Storm Windows Clinic

F.W. Horch Sustainable Goods and Supplies, 56 Maine St., Brunswick, will host a clinic by Rendon Sabina of Downeast Interior Storms, titled "Make Your Own Interior Storm Windows," on Thursday, October 8, at 7:00 p.m. The clinic is free and open to the public.

Interior storm windows are transparent, insulating storm windows that can be installed on the inside of any window. They are simply made using wood, polyolefin film, and open cellulose foam. They are affordable, reusable, and will save energy costs year after year.

Interior storm windows are designed to keep heat in and stop drafts. Properly measured, made and installed, interior storm windows will significantly reduce heating bills, particularly in homes with older double-hung windows. In general, they are much less expensive than replacement windows. Unlike plastic films, interior storms are reusable year after year. They can be installed and removed without the use of tools or fasteners.

Attendees at Thursday's clinic will learn how to measure, make and install interior storm windows for their own homes or for friends and family. Storm windows may also be custom ordered through F.W. Horch for those not wishing to make their own.

Free refreshments and handouts will be provided.

Space is limited. To reserve a seat or for more information, please call 729-4050 or visit www.FWHorch.com.

Super Efficient Home Course

For those who missed Al Heath's "Design and Build/Retrofit Your Own Super Efficient Home" talk last week, he will be teaching this topic as an adult education course in Bath from October 1 to November 19.

Here are the course details:

Should you build new or renovate/retrofit your existing home to new energy efficiency standards? Which standards should you use? How tight should it be and what about indoor air quality and moisture? What is the best way to insulate? How much heat will you need and where will you get it? Solar? Wood? These and more questions will be addressed. This class will take an in-depth look at every type of energy use in your home. We will consider and evaluate all possible approaches to significantly reducing your home's energy budget while saving you money, increasing comfort, improving indoor air quality, and reducing our dependence on fossil fuels. Savings of 50-80% are achievable. Al Heath has been a carpenter/builder in the Bath area for 12 years. Four years ago he and his wife designed and built a super-insulated, passive solar home that uses one quarter of the energy used by new standard construction homes. He is a Maine Home Performance Energy Auditor and consults with builders and homeowners on energy efficiency practices.

Cost: $50
Instructor: Al Heath
Course ID: 200602.210

For more information, visit the Maine Adult Education Association web site.

Super-Efficient Homes: Build New or Renovate

Join us here at the store on Thursday, September 10 at 7 pm for "Super-Efficient Homes: Build New or Renovate," a green building clinic by Al Heath of Arrowsic. Our clinic is free and open to the public.

Al was a carpenter, designer, and contractor in the Bath/Brunswick area for twelve years before changing careers. Five years ago, when looking to have a new energy efficient house built for his family, he found that not only was it prohibitively expensive, but most builders didn't really know what "super-insulated, passive solar" meant. He then decided to immerse himself in the building science of energy efficiency and build his family's home himself. The resulting 2000 square foot house heats with one cord of wood and 50 gallons of kerosene per year. A solar hot water system provides the majority of hot water needs.

At the September 10th clinic, Al will share lessons learned during the process, including a list of helpful sources and contractors for those who want to design, build or renovate their own homes to be super-efficient. He is a Maine Home Performance Energy Auditor and consults with owners and builders on new and retrofitting projects.

Topics covered at the clinic will include: Should you build new, renovate or retrofit your existing home to new energy efficiency standards? Which standards should you use? How tight should your house be? What about indoor air quality and moisture? What is the best way to insulate? How much heat will you need and where to get it: solar, wood? In addition, Al will address specific questions from those who attend the clinic.

We'll provide free refreshments and handouts.

Space is limited. To reserve a seat or for more information, please call us at 729-4050.

Save Money: November's Sustainable Living Tip

Save money while saving the planet. Personal thrift promotes planetary well being. But think carefully about every purchase. Don't save money at the expense of the planet--eating at a fast-food chain instead of an organic local restaurant, for example. Instead, find ways to balance your budget that bring global benefits.

Top 20 money and planet-saving tips

1. Turn down the heat. Whether by hand or with an automatic programmable thermostat, lowering your heating bill is one of the most effective ways you can save. With space heaters in rooms that need to stay warm, you can probably safely turn down your main thermostat to 50 degrees (check with a plumber to make sure).
2. Heat people, not possessions. Instead of turning your thermostat up and heating your entire house, use electric space heaters when and where you need them. It's an easy, affordable way to create warm comfort zones around the people you love.
   
3. Insulate. This is an investment with a great guaranteed return. Start with your attic, but don't forget to insulate around your basement, too.
4. Seal air leaks. Blocking those cold drafts not only keeps you more comfortable, but saves money. Remember, for every cold breeze blowing in, there is a warm breeze leaking out. Do your part to stop global warming!
5. Turn off the lights. If you're not vigilant about turning off the lights when you leave a room, I bet you're spending at least $50 per year unnecessarily. Not a big deal? If you don't need the extra money, turn off the lights anyway and donate the money to charity. If every household in Brunswick did that, we'd raise $407,500 annually!
6. Unplug unused appliances.The EPA estimates that appliances use more energy while turned off than on! Why is that? Because most appliances suck power surreptitiously for things like remote controls and clocks. Unplug them to stop the waste.
   
