easier to incorporate solar power in your home.

You don't really notice the photovoltaic panels on the roof of Frank Yap's Mililani home, but Frank certainly notices the difference they make in providing power to his home.

"This is yesterday's production and this is today's," says Yap.

He tracks the output of each photovoltaic panel as part of Hawai'i energy connection's Kumu kit, with which you can get 5 panels that capture the sun's energy or in Frank's case, 10 panels.

Steve Godmere of Hawaii Energy Connection says,"And from sun up to sun down, they don't even need direct sunlight, for example today it's fairly cloudy, they make electricity that electricity is wired into the main disconnect on the side of the home and the customer's home energy consumption uses the green energy first any additional energy that they need would come in from HECO."

"It produces about a half to a third of what our demand is in terms of kilowatt hours," says Yap.

Meaning these panels save him about a third on his electric bill, about $100 per month. Godmere says the savings can be up to 50 percent.

"Often times the Kumu Kit doesn't completely eliminate a home's electric bill but it's a great place to start and it's financially feasible."

Yap says, "That's one of the downsides is the upfront cost this particular system, the upfront cost with tax is about $14,400 but one of the positives is that the tax credits off-set that cost down to about half."

Also, this particular system has no battery pack, so if electricity goes out, the system doesn't produce power. still....

"I think it's worth it, the positives far outweigh the few negatives there are."

"So it's a way that we can reduce our carbon footprint, reduce our dependency on oil."