F.W. Horch Sustainable Goods & Supplies

Thursday, March 13, 2008

Local Environmental Scene -- What's Happening

MaineEnvironmentalNews has launched a great new environmental news site for Maine. Check it out www.MaineEnviroNews.com

Wednesday, March 19 -- 2008 Maine Water Conference, 7:30am-4:00pm, Augusta Civic Center, Augusta, Maine. The Maine Water Conference was founded in 1994 by the Senator George J. Mitchell Center for Environmental and Watershed Research at the University of Maine as an annual forum for water resource professionals, researchers, consultants, citizens, students, regulators, and planners to exchange information and present new findings on water resource issues in Maine. For more information, visit www.umaine.edu/waterresearch/mwc/

Friday, March 21 and Saturday, March 22 -- F.W. Horch's first annual Spring Green Sale. Here's your chance to buy green and save some green! Save on all close-outs and overstock items, and get a sneak peek at the new products we'll be bringing in for the spring and summer. 56 Maine Street, Brunswick. 729-4050.

Saturday, March 22 -- Bicycle Film and Auction Fundraiser, 11am - 1pm, Eveningstar Cinema. To raise funds for the upcoming Brunswick Bike Fair, the Brunswick Sustainability Group is screening the film Return of the Scorcher and holding a silent auction. This half-hour documentary looks at bike culture and bike lifestyles around the world, with beautiful and inspiring scenes of bike use filmed in China, The Netherlands, Denmark, and the U.S. After the film screening, we will be auctioning entertainment items, including movie tickets from the Eveningstar Cinema, sustainable living goods from FW Horch, landscaping design services, gift certificates from area restaurants, and more!

Monday, March 24 -- Monthly Brunswick Sustainability Group meeting. 7-8:30 pm in the Morrell meeting room at Curtis Library in Brunswick.

Monday, March 25 -- Cool Cities: Film and Discussion Series, part 1: 'Toast' (on oil dependance) and 'The True Cost of Food' (on sustainable agriculture). 7-8:30pm Topsham Public Library. The Sierra Club and Maine Partners for Cool Communities, Topsham Conservation Commission, Topsham’s Future and the Topsham Public Library will sponsor this series designed to provoke discussion about grass roots efforts to protect the environment. Contact Helen Tomer at the Topsham Public Library at 725-1727 FMI.

Wednesday, March 26 -- Vanessa Levesque, the Natural Resources Planner for the Town of Brunswick, is looking for 30 volunteers to help with a mapping survey of vernal pools in the Brunswick area this spring. The data will be key in planning -- both to help plan development that is near these features and to help target conservation efforts to high priority areas. There will be a two hour training session for volunteers on Wed. March 26th in the early evening (most likely starting at 6pm), food provided. If you're interested, please email Vanessa at vlevesque@brunswickme.org.

Thursday, April 3 -- The Governor's Energy Efficiency Summit: Revitalizing Maine's Business and Energy Climate, in the Augusta Civic Center, Augusta. For more information, visit www.maine.gov/governor/baldacci/policy/EnergySummit.html

Saturday, April 5 -- 'Eat Locally, Act Globally', a talk by Wendy Holm, from 10:30-12pm at the Curtis Memorial Library. Holm is an agronomist from British Columbia and leads trips to Cuba to bring together farmers and chefs to learn from each other about sustainable agriculture. See www.brunswicktrinidad.org or email tlphillips@suscom-maine.net FMI.

Saturday April 26 -- Brunswick Bike Fair, 11 am - 2 pm, Downtown Mall. The Brunswick Sustainability Group invites you to take part in a Bike Fair in Brunswick. The goals of the Bike Fair are to encourage attendees to view bicycling as a viable means of transportation in and around our community, to motivate people to get on their bikes, and to celebrate current bikers. Our hope is that the fair, through gear and safety demonstrations, group rides, and information by a number of organizations, will motivate people to view and ride bicycles as more than just a form of exercise but as an effective and efficient form of transportation. BSG Bike Events Contact: Maggie Soulman, ecosquirrel@hotmail.com, 617.512-0437.

Spring Green Sale

Don't miss our Spring Green Sale--our only sale of the year!

Save 10% - 50% on seasonal and clearance items
Friday, March 21 9:30 - 7 pm
Saturday, March 22 9:30 - 6 pm

Books 10% - 50% savings
50 watt solar kit ~~$580~~ $290
AustinAir air purifier floor model ~~$445~~ $222.50
American Pride paint 50% savings
DC lighting and equipment 50% savings
Holiday LED lighting 25% savings
Earthworm Castings 10% savings
Ice melt 10% savings
Draft stoppers 25% savings
Camping water filters 25% savings
Pest control 25% savings
Rechargeable batter chargers 25% savings
Natural wood finishes 10% - 50% savings
Selected spring cleaning supplies 10% savings
Clearance items 50%+ savings

... and lots more!

Save money and help us make room for all the great new products we're finding!

New Products: JoraComposters, Push Lawn Mowers, & more!

We are continuing to bring in new products, with our focus now on spring. Yes, it's really coming! Here are the new products you can find now on our web site:

JoraComposters
We finally have an answer for those of you who want to compost outdoors all winter long here in Maine! The JK 125 Insulated Composter (and its larger sibling, the JK 270) were designed in Sweden to enable composting all year long, even in the winter of a cold climate. It has two separate compartments for composting. While one is fully composting, you fill the second compartment. By the time you've filled the second compartment ,the first will be ready to empty and add to your garden or green space. Because of the insulation and high heat achieved during decomposition, meat and fish can also be successfully composted in the JoraComposter.
Sunlawn Push Reel Mower
Mow your lawn quietly, without any gasoline, and give yourself some exercise as well. The Sunlawn LMM-40 Push Reel Mower is one of Sunlawn's lightest, quietest and easiest to maneuver mowers. A perfect way to sustainably care for your lawn.
Neuton Battery-Powered Lawn Mower
If you have a small lawn, why hassle with a gas mower? Enjoy a whole new experience with the battery-powered Neuton Mower. No hard pull-starts, no gas or oil, and no fumes or loud noise.

Earthworm Castings - Sustainable Living Tip for March 2008

Earthworm castings are a gentle, slow-release, natural fertilizer that works especially well for seedlings. Mix 1 part castings to 3 parts potting soil to start seeds, or line the bottom and sides of seed furrows with 1"-2" of castings to give your little plants a healthy head start.

More to know about Earthworm Castings

Unlike synthetic fertilizers, which require the unsustainable consumption of petroleum for their production, worm castings rely on worms and soil micro-organisms, resources that are plentiful and renewable.
You can make your own worm castings from kitchen scraps. In a few months, worms in a bin can turn twenty parts kitchen scraps into 1 part castings.
Worms eat about half their weight a day; the more worms you have, the more waste they can consume.
The best type of worms to use for indoor worms bins are red wigglers (Eisenia foetida).
In warmer weather, you can grow worms outside. They will multiply happily between 60 and 85 degrees, but most will not survive at temperatures below 40 degrees.
If you need worm castings sooner than you can make them, you can purchase them. A little goes a long way!
"Finished" worm castings that are ready for use as fertilizer have a pleasant, earthy smell.
For a highly effective liquid fertilizer, soak 1 part worm castings in 3 parts water for 24 hours. Stir well, then use to water fruiting, flowering, or difficult-to-access potted plants.
Unlike synthetic fertilizers, worm castings do not lead to run-off pollution because the nitrogen in them is mostly water insoluble.
In our store in Brunswick we sell worm castings, breeder packs of red wigglers, worm bins, and books about how to raise your own worms.

