In between grocery shopping and leaf-peeping–or whatever it is you plan to do with the first Saturday in October–nip in and take a look at operational solar electric installations on display in homes and businesses across the country tomorrow. Under the umbrella of the American Solar Energy Society (ASES), participating home and business owners will let riff-raff like you and me in off the streets to see the inner workings of their photovoltaics systems.

ASES Solar Tour: Saturday, October 3. Visit ASES for details.

ASES has a handy map that lets you see where events are happening near you. The headline sponsor is the Department of Energy’s office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (DOE-EERE for short: yeah, those government acronyms are catchy). Tours are free. Most of the home sites tours are organized by NESEA chapters, and include green homes in general as well as solar homes.