After nearly four months in use, firefighters believe the panels are proving to be effective.

Shawnee Fire Chief Jeff Hudson said the panels were installed in July after the Fire Department had been considering ways to help the city's efforts to become more environmentally-friendly.

Firefighter David Wolff read a trade magazine article about a fire department in San Raphael, California, that had started using solar panels on its trucks. He quickly got in contact with the San Raphael Fire Department and enquired about it.

Traditionally, fire trucks are left running to keep the hoses from freezing in cold weather, but also to keep essential equipment constantly charged.

That includes the firefighters' battery-powered flashlights, portable radios, thermal imaging cameras and most importantly, the Mobile Data Terminal, which gives firefighters all available information on an emergency call, allows them to look up information like hazardous materials data and maps and serves as a communication link with dispatch.

In order not to kill the truck's battery, idling has been a necessity in the past.

But fire department officials thought that as long as equipment could remain charged, idling wouldn't be necessary on warmer days for medical, investigation and other nonfire calls.

The department spent US$900 from its equipment maintenance fund to buy the solar panels, which are made with a hard plastic face that can stand up to the elements and have a 20-year warranty.The firefighters carried out the installation themselves.

"Once we got all the materials, it just took an afternoon to put it in," Wolff said.

Wolff said that they chose to install the panels only on fire truck for the time being, engine 71, the most-used truck, as a trial to make sure the panels worked as expected.

But the panels appear to be working well enough that the department is looking into grants and other funding source to purchase more.

However, several factors, like the onset of cold weather and the always-varying number of emergency calls received each day, have made it hard to come up with exact numbers of savings just yet.

Considering the 20-gallon truck is refueled several times a week, recouping the costs shouldn't take long.

"If the data holds true, our investment would be paid off in six months for one truck," Wolff said.

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Written by New Straits Times