Interested in starting a worm bin to make your own worm castings? Worms Eat My Garbage is an essential resource.

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Local Environmental Scene -- What's Happening

MaineEnvironmentalNews has launched a great new environmental news site for Maine. Check it out www.MaineEnviroNews.com

Monday, March 3 -- The Brunswick Town Council may consider taking action on its Cool Community Pledge to reduce global warming emissions. If you feel that Brunswick should develop a plan to reduce its carbon footprint, contact your Councilor or come to Monday's council meeting to express your opinion. Public support is critical to convince our Town's elected officials and professional staff to take meaningful action!

Tuesday, March 4 -- Environmental Health Lobby Day at the statehouse in Augusta, hosted by The Alliance for a Clean and Healthy Maine. For more information, visit www.cleanandhealthyme.org

Saturday, March 15 -- Spring Growth 2008, 9am to 4:30pm at MOFGA’s Common Ground Education Center, Unity, Maine. A full day focusing on energy, agriculture and climate, featuring what to expect for Maine’s climate in the future and breakout sessions on energy efficiency and renewables. Keynote Speaker: Tim LaSalle, Director, Rodale Institute. For more information, visit www.MOFGA.org

Wednesday, March 26 -- Vanessa Levesque, the Natural Resources Planner for the Town of Brunswick, is looking for 30 volunteers to help with a mapping survey of vernal pools in the Brunswick area this spring. The data will be key in planning – both to help plan development that is near these features and to help target conservation efforts to high priority areas. There will be a two hour training session for volunteers on Wed. March 26th in the early evening (most likely starting at 6pm), food provided. If you’re interested, please email Vanessa at vlevesque@brunswickme.org.

New Products: BioBricks, NatureMills, and more!

It's not easy being green when you run a retail store. We are constantly evaluating product ideas. It's a time-intensive process to do the research to find products that really are practical and really do help save the planet. But we've been hard at work tackling our backlog of hundreds of product ideas and customer requests from our first year of operations.

We now have more than a dozen new products on our web site, including:

BioBricks
Heat your home with clean and efficient compressed sawdust bricks. (Limit 4 per customer due to limited supply.)
Night Logs
Keep your wood stove going all night with a compressed sawdust log--more than twice the density and half the moisture content of cord wood. (Limit 2 per customer due to limited supply.)
Power Logs
Enjoy a clean-burning, environmentally-friendly fire in your fireplace, without the hassles of cord wood. (Limit 3 per customer due to limited supply.)
The Happy Farmer Bokashi Ktichen Composter
Anaerobically "compost" meat scraps indoors without odors.
NatureMill Plus Indoor / Outdoor Composter
Plug in this electric composter to compost up to 120 pounds of food waste per month (including meat scraps) quickly and efficiently all year round, indoors or out.
NatureMill Pet Friendly Composter
Placed on a deck or back porch, this electric composter can handle up to 120 pounds of food and pet waste per month.
NatureMill Pro Indoor/Outdoor Composter
Choose a heavy-duty electric composter with stainless steel components for continuous duty in a large family or small cafe. (AVAILABLE IN MARCH)
Doggie Dooley Pet Waste Composter
When warmer weather arrives, plan to install one of these in-ground composting systems to safely and conveniently eliminate pet waste.

News from ReVision Energy

Jen Hatch of the newly-named ReVision Energy writes,

In like a Lion
March is nearly here, and spring is almost amongst us. I happen to love the winter but I can image that many are looking forward to transition from this particularly snowy season.

The snow has not slowed us down this winter; in fact I think people's increased concern for alternative solutions to their rising energy bills has given rise to the awareness of solar. We have been fortunate to work with many homeowners to reduce their energy bills by supplementing that source with solar energy.

As summer is not too far off the horizon we continue to stress the benefits of solar energy. If you are a homeowner who is burning oil or gas during the months between May to October, where there is little to no call for heat, you may be interested to know that a solar hot water system will turn that furnace off, and keep it off, unless of course there is a particularly high demand for hot water, or if there is an extended period of time without sun. Think about how much oil or gas you use during those months, and you can think of that as a start to your savings.

Did you know that if you are a commercial business the state will pay for 35% of your solar hot water system, capped at $10,500? We recently held a seminar geared for restaurant businesses, as we feel that restaurants, with their continuous and extensive usage of hot water, are excellent candidates for a solar energy system. Any business that wishes to find out how a solar application can benefit them should contact our office. The state rebate is incredibly favorable at this time for commercial systems.

Not only is there a state incentive, there is also an incentive on the federal level, 30% uncapped of the remaining cost of the system. With these rebates the payback is hard to beat.

ReVision Energy recently worked with WPXT-TV and Efficiency Maine as part of the 'Green Team' that helped to give the Wright family in Falmouth a home efficiency makeover. Jed Wright was selected out of 100 nominees for the first ever green make over show provided by WPXT-TV. ReVision Energy provided the labor and materials for the solar hot water installation. You can view an article that ran in the Press Herald at the link provided below:

Going Green In More Ways Than One

And last, but certainly not least, we are pleased to tell you that we have finished the Yarmouth High School solar photovoltaic installation. This summer students from the Yarmouth High school worked on writing a grant provided by the public utilities commission for a demonstrative solar electric system to be installed on the roof of their school. The proposal not only included panels for the roof but also a data monitoring system that will track what the panels are doing and will be able to be read and utilized in the classroom.

The students demonstrated that a solar electric system benefits not only the school but the community as a whole. They were awarded the grant money last fall and were recognized by the governor for their ambition and hard work. The forecaster has been keeping tabs on this project, this is their most recent story highlighting the installation.

Sun shines on Yarmouth High solar project

As always, please call our office to find out how a solar application may benefit you, 221-6342.

Be well,
Jen

Community Supported Agriculture

The families in the Brunswick community who rely on Crystal Spring Farm for their CSA shares will need to find another source of local food this year. To help people connect with other local farmers, we have published a directory of CSA Farms in the Brunswick area. In March we will be creating a local environmental information bulletin board in our store, which will feature CSA information.

Super-Efficient Home Talk

"Design and Build Your Own Super-Efficient Home", Mar 13
Join us at the store on Thursday, March 13th, at 7:00 pm for our next Sustainable Living Talk, "Design and Build Your Own Super-Efficient Home."

We are delighted to have Al Heath back to talk on the topic of super-efficient building. He writes,

"I was a carpenter, designer, and contractor for 12 years before changing careers in 1990. Four years ago when I wanted to build my family a new and much more energy efficient house, I found that not only was it prohibitively expensive, but most of the builders I spoke with didn't really know what "super-insulated, passive solar" meant. I decided to re-educate myself to the new reality and techniques of energy efficiency and build it myself.

