Looking for a plentiful fuel soyrce, check out the susi Fuel shortages are a major problem in the world today, but one fuel source isn't suffering a shortage, and that fuel source is the sun. Clifford and JoAnn Merkley, Roosevelt, have been using a solar water heating system in their home since January. "The system will pay for itself. Our hot water heater takes in most of our electric bill. Every day the sun shines we get just about free heat and hot water," stated Clifford Merkley. There are three solar collectors on the roof of the Merkley house. The collector col-lector is a formed copper plate that has several rows of copper tubing soldered in the grooves. The plate and tubes are painted black to absorb heat. During sunny days, the system's solar collectors collec-tors capture the suns energy and transfers it as hot water to a storage tank. Water circulating through the tubes extracts this energy. Heated water in the storage tank is then circulated through the heat exchanger ex-changer mounted in the air duct, which provides heat for the entire home. On cold nights and during periods of inclement weather the fireplace heat extraction grate is used as supplemental supplemen-tal energy source. When a fire is burning, burn-ing, water circulates through the grate and is heated, then pumped to the storage tank, providing heat again for the entire house. Domestic water can either be preheated pre-heated in the storage tank, reducing the cost of using the hot water heater or an optional circulating system can be in stalled which heats domestic water to full temperature. "The solar cells attract the sun, and the anti-freeze and water is heated up. The water moves down to the storage tank when it is 5 degrees hotter than the water in the tank. The hot water heats ud the coils and they make the rest of the water hot and heats the rest of the house," remarked Merkley. Three or four people have solar systems in the Uintah Basin, but Clifford Clif-ford and JoAnn Merkley have the only system that has been installed by Uintah Uin-tah Hydro and Solar, 153 West 400 North, Nor-th, Vernal. The Vernal group is the local dealer for United States Solar Industries. In-dustries. An open house will be held at the Merkley home at 539 Joyce Avenue, behind the Husky station in Roosevelt, Saturday from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. Home owners who install the system can get tax credits. Under the solar tax credit bill the homeowner will receive a direct credit to his income tax for investments in-vestments in solar energy heating systems. A tax credit of 30 of the first $2000 of the investment is allowed. A tax credit of 20 on the next $8000 is allowed. On a $10,000 investment, the total will be 22 or $2,200 and on a $5000 investment, the total will be 24 of $1200. The price of the system to the homeowner is reduced reduc-ed from $10,000 to $7800 or from $5000 to $3800 respectively. Merkley remarked the there is a bill before congress for a 50 tax credit. "The solar system saves us money on fuel. It heats our house and hot water. It will last for the life of the house," remarked JoAnn Merkley. "It takes a few years to pay for itself, but after we have paid it off the savings will be a great deal. It cost us about $6000 to install in-stall the solar system." For more information infor-mation on the solar system offered by Uintah Hydro and Solar contact Calvin Richens, 789-5563; Jon Bartlett, 789-2646, Vernal or Clifford Merkley, 722-3474, Roosevelt.