Got Fire!

There is nothing more comforting and relaxing than a hot fire in the winter. 

After we purchased our home, we discovered that our propane fireplace appliance produced soot and was not useable. 

We researched options including vent-free, wood inserts, masonry stoves and finally, wood burning stoves. We decided on the wood burning stove option which required removal of our double sided fireplace, completed by Chris Tor of R.P.T. Fireplaces. It really opened up our room.

We then had installed a cast iron Cumberland Gap Quadra Fire wood burning stove with a fan kit from Ambler Fireplaces in Colmar.

It works well and we are still learning how to use it the more efficiently. When it is burning at its peak, it can produce 63,900 Btu/hr and burn up to 15 hours. We achieve a toasty 85 degrees in the family room and the heat radiates throughout the house, raising the temperature as much as 5 degrees. We tried burning some older damp wood - big mistake - it is very important to have dry well cured wood. We hope for warmer cozier winters and less dependence on propane.

The Next Step

Our overall goal is to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels and other non-green energies. We have reduced our energy needs now by approximately 30% since we moved here 3 years ago by replacing appliances, light bulbs and installing a house wide energy saver as I described in an earlier blog in Sept '09. To seize upon the still available state and federal energy rebates and grants, the time has come to investigate alternative, green energy options such as solar energy.

Our friends, Hal and Gail, recently invested in solar energy systems for their home and invited us over to learn more. John was listening more attentively, thus summarizing our visit as follows: “ To reduce (eliminate?) their reliance on utility company supplied electricity, they developed a plan with Mark Bortman of Exact Solar to install two systems: a solar thermal system to provide energy for heating water and a photovoltaic system to generate electricity. The thermal system generates preheated hot water for cleaning, showering and for their spa. If the water isn’t hot enough then ordinary house current electricity can be used to bring it to the desired temperature. Their photovoltaic system, which was installed just two months ago, consists of 16 panels that can generate up to 5 kilowatts of power per hour during the day. This energy is then inverted into AC electricity and a monitoring system reports how much energy is being produced each day as well as how much carbon dioxide is being saved by their environment friendly energy systems. Interestingly, when we saw them on a cold but sunny February afternoon they had already generated about 25 kW hours of power- approximately enough electricity to meet their needs for the day. Hal is looking forward to seeing how much electricity will be generated when the long, sunny days of summer arrive. “

The picture shows the actual installation taking place at their home.

There are both federal tax credits and state grants that can offset the cost by approximately 60%. Please see below for more information:

PA solar rebate information: http://www.depweb.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/community/in_the_news/10475/pa_sunshine_solar_program/553019

Federal solar tax credit information:

http://www.energy.gov/taxbreaks.htm

We are meeting with Exact Solar this week so we can begin to determine how to substitute green energy in place of conventional power sources from utility companies.

Solar Powered Gadgets

John and I have enjoyed finding functional solar powered gadgets we can use around the house and yard. John found this handy shed light online – a GAMA Light My Shed II which requires no wiring. After only 45 minutes for installation, I now have a bright functional light for my shed. It uses LED lights which never have to be replaced and when fully charged will last for 2 hours.

Fuel the world with Solar!

What are we waiting for? Check out the website for more information. http://www.landartgenerator.org/blagi/archives/127

Thanks John for sharing.

On the road to becoming less energy dependent and carbon neutral

Before jumping to solar panels, our goal is to first reduce our energy consumption. We replaced all our old appliances, boiler and air conditioners with energy star rated ones or energy efficient units, all done before the wonderful rebates were available, but which dropped our energy use by 20%. We are also replacing all our light bulbs with compact fluorescent low wattage bulbs from energy star which use 2/3 less energy than normal incandescent light bulbs and can last about 5 years. This year we installed a Power-Save capacitor device on our home electrical system, which is reported to reduce energy consumption up to 25%, but we haven’t seen any savings yet.

Although we individually don’t have wind or solar, we joined PECO Wind for all our electricity needs which costs an additional $60 on average a month but you can join for as little as $2.54. This amount makes our energy use at least more carbon neutral except for heating, which is our next focus. We plan to install a wood pellet burning stove insert into our fireplace to reduce our reliance on propane based heat. What else could we be doing? Ideas?

http://www.power-save.com/

http://www.edf.org/page.cfm?tagid=629

http://www.peco.com/pecores/peco_wind/