My wife and I researched, designed, and built 80% of our new home while sub-contracting the rest. We now easily heat our beautiful 2,000 square foot home on one cord of wood, 75 gallons of kerosene, and all the free/clean sunshine we can get. I have recently installed a solar hot water system that provides a majority of our domestic hot water needs and next, we hope to increase the size of this system for space heating and further reduce our use of firewood and oil.

It is challenging, interesting, and important work but you don't have to be a rocket scientist! I will share everything time allows, including a list of helpful sources and contractors."

Free refreshments and informational handouts will also be available.

Our Sustainable Living Talks are on the second Thursday of each month at 7:00 pm at 56 Maine Street in Brunswick. Space is limited, so we encourage you to call the store at 729-4050 to reserve a seat.

Vampire Loads - Sustainable Living Tip for February 2008

According to Efficiency Maine, 75% of electricity used for home electronics is consumed while the products are turned off. You can use a Kill-a-Watt meter to test which appliances are "vampires"--sucking electricity all night long. Stop them by unplugging them or putting them on a power strip with a switch.

More to know about Vampire Loads

Electricity in Maine costs about 15.5 cents per kilowatt hour, well above the national average. Leaving a desktop computer in "idle" mode (monitor and hard drive powered down) for a year costs about $183 here in Maine.
Any device that requires resetting after a blackout is a vampire. Some microwave ovens, for example, draw electricity to maintain clock settings. Try wearing a watch to keep time, then put your microwave oven on a switch outlet so you can turn it off. Ignore the blink when you turn it back on; you can cook with it just fine. The flashing time will remind you to turn it off when you're done. ("It's not a problem, it's a feature!")
Always unplug cell phone chargers and other transformers from the wall. Any "wall wart" that gets warm to the touch is wasting energy! Don't just disconnect your cell phone or laptop from the charger. Remember to unplug the charger from the wall.
Consider replacing old-fashioned incandescent night lights with the new Light Emitting Capacitor (LEC) technology. These blue-green nightlights are cool to the touch, consuming only 0.03 watts (that's three one hundreths of a watt). LECs are 8 times more efficient than LEDs and 200 times more efficient than incandescent night lights, saving you about $9.50 per year.
The best tool to use to measure vampire loads is a Kill-A-Watt meter. Plug this electricity monitor into the wall, then plug your appliance into it. An LCD screen shows you exactly how much electricity the vampire is using.
Keep in mind that simply turning lights and appliances off can often be a more effective conservation approach than buying the most efficient product and leaving it on all the time. For example, a 100 watt incandescent light bulb on a motion sensor that comes on only when someone comes to your porch will use just 0.1 KWh per day, whereas a 25 watt CFL left on all night will consume 0.25 KWh per day. You'd save 0.15 KWh per day ($8.48 per year) with the incandescent bulb that's on only when needed.
Consider putting in a timer switch or a motion switch for bathrooms and other rooms where lights can be left on accidentally. A bathroom vanity with three 75 watt light bulbs left on while your family is away for a week's vacation will consume 37.8 KWh, costing you $5.86.
The average household in Maine uses 500 KWh per month, or about 16 KWh per day. Take a look at your power bill. If you consume more than average, chances are that you have some vampire loads. Make some changes, then see if you notice a change on your power bill -- and in your bank account!

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Promoting Renewable Energy in Maine

Here's an editorial piece I wrote about how we can promote renewable energy in Maine:

As energy prices increase, many people in Maine are unable to pay their fuel and electricity bills. The long-term solution to this crisis is to heat and power our homes and businesses with the free energy from the sun that is already being delivered every day to every part of our state.

I believe we Mainers should begin weaning ourselves from an unhealthy addiction to foreign oil. We should let the market determine the price of gasoline and fuel oil. Artificially subsidizing the costs of burning fossil fuels through government programs simply makes the problem worse by retarding the necessary investment in sustainable local energy solutions. The rising price of fossil fuel levels the playing field for solar, geothermal and tidal energy.

Although market forces are probably the most efficient way to allocate resources toward viable energy solutions, it is unrealistic to expect politicians to restrain themselves from trying to use governmental power to help people struggling with the unprecedented fossil fuel crisis. Several proposals are circulating now about how to reduce the price of fossil fuels (dragging us further into a hopeless situation) or to reduce the price of renewable energy (arguably moving us closer to a sustainable energy future). All of these proposals suffer from the same problem: lack of government funding to sustain the subsidies in the face of increases in the real costs of fuel.

In particular, I think efforts to re-regulate our electricity market through feed-in tariffs are particularly misguided. Experience with regulated energy markets worldwide shows that central planners are unable to predict real costs and technological advances. As a result, tariff pricing leads to massive inefficiencies, higher prices and poor public infrastructure investments.

A better approach, in my mind, is to pursue our current policy of renewable portfolio standards. Rather than dictating a particular price as in a tariff scheme, regulators dictate acceptable standards for how energy is to be generated. For example, regulators may require energy providers not to pollute, or to use only renewable fuels. The market is then free to set efficient prices and make investments in technologies that meet the production standards set by regulators. Regulators enforce the rules by fining or imprisoning violators.

The major risk to both a tariff scheme and a renewable portfolio standard is that the regulators may set an unrealistic target that simply cannot be met by the market in a cost-effective manner. A renewable portfolio standard, however, is better able to allow prices to increase to attract the necessary additional capital to make the required investments. In the end, regulators will have to confront the reality that they can control price or they can control quality, but they can't control both. At this stage in our energy crisis, I believe we must focus the efforts of our regulators on improving the quality of our energy supply and allow prices to rise to reflect the true costs of our energy systems.

There are several ways to capture and use solar energy:
wood, potatoes, straw, ethanol, biodiesel and other "biofuel"
passive solar design
active solar heating
active solar power
wind power
Forcing a tariff rate on the various options is likely to be extremely difficult. However, there are clear standards that could be established and enforced by state regulators under a renewable portfolio standard. For example, emissions can be measured and standards adopted that would eliminate coal and wood-fired power plants, shifting investment toward cleaner sources by simply fining or imprisoning producers that exceed pollution standards. We could nudge along the adoption of clean energy systems by expanding our current "net-zero" policy for home-owner clean energy systems to be a "net-positive" policy. Home owners who have installed solar panels on their grid-connected properties should be paid for all of the net power they feed back to the grid, not just a portion of it as is currently the law.

Whatever policy the state adopts, it must take steps to provide long-term predictability to the market. Since we have recently adopted electricity price competition with renewable portfolio standards, I think it would send the wrong signal to go back to a regulated tariff scheme. My message to regulators is this: "Set high standards, enforce them strictly, and give private investors the confidence that the rules of the game aren't in flux."

In the end, our state and we residents must confront the basic fact that fossil fuel prices are out of our control. Sooner or later we should switch to local, clean sources of energy: solar, geothermal and tidal. These are the only energy sources that can sustain our future economic prosperity.