7. Switch to CFL light bulbs. Compact fluorescent light bulbs are four times more efficient than the old-fashioned incandescent bulbs. Get a dollar's worth of light for a quarter!
   
8. Install low-flow showerheads. If your showerhead is more than a few years old, chances are you are wasting warm water--and the dollars used to heat it.
   
9. Wash clothes in cold water. Modern detergents work just fine in cold water. Why spend extra money on hot water for no reason?
   
10. Air dry clothes. A little time hanging clothes adds up to dozens of dollars over the course of a year. Plus, hanging clothes indoors during the winter adds welcome humidity to dry indoor air.
    
11. Cover your windows. Windows let in light, but also let out heat. Insulating blinds are the most effective, but even a thin covering helps block heat loss.
12. Compost. This is something you can do that literally makes your part of the world a better place for all living things. Save on trash fees and synthetic fertilizer costs.
    
13. Walk and bike more. Every mile you walk or bike instead of drive your car puts more than 50 cents in your pocket, according to the IRS. Personally, I find a bike trailer allows me to do all my grocery shopping with ease--and keeps me in shape!
    
14. Recharge your batteries. Rechargeable batteries can be recharged up to 1,000 times. That's a whole lot of savings in disposable batteries you don't need to buy--or throw away!
15. Bottle your own water. It's nice to have a bottle of water at work or school, but why not fill your own? For less than a penny per gallon, you can filter tap water and bring it with you in a reusable stainless steel bottle.
    
16. Pack your own lunch. It's no secret that you can eat better for less money when you pack your own lunch. With washable sandwich wraps and reusable bottles, you can also eat better with less trash.
    
17. Buy in bulk. Dollar for dollar, you get more product and less packaging when you buy in bulk. Got limited space? Find a store that lets you refill from their bulk dispensers.
    
18. Preserve food. For every food there is a season, but you can enjoy preserved food any time of the year. If you have a freezer, you'll pay less to operate it if you keep it full.
    
19. Grow your own garden. Container plants are a good option if you don't have much space or time. Plan now to save a bundle on herbs and fresh veggies next year.
    
20. Get outside. Entertaining your family doesn't have to be an expensive proposition. Taking time for a family hike around your neighborhood is a free way to reconnect with each other and your community. Set out on foot from your home with an open mind for adventure, and you'll be surprised what you discover!

Fossil Fuel Free

On May 22, 2008, crude oil hit $135 per barrel. The next day, gasoline reached a record U.S. national average of $3.88 per gallon. Will our American way of life soon be unaffordable?

Nope--we'll just use less fossil fuel.

Consider life in the United States in 1856. Our modern conveniences depended on oil. We used it to light our homes, lubricate our clocks, and keep our trains running. But it wasn't petroleum--it was whale oil.

What happened? In 1857, a commercially viable kerosene lamp was invented. Within four years the market for whale oil had collapsed.

You probably find it hard to believe that we'll give up fossil fuel as easily, right?

Well, here's my family's plan to be free of fossil fuel without waiting for a magic "kerosene lamp":

1. We're becoming energy efficient. We switched to energy-efficient lights and appliances and now use just 10 kilowatt hours of electricity per day. If we were designing a new home, we'd choose passive solar heat, built tight and super well insulated. But we like to walk or bike to work, school and shopping, so we decided to stay in our in-town 1828 federal-style house. We did an energy audit, then installed weatherstripping, added insulation, and upgraded from forced hot air to radiant floor heating.
   
   
2. We'll use electricity and solar heat instead of oil or gas. We'll install solar hot water for showers, dish washing, etc. We're planning to replace our oil boiler with a solar-assisted electric heat pump. Before too long we hope to trade in our gas minivan for an electric model (we're excited to have Maine Electric Vehicles at our store for a talk on June 12).
   
   
3. We'll generate our electricity without fossil fuel. Today for about 21 cents per kWh, we can choose "green electricity" from hydropower dams and wind farms instead of the "standard offer" from fossil and nuclear fuel. For about $3 per day, we could generate our own electricity with solar panels, as Bill and Debbi Lord do at the Maine Solar House.

Fossil fuel won't disappear entirely from our lives, just like whale oil didn't disappear completely. (Did you know the last bottle of whale oil in the U.S. was sold in 1978?) But the high cost of fossil fuel will disappear from our budget, as we choose better alternatives.

Related Information and Resources

• www.EnergyStar.gov - energy efficient appliances
• hes.lbl.gov - home energy audits
• www.RevisionEnergy.com - solar hot water
• www.MaineEV.com - electric vehicles
• www.EnergyMaine.com/mresignup/ - green electricity
• www.SolarHouse.com - Maine Solar House