By Patricia Breakey
Saving money on heating and utility costs in environmentally friendly ways is the focus of Cornell Cooperative Extension of Delaware County's 28th annual Spring Housing tour on Saturday.
Executive director Jeanne Darling said the tour will highlight biofuel, geothermal and solar installations.
It begins at 8:30 a.m. at Quality Hardwoods in Sidney and ends at about 4 p.m. at the Love & Hope Cat Sanctuary on Stewart Road in Franklin.
Registration is $8. Participants should bring a bag lunch for the rain-or-shine event, and they are encouraged to car pool.
Featured will be a bio-energy grass-pellet project by CCE with the Enviro Energy LLC grass-pellet plant in Wells Bridge. The project has funding from the Catskill Watershed Corp., Darling said.
Highlights of the tour stops are:
Quality Hardwoods
Darling said three generations of the Decker family operate the state-of-the-art mill that produces 5 million board feet of fine furniture and cabinet-grade hardwood each year.
The lumber is kiln-dried using wood chips from the mill to fire a steam boiler. The lumber is then finished for flooring, paneling, trim and cabinet making.
"It is great that nothing goes to waste at Quality Hardwoods," Darling said.
Enviro Energy LLC
The next stop is in Unadilla, where fuel pellets are produced from grass. The business is owned and operated by the Millers, a lifelong Delaware County dairy farming family.
The Millers adapted farm machinery and wood pelleting equipment for their mill. They use over-grown fields of weeds such as golden rod and multi-floral rose to produce pellets similar to wood pellets.
Flying Rabbit Farm
In Otego, tourgoers will see grass pellets in use.
Dave and Mary Dolan purchased a Verner Boiler with funding assistance from NYSERDA _ the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority _ to heat their greenhouse.
Darling said Dave Dolan likes the Enviro Energy grass pellets because they burn with less ash and clinkers. The Dolans will also use the Verner boiler to heat up vegetable oil for making biodiesel to fuel their tractors.
Franklin Town Garage
The next stop is Franklin, where a three-year demonstration project is located to showcase CCE's grass biomass energy project, which uses grass pellets to power a stove and a boiler furnace to heat the town hall and garage.
Other stops
After lunch, the group will tour Don and Louise Hebbard's home in Franklin.
Darling said the Hebbards started building their dream retirement home in May 2007, using timber-peg, post-and-beam construction on a cement-block cellar foundation.
The house features active solar heating with a photovoltaic net-metered system on the south-facing roof slope. Heat is collected through several south-facing windows and stored in a stone heat battery in the cellar by using forced-air heat collection through ducts in the stones.
The Hebbards are also developing a three-season raised-bed salad garden in a recycled glass, cold-frame system.
Jody and Cindy Pinney of Franklin will show off their Tulikivi Finnish Stove, which heats 90 percent of their home. Darling said the Pinneys like the safety features of the Tulikivi, in which the fire burns wide open so there is no or little creosote formed. By nighttime, the fire has gone out.
Marcia Goldstein, who is an officer of the Love & Hope Cat Sanctuary, said the spiraling cost of heating with propane prompted the founders to turn to geothermal heat to save money.
Virginia Yancey and Myron Kops began researching how they could heat their 9,000-square-foot cat sanctuary with an alternative energy system. Using a NYSERDA loan, they installed a geothermal system that heats the building in the winter and cools it in the summer.
Goldstein said the system maintains a temperature of 64 degrees, which she said "is very comfortable for the cats." There are 175 cats there.
For more information about the tour, visit www.cce.cornell.edu/delaware or call 865-6531.
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Patricia Breakey can be reached at 746-2894 or at stardelhi@stny.rr.com.