Thursday, February 14, 2008

Biodiesel Is Not Corn Ethanol

I burn biodiesel (B20) instead of #2 heating oil in my home boiler. Recently several friends and acquaintances have questioned whether this isn't actually worse for the environment.

It's not.

We had an interesting talk here at the store this summer about this very issue.

Pretty much every study done to date has shown that corn ethanol is a bad idea. Biodiesel, on the other hand, looks much more promising. For several years people in Maine have been studying how to produce biodiesel from wood and potatoes. Recent laboratory studies have been done on producing biodiesel from algae, which could be grown in shallow pools on land which is currently not suitable for conventional agriculture (on the roof of Hannafords supermarket, for example). This would avoid all of the impacts studied in the Science article.

The basic difference between ethanol and biodiesel is that ethanol processes convert sugar to alcohol, whereas biodiesel processes convert oils to biodiesel. Corn is used as a feedstock for ethanol because corn has a high sugar content. Other feedstocks with higher oil content (soybeans, for example) are used for biodiesel.

It's important not to throw out the baby with the bathwater in the biofuel discussion. It's easy to demonstrate that subsidizing ethanol from corn the way it is currently grown is not going to solve our energy or environmental challenges. However, there do appear to be solutions available if we diversify our energy crops and begin to replace petroleum with biodiesel for space heating and other situations where liquid fuels are essential.

Many writers in the popular press don't appreciate the difference between ethanol and biodiesel and inaccurately generalize the findings about corn ethanol to all biofuels. The important thing to remember is that the biofuel that you can buy to replace #2 heating oil is not ethanol and is not made from corn.

So, why is B20 better for the environment than 100% petroleum #2 heating oil?

Three reasons:

B20 burns cleaner. More of the fuel is burned, leading to fewer particulate emissions.
B20 can be produced locally, so less energy and infrastructure is required to transport it.
B20 is renewable. That means we can leave the carbon that is safely sequestered in petroleum in place, and instead pull carbon from the atmosphere to grow more biodiesel. Of course, the devil is in the details with exactly how we grow the biodiesel feedstocks, but we have a lot of options--and no doubt we'll soon have more if the market for B20 continues to expand.

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Flashlights and Radios

It's safer and more sustainable to rely on battery-free flashlights and hand-crank radios for emergencies. Not only will you save money without disposable batteries, but you'll be able to count on having light and a link to the outside world when you need it most.

More to know about flashlights and radios

Look for LED flashlights. Long-lasting LED bulbs are far more durable and efficient than old-fashioned incandescent bulbs.
Choose capacitors instead of batteries where possible. High-quality "shake" flashlights have no batteries. Instead, they have magnets to generate electricity and capacitors to store it. Beware of cheap knock-offs that have button batteries and toy magnets. We tested a batch of these, only to discover that when the battery lost charge the flashlights stopped working!
Recharge your batteries. Some products require batteries, which can store more energy than capacitors. Be prepared to check and recharge batteries on a regular basis. The most common type of rechargeable battery--nickel metal hydride (NiMH)--loses charge faster than disposable alkaline batteries.
Recharge in the sun. If your flashlight or radio has a solar panel, you can leave it in the sun to ensure that it is fully charged whenever you need it.

Monday, February 11, 2008

February 2008 Happenings

Wednesday, February 13 -- Friends of Merrymeeting Bay will present speaker Jamie Silvestri, Program Director, The ArtVan at Curtis Memorial Library in Brunswick at 7 pm on Wednesday, February 13, for "Environment; Advocacy Through the Arts", a fun hands-on session for all ages. For more information, visit www.FriendsofMerrymeetingBay.org

Tuesday, February 19 -- Frontier Cafe in Brunswick will show a special screening of Kilowatt Ours, a film about energy conservation and alternative energy. For more information about the film, visit http://www.kilowattours.org/

Monday, February 25 -- Join the Brunswick Sustainability Group for its next monthly meeting on Monday, February 25, at 7 pm at Frontier Cafe. Our group is planning a Brunswick Bike Fair for Saturday, April 26, and a film screening of "Return of the Scorcher" on Saturday, March 22. If you want to see more people in the Brunswick region embrace bicycling as a clean, safe and enjoyable form of transportation, please come and get involved! Everyone is welcome. For more information, visit www.BrunswickSustainability.org

Thursday, January 31, 2008

Environmental Happenings

Sunday, February 10 -- Learn about community supported agriculture at a CSA Fair near you. Connect with good, clean and fair food. Buy a share in a local farm's harvest. Grow a relationship with a Maine farm. Purchase farm products and food. Enjoy refreshments and snacks. Free fairs will be held from 1 - 4 pm in four locations:

Auburn - St. Michael's Episcopal Parish, 78 Pleasant St
Bangor - Redeemer Lutheran Church, 540 Essex St
Hallowell - St. Matthew's Episcopal Church, 18 Union St
Portland - First Parish Church of Portland, 425 Congress St

Thursday, January 31 -- USM joins over a thousand schools across the nation in hosting a day long "Focus the Nation" conference addressing issues surrounding sustainability and the environment. For details, visit http://www.usm.maine.edu/reslife/SLC/

The New York Times reports on January 29 that conservation scientists are grappling with the implications of globale climate change. "We have over a 100-year investment nationally in a large suite of protected areas that may no longer protect the target ecosystems for which they were formed," said Healy Hamilton, director of the California Academy of Sciences. Areas that are now forests may become deserts, islands may disappear as sea levels rise, and rivers may become too warm to support many species of fish.

Maine Street Station Project in Brunswick is underway. The last in-fill location in downtown, the site is being redeveloped in anticipation of the return of passenger rail service to Brunswick. Concrete and soil contaminated with coal ash are being removed, with plans for the material to be mixed into asphalt to be used on site. For the latest developments, visit http://www.brunswickme.org/ecdev/mssic/latest-happenings.htm

On January 13, the Land Use Regulation Commission (LURC) approved TransCanada's 44-turbine wind-power project near the Canadian border in Franklin County, but rejected Maine Mountain Power's 18-turbine project on Black Nubble Mountain in Redington and Wyman townships. Last year LURC also rejected a larger 30-turbine proposal on Redington Mountain which would have been visible from the Appalachian Trail.

News from Energyworks -- now ReVision Energy

Jen Hatch of the newly-named ReVision Energy writes,

What’s in a Name?
To our friends who have known us as Energyworks, we have chosen a new company name due to pressures by another energy company with the same name who has requested the exclusive rights to it. We’ve chosen to change our name to ReVision Energy.

There is double meaning behind ReVision Energy, it is a Renewable Energy Vision, and also an idea that it is time to revision energy. Energy is within us, amongst us, it fuels us. Where does that energy come from, where does it go when it’s used up?

As a society, we realize our relationship with energy is increasingly intimate; we realize how we use energy today will affect the sustainability of not only today but generations to come. To re-envision energy is to look at ourselves as apart of a whole equation, our causes have an effect and our next move must be a conscious one. At Energyworks, I mean, ReVision Energy, we are always happy to share information on how homeowners can integrate solar applications into their home design.

