Click on 'Green' Rewards From Your State

Of course, some of the Web sites provide you with information, but not a lot of tools for interpreting it. For example, New York's Power Naturally site lists the incentives that residents can receive for installing home-based wind turbines of different sizes, but no guidance on how to tell which one is appropriate in a given situation.

And it would be handy for Ct. Clean Energy to provide a calculator to help you determine how much money, if any, you would save on electricity by leasing a solar voltaic system. You're left to do the back-of-a-napkin estimates on your own.

But it's still a good place to start. If your state doesn't yet have helpful programs, you can link to the Department of Energy's Web site and find out about federal tax credits for energy-efficiency improvements and solar energy.

And if you aren't sure what your state offers, check out the Database of State Incentives for Renewables and Efficiency.

It's worth spending a few minutes on these Web sites if you bought any appliances, purchased a new, energy-efficient home or made any major energy-conserving improvements on your house in the past year, or if you plan to this year.

You could wind up benefiting from federal and state tax breaks and direct rebates that are not always well-publicized but that will put some green in your pocket in exchange for putting some greener fixtures in your home. And who can't use more greenbacks these days?

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