Please join us at 7 pm on Thursday, September 13 for our next Sustainable Living Talk, "Renewable Energy Options for Maine's Homes and Businesses" by Fortunat Mueller of Energyworks. And if you'll be going to Common Ground Country Fair later in September, drop by our booth to say hi!
Read on for more about that and other happenings in the world of sustainable living.
Warmly,
Fred Horch, Founder
Renewable Energy Options for Maine's Homes and Businesses
Join us for "Renewable Energy Options for Maine's Homes and Businesses", our next Sustainable Living Talk from 7:00 to 8:30 pm on Thursday, September 13th.
Energywork's Fortunat Mueller will cover photovoltaic solar (converting sunlight directly to electricity), solar hot water, solar space heat and residential wind. For those who have been considering ways to switch to more dependable and affordable sources of power or heat, he'll provide an overview of the renewable energy systems on the market today, including how much they cost and how well they perform.
"As fossil fuel supplies dwindle and the health of our environment becomes a growing concern, more Mainers will be looking towards alternatives to meet their energy needs," says Fortunat.
Fortunat is a co-owner of Energyworks South LLC in Portland. Energyworks, our renewable energy partner, is the most experienced installer of renewable energy systems in Maine, specializing in solar hot water, photovoltaics, residential wind turbines and high efficiency gas and wood boilers.
Free informational handouts will be provided. Seating is limited, so if you are interested in attending please reply via email or call the store at 729-4050 to reserve a seat.
Our Sustainable Living Talks are on the second Thursday of each month at 56 Maine Street in Brunswick. October's talk will feature Stephen Carr of WydeVue Residential Energy Services, speaking on the topic of energy savings paybacks and incentives.
News from EnergyworksJen Hatch of Energyworks South writes,
Are you interested in learning more about a solar hot water or solar electric system for your home? This fall the American Solar Energy Association is sponsoring their annual National Solar Home Tour. The date is set for October 6th, 2007 from 10-4pm. This is a wonderful opportunity to view houses with installed solar systems. It will give you the chance to see what a residential solar system consists of, while receiving feedback from the homeowners who live with them. For more information regarding the tour, please contact Jen at Energyworks South LLC. jen@energyworksllc.com or 221-6342
In the meantime, if you have any questions or projects, call Energyworks North (in Liberty, Maine) at 1-877-enworks or Energyworks South (in Portland, Maine) at 221-6342. Or visit their web site at www.enworks.net.
One of our best sellers recently has been a non-toxic exterior water proofer called Seal Once. If you have a deck, outdoor wood furniture, fence, concrete, or brick work that you need to seal against water damage, this is a good product to know about. It is a penetrating, long-lasting sealer without toxic ingredients. It comes in clear or you can also mix in tints to provide UV protection.
We also carry a full line of interior paints and finishes. Our Old Fashioned Milk Paint is a great choice for wood furniture or for small rooms. You get a beautiful matte finish with no paint fumes. Naturally zero VOC, milk paint comes as a powder you mix with water. We love the fact that you can make small batches and store the powder for years, so there is virtually no waste.
VOC, by the way, stands for "volatile organic compound". A few years ago, the EPA started to crack down on VOC emissions from products like paint and finishes, because it turns out these were a major contributor to smog and poor air quality. Unfortunately, just because a product is zero VOC does not mean it is safe. It could still contain carcinogenic, teratogenic, or toxic ingredients. But nonetheless it is a good idea to avoid products with a high VOC rating.
Besides milk paint, we also sell water-based latex paint. The two brands we carry (American Pride and AFM Safecoat) work just like other brands of premium latex paint, just better for you and your planet because they don't contain toxic ingredients. We are stocking primer and white paint; tinted paint is shipped directly from the distributor as a special order. There has been a rush to call all water-based zero VOC latex paint "green" recently, even though many brands contain toxic ingredients. It's helpful to ask for the Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) for any product to find out what's actually in it, and it's a good idea to ask what kinds of tints are used. Some companies are putting their regular toxic tints into their "green" paint. Our distributors use a non-toxic (and rather expensive!) line of water-based colorants from Degussa.
With the colder weather coming soon, our product focus will be shifting from garden and composting to energy conservation. We recently prepared an Energy Saving catalog featuring products such as our Kilowatt meters, which are a neat gadget that can help you pinpoint which electric appliances are costing you the most to operate. We also carry a full line of energy-saving light bulbs. Drop by the store to pick up your copy of our catalog and take a look at some of the ways we can help you conserve energy -- and save money -- this fall.
But just because the days are getting shorter and fall is coming, don't think we're giving up on composting. It's just time to bring it inside! We'll be selling Wiggle Room worm bins and red wrigglers at Common Ground Fair, as well as in our store. If you haven't tried "vermiculture" (as worm composting is called), I highly recommend it. There are some tricks to it, though, so come on in to the store to find out how to convince the little guys to eat your garbage.
What's Happening in the Local Environmental Scene
The Common Ground Country Fair will be on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, September 21, 22 and 23. Come to the Fair and see why Downeast Magazine calls Common Ground "Maine's most authentic country fair, uniting, as it does, old-time folkways with progressive ideas about living the good life on a fragile planet." We'll be there in the Energy & Shelter tent. Stop by and say hi!
The Brunswick local redevelopment authority (BLRA) is in charge of developing a reuse plan for the Brunswick Naval Air Station when it closes in 2011. They will be presenting two reuse plan alternatives for public review at "BRAC to the Future 2: Plan Alternatives" on Thursday, September 6 from 7 - 9 pm at the Old Brunswick High School, 44 McKeen Street. For more information, visit the BLRA web site.
F.W. Horch Composting Clinic at Crystal Spring Farm in Brunswick, Sat. September 8, 11-noon. I'll show you how to make great compost. Call us here at (207) 729-4050 for more info.
The Brunswick-Topsham Land Trust's Race for Space will be held on Sunday, September 9, at Livesay Soccer Field on the corner of Middle Bay and Pennellville Roads in Brunswick. The four mile run starts at 9 am, a guided walk starts at 9:15 am, and a fun run for kids is at 10 am. Race-day registration is $25 per adult for the run; $12 for the guided walk. Proceeds benefit the land trust. For more information, call 725-0998 or visit www.BTLT.org.
The Brunswick Sustainability Group will be showing Good Food, a collection of short films about sustainability and locally-grown organic food, on Friday, September 14 at 8 pm in the 11 Pleasant Street Arts Center in Brunswick. This is a FREE event and the public is welcome. All residents of the greater Brunswick area are also welcome to attend the group's monthly meetings on the third Monday of each month. September's meeting will be at 7 pm on Monday, September 17, in the 11 Pleasant Street Arts Center in Brunswick. For more information, visit www.BrunswickSustainability.org.
Curtis Memorial Library in Brunswick will be holding a brown-bag lunch discussion of Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature and Climate Change as part of its Cornerstones of Science series. Faciliated discussions with faculty from Bowdoin, Bates, Colby, USM and the US Army Corps of Engineers will take place in the Morrell Meeting Room on Wednesdays from 12:15 to 1:15 pm starting on September 19. For more information call 725-5242.