Not only is solar beneficial to the environment, but also to your wallet, ensuring savings by decreasing your consumption of the increasing costs of oil, gas, and electricity. There are tax credits and state rebates that help pay for the cost of installation, call our office to find out more – 221-6342.

February Home Show
ReVision Energy will be exhibiting at the Maine Home, Remodeling & Garden Show Saturday February 16^th and Sunday February 17^th. The show is going to be held at the Cumberland County Civic Center, in Portland. It will run from 10-7pm on Saturday and 10-5pm on Sunday. Cost for admission is $7 for adults, $5 for seniors, and children under 10 is free.

We will be giving a presentation on solar hot water and solar electric systems and how they can benefit you as a homeowner on Sunday from 11-12pm. We will have a booth set up all day, both days, so please come by to check us out.

Be Well,
Jen

Products News and Tips for January 2008

January's talk on worm composting was filled to capacity. More than two dozen people came down to the store to learn about the hands-down best way to deal with kitchen scraps in the winter.

Are you ready to try "vermiculture"? Come on in to check out the Can-O-Worms or our own design, the Wiggle Room worm bin. You can also pick up packages of red wiggler worms.

When you visit, be sure to take a copy of our FREE vermiculture handout and check out our selection of worm composting books. We sell the classic Worms Eat My Garbage among others.

Spring will be here before you know it! Worm castings give seedlings a great head start. If you aren't raising your own worms, be sure to buy worm castings from us. Not only do they provide a boost to young plants, but they can rejuvenate aging house plants when added as a top dressing to the soil. Much better than synthetic chemical fertilizers.

In the meantime, this year we have a real Maine winter to survive. Keep out the cold air and keep yourself comfortable with fragrant Maine Balsam draft stoppers at the ready. What old home in Maine doesn't have a draft below at least one window or door?

You may be struggling to understand where the money's going when you pay your heating bills. If so, I highly recommend that you read The Home Energy Diet. Its subtitle says it all: How to Save Money by Making Your House Energy Smart.

In our household we discovered that our clothes dryer was a major component of our electric bill. So we switched to air-drying our clothes indoors with folding wooden drying racks.

Along with the best drying racks made in Maine, Dave Holmes of Pittsfield is now also supplying our store with the best wooden laundry hamper made in Maine. Drop by the store to take a look at the clever double hamper he has designed for us. Beautiful, functional, durable and sustainable!

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Efficient Lighting - Sustainable Living Tip for January 2008

When upgrading a friend's house or your own to energy-efficient compact fluorescent lighting (CFLs), put all of the old-fashioned energy-wasting incandescent bulbs in a box, label it, and store it in the basement, attic, or garage. It's better to replace as many bulbs as possible to start saving money (and the planet) as soon as you can. But don't throw away your old bulbs! Keep a stash of spare bulbs to use in a pinch.

More to know about CFLs

Electricity in Maine costs about 15.5 cents per kilowatt hour, well above the national average. To operate a 100 watt incandescent bulb for 10,000 hours costs about $155. To operate the equivalent CFL costs $38.75. The purchase price of a light bulb is a small fraction of the operating cost.
To help offset the cost of buying new CFLs, the state of Maine--through select retailers like F.W. Horch--offers a $1.00 per bulb instant rebate to Maine residents.
CFLs are about four times more efficient than incandescents. So you can replace a 60 watt incandescent with a 15 watt CFL.
All CFLs contain a tiny bit of mercury vapor inside a glass tube. You should NEVER throw away a CFL in your regular trash. Instead, bring them back to F.W. Horch for proper recycling at the end of their useful lives.
If you break a CFL, sweep up the bits with two pieces of paper to avoid touching the broken glass. Put everything in a glass jar and seal it. Then dispose of it during one of your town's household hazardous waste disposal days.
CFLs can work with dimming and three-way switches, but only if their ballast is rated for those applications. Make sure to ask for dimmable or three-way CFLs if you need them. They are more expensive than CFLs that can't handle being dimmed.
The light quality of CFLs varies widely. Shop for CFLs in a store that offers a light bank so you can see the difference before you buy. All CFLs generate ultraviolet (UV) light inside a glass tube. The UV light is absorbed by a phosphor coating and re-emitted as visible light. Different mixes of phosphors produce different kinds of light.
Modern CFLs do not hum or flicker. Decades ago, fluorescent lamps used magnetic ballasts to pulse electricity through the mercury vapor inside the glass tube. This resulted in humming and flickering. Modern CFLs use electronic ballasts, which send electricity through the mercury vapor in a way that allows the phosphors to emit a quiet, steady glow.
Some CFLs rated "instant on" are better than others. F.W. Horch sells CFLs that really do light up when you flip the switch, without an annoying delay. It's best to shop at a store that lets you test the bulbs before you buy them.
CFLs are rated by their start temperature. If the temperature is below their rating, they may fail to light. If you are planning to use CFLs outside during the winter in Maine, make sure they have a low start temperature rating. F.W. Horch sells bulbs that are rated to start at 20 degrees below zero Fahrenheit.
CFLs should last several years. Most are rated to provide 10,000 hours of light on average. Write the date of installation on the base with a marker so you can track how long yours are lasting. If you notice that CFLs are failing in certain locations, it is a good idea to have an electrician check the circuit. You may find a problem with your house electrical wiring that could be dangerous. If you know which circuit is which, you can also check the voltage and herz rate with a Kill-A-Watt meter, available at F.W. Horch.

"Sustainabilty at Bowdoin College" talk on Thursday, Feb. 14

Keisha Payson, Bowdoin College's Sustainability Coordinator, will give a talk titled "Sustainability at Bowdoin College," on Thursday, Feb. 14th, from 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm at the F.W. Horch store, 56 Maine Street, in downtown Brunswick. The talk is free and open to the public.

"As a four year institution, each year there is a new audience to engage," says Payson. "And there are new technologies continually emerging that we can explore as means of reducing our environmental impact. I've been in my position six years and it's never boring."

Payson will talk about commitments that Bowdoin College has made to lower greenhouse gas emissions and the strategies the College has undertaken to begin that process. Topics will include everything from renovating older buildings on campus to improve energy efficiency and incorporate renewable energy sources, to how the College engages with students to take an active role in helping to conserve energy, reduce waste and support local agriculture.

Seating is limited, so those interested in attending are encouraged to call the store at 729-4050 to reserve a seat.

The talk is part of the F.W. Horch series on sustainable living. Each monthly talk is held at the F.W. Horch Sustainable Goods & Supplies store, 56 Maine Street, Brunswick at 7:00 pm on the second Thursday of the month. March's talk will be on the topic of designing and building your own super efficient home.

Saturday, December 22, 2007

December 2007 Green Tidings

Season's Greetings from Brunswick, Maine!

From all of us here at F.W. Horch and at Energyworks, our renewable energy partner, thank you for another great year working together, practically saving the planet. Take heart in the knowledge that small actions lead to big changes. This is the darkest time of year, but we've turned the corner: from now on just a few more minutes of sunlight each day will change our winter wonderland to a midsummer dream.

