Lofving has a little solar car he will show visitors. It holds two people, goes more than 25 miles per hour and travels about 30 miles on each charge -- but unlike a gasoline car, when it runs out, you park it in the sun and it recharges itself, Lofving said.

He also warms and illuminates his retrofitted home.

"We have two systems, one is a photovoltaic panel -- a typical solar panel that collects sun rays and makes it into electricity," Lofving said. "It goes through a charge controller and goes to batteries and then goes out through a fuse box and into a couple of little circuits. It runs LED lights in the house and little 12-volt plugs that can run anything."

He said the plugs can recharge a cell phone, run a radio, provide emergency lighting and play a CD.

"We also have solar hot water," Lofving said of the two large panels mounted on his roof. "It runs the pumps -- whenever the sun's out, it's pumping. Most of the spring, summer and fall, we have hot water, free hot water."

Other locations for the 2008 solar tour in central Maine include:

• In Unity at MOFGA -- the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association -- headquarters at 294 Crosby Brook Road in Unity.

"On the MOFGA fairgrounds, we have two different solar-heating projects -- one is a hot-air collector that heats our sprinkler building during the winter. The water stored in the building acts as a heat sink for the collector," Vernon LeCount, facilities coordinator, said in a release. "This collector is so successful we have removed the propane heater from the building and are keeping the water from freezing only with solar heat."

LeCount said the collector was built from scratch with locally available building materials. He added that this type of solar technology could be employed by homeowners and businesses to inject warmed air into basements or other parts of a structure in winter.

The second project at MOFGA is a 1,500-gallon, ground-mounted hot-water collector to heat the main building at MOFGA. This homemade design allows construction of a hot water collector for less than the cost of a manufactured system, LeCount said.

• The second location in Unity for the tour is open noon-5 p.m. The tour is hosted by John McIntire and Nancy Rosalie, 323 Crosby Brook Road, across the road from MOFGA.

Organizers say this is an interesting example of making a small footprint on the planet. It is owner-built without debt. Measuring under 500 square feet, it is a small but adequate off-the-grid electrical system for a composting outhouse and hand-carried water.

Meghan Malloy contributed to this report.

Doug Harlow -- 474-9534, Ext. 342

dharlow@centralmaine.com