May you find time to bring more sunshine into your life and the lives of those around you.

Best wishes for a healthy and happy 2008,
Fred Horch, Founder

Sustainable Living Talk, Jan 10
Join us for our next Sustainable Living Talk from 7:00 to 8:30 pm on Thursday, January 10th. Our own Brett Thompson will show you how to compost with worms all winter long. Worm composting is the easiest, quickest, and most effective way to turn kitchen scraps into nutritious plant food. More landscape, less landfill!

Free informational handouts will be provided. Seating is limited, so if you are interested in attending we encourage you to call the store at 729-4050 to reserve a seat.

If you'd like a short preview of worms at work, take a peek at this feature story from New England Cable News. For a segment of the "Start Small, Save Big" series, Amy Sinclair visited our home, where we keep several worm bins. (Two minute video segment should start after a short commercial.) Visit http://preview.tinyurl.com/yv7hu7

News from Energyworks
Jen Hatch of Energyworks South writes,

Happy New Year’s to Everyone from Energyworks LLC!
If you are in the restaurant business, please join us on January 29^th ~ 11 am ~ Vignola Restaurant, 10 Dana Street Portland, Maine.

We will be presenting a seminar entitled:

The Environmental and Economic Value of Solar Hot Water for the Restaurant Business.

Points of Interest Being Presented:

How does a Solar Hot Water System work?

How will it benefit you as the restaurant owner?

What rebates and tax incentives are available for those installing a solar hot water system?

What is the overall process of the installation?

For more information please contact Jen via email at: jen@energyworksllc.com, or call 221-6342.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Other news from Energyworks:

Are you interested in wood boilers? Our Liberty office does installations of clean burning, high efficiency wood boilers. Please contact Pat or Lee at 589-4171 for more information.

Please contact us regarding the new rebates for the 2008 year. Although it has not yet been confirmed from the PUC we suspect the solar hot water rebates will prove to be even more favorable for home owners and commercial businesses for this upcoming New Year. We would love to talk to you about how a system could start working for you, to start saving you money.

As always, please call us with any comments/questions. 221-6342.

Be Well, Jen

Product News and Sustainable Living Tips
Next month's talk is on worm composting, which is hands down the best way to deal with kitchen scraps in the winter. One or two worm bins can transform your peels, cores, paper, and yucky leftovers into beautiful fertilizer. Each bin handles about three pounds of food waste per week.

Of all the systems we've tried, the Can-O-Worms is the best. It keeps the worms moist but not too wet, allows you to drain off worm tea (a wonderful liquid fertilizer), and makes it easy to harvest the finished worm castings without harming your worm colony.

For those on a tighter budget, we've also designed our own Wiggle Room worm bin. A raised platform inside a plastic tub with a bottom cork for draining out worm tea, it provides a great home for your worms, with just a little more work involved when it comes time to harvest the castings. We also sell packages of red wiggler worms in case you already have a worm bin or want to make your own.

Come in the store to pick up our free "vermiculture" handout and check out our selection of worm composting books. We sell the classic Worms Eat My Garbage among others.

On another topic, energy saving, we have two great made-in-Maine product lines that should be in every home. The first are fragrant Maine Balsam draft stoppers. What old home in Maine doesn't have a draft below at least one window or door? Keep out the cold air and keep yourself comfortable with these at the ready.

The second are folding wooden drying racks made by Dave Holmes. Try hanging your laundry instead of using your dryer and take a note of your electric bill! (If you can't kick the electric clothes drying habit, at least toss in a couple dryerballs to reduce drying time.) In our household we discovered that our clothes dryer was a major component of our electric bill. Since switching to air drying, we've been able to keep our electricity consumption below 10 kilowatt hours a day.

Along with the best drying racks made in Maine, Dave Holmes is now also supplying us with the best wooden laundry hamper made in Maine. Drop by the store to take a look at the clever double hamper he has designed for us. Beautiful, functional, durable and sustainable, being made from wood and cotton.

What's Happening in the Local Environmental Scene
Wednesday, Dec 19 -- Amy Sinclair of New England Cable News visited my home for a segment of "Start Small, Save Big." I believe the feature has already aired on TV, but if you're interested, you can view it online here (a short commercial will play first): http://preview.tinyurl.com/yv7hu7

Another bit of old, but very encouraging news, is that Al Gore won this year's Nobel Peace Prize. His Nobel Lecture on December 10 included this memorable passage: "We, the human species, are confronting a planetary emergency – a threat to the survival of our civilization that is gathering ominous and destructive potential even as we gather here. But there is hopeful news as well: we have the ability to solve this crisis and avoid the worst – though not all – of its consequences, if we act boldly, decisively and quickly."

I do hope to get back to more news in next month's newsletter, but we are still hard at work on our new web site and trying to keep up with the holiday shopping rush! Send me your news and sustainable living tips and I'll include them in January's edition. Have a Happy New Year!

Friday, November 30, 2007

November Green Tidings

Greetings from Brunswick, Maine!

I hope you had a splendid Thanksgiving. Our store continues to grow, and for that we give thanks to you, our wonderful customers. Thank you for making a difference in our lives and the world.

During this busy holiday season, I hope you'll find time to share with loved ones--and also to swing by our store or web site! If you get stuck for gift ideas, everyone loves a gift certificate to F.W. Horch.

Best wishes to you and yours,
Fred Horch, Founder

Giving Green
From November 20 through December 22, every purchase you make at F.W. Horch will help save the planet and support our local Maine community. We're giving 10% of our gross profits to benefit these groups: Nov 20 - 24, Habitat for Humanity; Nov 27 - Dec 1, Coastal Humane Society; Dec 4 - 8, Natural Resources Council of Maine; Dec 11 - 15, Brunswick-Topsham Land Trust; Dec 18 - 22, Friends of Merrymeeting Bay.

Sustainable Living Talk, Dec 13
Join us for our next Sustainable Living Talk from 7:00 to 8:30 pm on Thursday, December 13th. Danuta Drozdowicz of Fore Solutions will discuss green resources for home building, focusing on the new LEED for Homes certification program.

Free informational handouts will be provided. Seating is limited, so if you are interested in attending we encourage you to call the store at 729-4050 to reserve a seat.

The talk is part of the F.W. Horch series on sustainable living. Each monthly talk is held at the F.W. Horch Sustainable Goods & Supplies store, 56 Maine Street, Brunswick at 7:00 pm on the second Thursday of the month. January's talk will be on the topic of worm composting.

News from Energyworks
Jen Hatch of Energyworks South writes,

We have been very busy lately installing solar hot water systems as people are more than eager to reduce their need of oil or natural gas as the temperatures are dropping and homeowners are getting ready for the winter's approach.
We are almost ready to install the photovoltaic panels onto Yarmouth High School. The school was presented their grant award from Governor Baldacci at a school assembly. Everyone was thrilled for the students to gain recognition on behalf of the work they did to write the grant that awarded them the money for the installation. We would love to hear from more schools that are interested in doing a solar installation. Although that particular source of money has been depleted, we hope to see new sources of funding become available that would allow for more of these projects to happen.

Our Energyworks North office recently did a solar hot water installation on Bay Area Fitness in Bethel. The commercial incentives for solar installations are attractive and make for a good payback. We would love to talk to you as a business owner to discuss how an installation would make good financial sense. You can view the article on Bay Area Fitness by going to the link below.

http://tinyurl.com/yuy7we

Restaurant Owners - Please Save the Date for January 29^th, 2008. Energyworks will be hosting a seminar on how a solar hot water application will benefit your business. Please contact Jen at our Portland office (221-6342) if you would like to receive an invitation.

When you are thinking about your New Year's resolutions, think about making a commitment to a reduction in your carbon emissions, and a reduction in the amount of money you spend on oil, gas, or electricity. Investing in renewable energy is an investment that gives back long term savings, and environmental sustainability. Please contact us at any time with questions you may have. You can view our website at www.energyworksllc.com and call us at 221-6342.

We hope you all have a wonderful holiday season!

What's Happening in the Local Environmental Scene
Saturday, Dec 1 -- The Brunswick Sustainability Group is showing the film Afluenza at 8 pm in the 11 Pleasant Street Arts Center in Brunswick. After the film, Dr. Jen Scanlon of Bowdoin College will lead a discussion of consumer culture. This is a FREE event and the public is welcome. For more information, visit www.BrunswickSustainability.org.

Sorry this month's news is rather skimpy -- we've been busy putting together our new web site and trying to keep up with the holiday shopping rush! We'll include more news and sustainable living tips in December's edition.

Wednesday, October 31, 2007

October Green Tidings

Happy Halloween! We hope you enjoy the holiday with your favorite little ghosts, goblins and ghouls.

But did you know that a pack of unwanted vampires might be inhabiting your house? According to the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory up to 10% of residential energy consumption is due to "vampire loads." Cell phone chargers, clocks on microwave ovens, instant-on TVs and other "wall wart" gadgets constantly suck power for no good reason.

This may not seem frightening until you consider how many coal and nuclear power plants operate day and night to satisfy our wall warts' demands. Now that's a scary thought. Read on for ways you can make these vampires vanish.

Spookily,
Fred Horch, Founder

Affordable Zero Energy Homes

Join us for "Affordable Zero Energy Homes: We Can Get There From Here", our next Sustainable Living Talk from 7:00 to 8:30 pm on Thursday, November 8th.

Mike White of Island Carpentry will give a talk titled "Affordable Zero Energy Homes: We Can Get There From Here," on Thursday, Nov. 8th, from 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm. The talk is free and open to the public.

"Household energy consumption is one of the major contributors to global warming. We need to change the way we build," says Mike, owner of Island Carpentry. "The technology to build energy efficient sustainable homes is available today."

Discussion topics will include methods of super insulating and air sealing, controlling air exchange, passive solar design, and the introduction of renewable energy systems. Attendees will be encouraged to share knowledge and experience.

Free informational handouts will be provided. Seating is limited, so if you are interested in attending we encourage you to call the store at 729-4050 to reserve a seat.

The talk is part of the F.W. Horch series on sustainable living. Each monthly talk is held at the F.W. Horch Sustainable Goods & Supplies store, 56 Maine Street, Brunswick at 7:00 pm on the second Thursday of the month. December's talk will feature Danuta Drozdowicz of Fore Solutions, speaking on the topic of LEED certification.

News from Energyworks

Jen Hatch of Energyworks South writes,

Thank you for all of those for participated in this year's Green Buildings Open House. We had 12 homes on our portion of the tour, and many of the homes were busy all day with folks inquiring about solar installations. The weather was beautiful and the tour a success. We hope to have an even bigger turnout for next year, the Green Buildings Open House falls annually on Columbus Day Weekend.

We recently did our first installation over state lines, in New Hampshire. Not only did we have the opportunity to do work in New Hampshire, we also made it into the homeowner’s blog! Check out the installation work we did at the Eiermann/Simone residents in North Conway, New Hampshire. You can view it online at http://www.daveeiermann.com.

Finally, Energyworks worked this summer with schools to apply for a renewable energy demonstrative grant, and we are proud to say that we will be installing photovoltaics systems onto three local schools, Lincoln Middle School in Portland, Yarmouth High School and Gray New Gloucester High School. As these are demonstrative projects, educational components will be incorporated into the system that will read the output of the PV panels, allowing the students and community to see how a renewable energy system works, and the benefits it adds to the environment. We will keep you posted as the projects unfold.

As always, you can contact us at www.energyworksllc.com, or 221-6342 to learn more about how a renewable energy system may integrate into your home design needs.

Product News

"Vampire loads" are electrical draws that occur when appliances are turned off but still plugged in. You can check to see whether and how much your appliances are using with a neat device called a Kill A Watt, available for rental or sale at our store. This is a fun gadget for anyone interested in saving energy. Once you know which devices are drawing energy even when "off", then you can put them on an outlet switch or remember to unplug them! Also, if you are debating whether to replace an old refrigerator or other large appliance, measuring its electricity consumption with a Kill A Watt can help you figure out how much energy you could save with a newer model.

LED holiday lights are on order and will be arriving next week. We will have both colored strands and warm white. If you've been put off by the bluish tint to other LED holiday lights on the market, please come by to compare ours! The nice warm white LEDs are hard to find--and we've got them coming. Compared to incandescent holiday lights, LEDs last 50 times as long (100,000 hours), use 90% less energy, don't create a fire hazard and are much more rugged. All in all, a great energy-saving product.

We have the best drying racks made in Maine. Ours are big, solid and easy to fold up. Unlike the cheap Chinese-made imports, these racks are made to last a lifetime and come with a quality guarantee.

Hardwood BioBricks are available now in our store for $10 a bag of twenty. These are compressed sawdust bricks (without any binders) that burn hotter, cleaner and longer than cordwood. Home delivery service by the pallet is also available. Customers who use BioBricks love the fact that they arrive clean and ready to burn. No more wondering whether your cordwood is delivered wet or full of bugs!

What's Happening in the Local Environmental Scene

Smart Energy Expo will be on Sunday, November 4, from noon until 5 pm at Marshwood High School, S. Berwick, Maine. This FREE event will feature workshops, films, and exhibits on renewable energy and related issues. For more information call Maine Partners for Cool Communities at 761-5616 or visit www.CoolMaine.org

The Southern Midcoast Maine Chamber’s Go Green Expo will be on Saturday, November 10, from 10 am until 4 pm at Mt. Ararat High School Gymnasium, Rt. #201, Topsham, Maine. This FREE event will feature workshops, test drives of electric hybrid cars, fun for the kids (including a worm composting demonstration by me in the morning), and give aways. For more information call the Southern Midcoast Maine Chamber at 725-8797 or visit www.midcoastmaine.com

ecomaine's Green Expo, "the layperson's expo for going green at home and business," will be on Thursday, November 15, from 11 am until 6 pm at Sullivan Gym, University of Southern Maine, Portland, Maine. This event will feature seminars (including one by me at 1:45 pm on "becoming a zero waste household") and more than 60 exhibitors. For more information call Green Tree Event Consultants at 781-2982 or visit www.MaineGreenExpo.com

Curtis Memorial Library in Brunswick is 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 until November 14. For more information call 725-5242.

Save the date of Friday, December 7 for the next Brunswick Sustainability Group film showing at 8 pm in the 11 Pleasant Street Arts Center in Brunswick. This is a FREE event and the public is welcome. For more information, visit www.BrunswickSustainability.org.

About this Newsletter
This newsletter is free.

Archives are available online at http://fwhorch.blogspot.com/

Thanks for reading!

Fred Horch, Founder

Thursday, October 04, 2007

Special Edition Green Tidings

This is a special edition of our Green Tidings featuring more information about events that didn't make it into our September edition.

Fred Horch, Founder

National Solar Home Tour

Two local houses will be featured in the National Solar Home Tour on Saturday, October 6th from 9 am to 5 pm:

Owner:       Guy Marsden, Rebekah Younger
Address:     61 Delano Road, Woolwich, ME 04579
Phone:       207-443-8942
Description: Woodworker in solar heated barn workshop where solar powered
            attic fan helps reduce summer heat. Domestic hot water also
            from solar. Solar powered lawn mower conversion, Staber washing
            machine, hybrid car, & many energy saving devices. A family
            inspired by simple living and sustainability.
Directions:  From Rt. 1 in Woolwich take Rt. 127 north.  Go 4-1/2 miles, turn R
            onto Old Stage Rd, then 1/2 mile & turn R on Delano Rd, & #61 is
            660 ft on R.

Owner:       Al Heath, Suzanne Paule
Address:     37 Stonetree Rd, Arrowsic, ME 04530
Phone:       207-443-6614
Description: Owner designed and built for $75/sqft, this 2000 square foot home
            features passive solar design and superinsulated techniques to heat
            easily and comfortably with only 1.5 cords of wood and 75 gallons of
            kerosene. An active solar hot water system provides 75% of domestic
            hot water with plans to expand collectors and storage to provide
            radiant space heat. Our goal is to provide 75% of all home heating
            needs (hot water and space heat) with solar.
Directions:  Take Rt. 127 south from Woolwich towards Georgetown/Reid State Park.
            One mile south of Rt 1 look for Stonetree Rd on right. Turn in,
            1st house on the right, #37.

For more information about the tour, see the Maine Solar Energy Association.

Energy Savings: The Real Payback and Incentives

Join us for "Energy Savings: The Real Payback and Incentives", our next Sustainable Living Talk from 7:00 to 8:30 pm on Thursday, October 11th.

WydeVue's Stephen Carr will help you understand the various programs related to home energy savings. When you decide to buy a vehicle, you need to know all your options and package deals the dealership can offer you. The same applies to energy savings.

Knowing where to look for the information is the most challenging. What are the different programs related to energy savings? How do they affect the monetary payback and what are the incentives that coincide with the programs? WydeVue Residential Energy Services is looking forward to answering those questions for you.

Stephen will also be talking about HERS Ratings and how that relates to Energy Star Homes, Energy Efficient Mortgages, LEED Home energy qualifications, etc.

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. November's talk will feature Mike White of Island Carpentry, speaking on the topic of zero energy homes.

Green Chemistry Symposium

On Friday, October 26th, from 8:30 am to 5:00 pm at the Hannaford Lecture Hall in the Abromson Community Education Center at the University of Southern Maine, Portland Campus, investors, sustainable business leaders, cutting-edge researchers and policy makers will explore "Green Chemistry" solutions that expand our economy by replacing hazardous materials in consumer products with safer alternatives.

For on-line registration and other information visit www.MaineGreenChemistry.com

Brunswick Cool Community Party

The evening of Friday, October 26th is time for a Cool Communities celebration in Brunswick! Earlier this year, the Brunswick Town Council unanimously voted to make Brunswick a Cool Community. This party is a chance to recognize and thank the people that made that possible.

The party will be at 8pm in the 11 Pleasant St. Arts Center, the same location at which the Brunswick Sustainability Group has meetings and film showings. We'll have a dessert potluck, coffee and other drinks, an also great music (thanks to Jim Tolles). This will be a great occassion where citizens and candidates for town office can mingle and discuss a greener future for Brunswick and other towns pushing to pass the Cool Communities agreement.

For more information about the Brunswick Sustainability Group, which is hosting the party, visit www.BrunswickSustainability.org

Sunday, September 30, 2007

September Green Tidings

We survived Common Ground Fair! We had a great time and met many, many new customers. If you're new to our mailing list after visiting us there, welcome!

Please join us at 7 pm on Thursday, October 11 for our next Sustainable Living Talk, "Energy Savings: The Real Payback and Incentives" by Stephen Carr of WydeVue Residential Energy Services.

Read on for more about that and other happenings in the world of sustainable living.

Warmly,
Fred Horch, Founder

Energy Savings: The Real Payback and Incentives

Join us for "Energy Savings: The Real Payback and Incentives", our next Sustainable Living Talk from 7:00 to 8:30 pm on Thursday, September 13th.

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.

News from Energyworks

Mark your calendar for the Solar Home Tour this Saturday, October 6!

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.

Product News

With the leaves falling and the city of Bath moving to a pay as you throw trash fee, we're still selling plenty of composters. Although outdoor composting will soon come to an end with colder weather, now is a great time to consider starting an indoor composting system. Worms will eat your kitchen scraps all winter long. If you get started now, you'll have great compost in time for spring! Drop by the store to learn more and see worms in action.

Our product focus is now 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 other energy-saving products, including heavy-duty wooden drying racks (one of our best sellers at Common Ground Fair). 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 season.

As you prepare to spend more time indoors this fall and winter, it's a very good idea to think about indoor air quality. We sell a full line of products you can use for home improvement and house keeping that won't offgas toxic fumes. Next time you're in the store, ask for a copy of our Paint & Finishes and our Green Cleaning catalogs.

What's Happening in the Local Environmental Scene

We enjoyed this year's Common Ground Country Fair. What a crowd! If you went, we hope you had as much fun as we did.

Here's Brett from our store holding forth on the virtues
of vermiculture at the 2007 Common Ground Fair.

The Brunswick Sustainability Group welcomes the public to attend the group's monthly meetings on the third Monday of each month. October's meeting will be at 7 pm on Monday, October 15th, 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 throughout October and into November. For more information call 725-5242.

The GrowSmart Maine 2007 Summit will be held on Friday, October 19, 2007, at the Augusta Civic Center. The keynote speaker will be Professor Ronald Heifetz, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. For more information, call 847-9275.

Friday, August 31, 2007

August Green Tidings

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 Energyworks

Jen 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

Product News

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.

Thursday, March 13, 2008

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Thursday, February 14, 2008

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Monday, February 11, 2008

Thursday, January 31, 2008

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Saturday, December 22, 2007

Friday, November 30, 2007

Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Thursday, October 04, 2007

Sunday, September 30, 2007

Friday, August 31, 2007

Subscribe to Green Tidings

Blog Archive

Search Green Tidings

About the Author