Technically it was sparkling wine but I digress. Actually the hot tub we bought in 1998 has been the best investment I ever made. It hasn’t appreciated in value but it has been the inspiration of ideas that built our energy company and fortold the development of the Green Leaf Inn. A hot tub strips away everything so Catherine and I could share ideas and dreams. No cell phones, computers or distractions- just two people in a hot tub sharing, talking and enjoying each other. That is the experience for every guest at the Green Leaf Inn with a two person hot tub in every room. But I digress again…
Today we were looking at our aerobic waste water treatment system and our mound system that does the final filtering of the water before it goes back to the aquifer. There are limits to what you can put on the mound system becasue you do not want compaction. Catherine has already planned and enlarged chess set in an area that is safe. Catherine is thinking about plantings and I am thinking about energy. Actually, Catherine was wondering where she could move her strawberries, blueberry bushes and grow organic produce for the Inn. The area where the mound system is was all shaded but now is some of the best sunny areas that exist on the property. I suggested raised garden beds on the mound area for the organic produce and an idea was born. Then I thought about the open areas and saw a huge opporutnity for solar as the backdrop to the chess set and organic produce! Community Green Energy will be providing the solar system and owning it and selling the power to the hotel through a PPA or power purchase agreement. http://bit.ly/w30cSE
and then we popped the second bottle…..
We have committed to sponsor the renewable energy, green building, sustainable living fair to be held by Lake Geneva WI July 16-18, 2010. In fact, we will be one of the tour stops where people can see our wind turbine up close along with a dual axis tracking solar photovoltaic system. More info at www.ecofair360.com
It’snot that we have not been busy- actually I have been too busy trying to make money to get past the preparation of the project to starting to get the project being built. We are finally getting to that stage with our wind turbine expecting to go up in February- The previous year was battling anti-wind ordinances which ended up costing $36,000 in legal fees to get through zoning. All I can say when the truck came to deliver the Endurance 50kw 120 monopole is really cool. It’s great to get that little boy in a toy store feeling as an adult. Now we have to find someone who can do time lapse photography to be able to show the whole installation.
First, I want to apologize to the number of trees that had to be turned in to paper in order to complete the USDA grant for renewable energy. The complexity of the grant when you reach almost $400,000 in total project costs is amazing. We had an overall summary, technical feasability study from a 3rd party, overall feasability study including marketing, economic, and the CPA do do the financial feasbility. Then you add in letters of support (thanks to the folks at www.renewwisconsin.org and www.focusonenergy.com ) and GDS Associates who made time in their schedule to squeeze our report in.
We chose a 50kw wind turbine made by Endurance Wind. We had looked at a 100kw but because of the wind resource our area is, doubling the size does not double the output. The was a $150,000 to $200,000 difference for only 30,000 more kwh projected to be produced. At $.08 per kwh, that would take 60 years or more for the added payback. Actually it would only be about 40 years after the tax benefits.
It is important to take advantage of the grants and tax benefits that exist because without them the market would never develop. But I guess we need to make sure we prepare a few months ahead to get it done. Of course it was July 14th when we finally had the final vote from Walworth County to approve our zoning change and Conditional Use Permit (CUP) for the wind turbine and the entire Inn.
Environmental benefits of our wind turbine over 20 years- saving 4,400,000 lbs of CO2, 11,400 lbs of NOX, 24,400 lbs of SO2 and stop the burning of 1,000 tons of coal. Later we will go through the economics and how the money works on wind.
Catherine had been talking about doing some accent walls with American Clay. We were at the show to gain some exposure and gather names of people interested in going green. While talking to one couple about wind turbines and siting, Catherine was approached by another company displaying and it turns out she is certified American Caly applicator, does other stuuf and she suggested when we dig our foundation to gather gallons of the clay that she can refine and use to apply to some of our walls as an art treatment. Very cool idea and talk about reuse!
Our site had many issues to deal with and soil type was a major one. While heavy clay content can be great for conductivity for a geothermal system and good compressive strength for wind turbine foundations, it is terrible for onsite waste water treatment. City sewer is many years off so off to the engineering specialists for a solution. In fact, at the town planning commission one resident questioned how we coujld even do a septic and a farmer asked where are we going to get the water for all the hot tubs. Town meetings bring up questons you just can’t make up on your own.
A typical WI mound system is an anaerobic system that treats the effluent in a septic tank to partially break down the waste and then the water with some suspended solids go out to the mound for final treatment and returning the water to the aquifer. An aerobic system treats the effluent in an oxygen enriched chamber with much more aggressive bacteria that when the fluid is ready to go out to be filtered in the mound system, it is basically already clean water. With some additions we could have go to a toilet to tap system. Aerobic systems cost more to build and more to operate but they are much better for the environment. In fact, aerobic treatment can be used to save a failing anaerobic septic field.
With water becoming an important resource all over the world, managing storm water and waste water is a very important planning issue. We will be doing rainwater capture and reuse for landscape watering and for toilets. When you think about it, it doesn’t make sense to pump clean treated water only to flush it down the toilet. The rainwater still has some treatment but it saves water and energy (3% of all energy used in the US is for pumping water and waste watrer treatment. Dual flush toilets, living roof on the conference meeting center and rain gardens.
Wow- didn’t see that one coming and I have heard a lot of them. Conditional Use Permit public discussion gives everyone a chance to voice their opinions and feelings. The letter the town sent out had this project involves a wind turbine in extra large bold print so I guess we could have expected something. In reality, the person was upset because he bought a piece of property and thought the world would never change around him- then he gets a notice that the hwy 50 will be expanding in several years to 4 lanes and the road will wipe out all of his trees blocking the road and basically allow him to hand a cup of coffee to someone driving down the road. A car at 300 feet at 40 mph is 55 db and since their house will be 20 feet off the hwy, those bumble bees could be used to drown out the noise of the traffic. And then they realize our project is moving ahead.
We had been pretty upset about the hwy 50 expansion notice and then one member on the town board said that hwy 50 corridor was meant to go all commercial as part of the town’s long term land use plans. We got handed a lemon and decided to make a lemonade stand called The Green Leaf Inn.
We are starting to prepare for a number of shows to get The Green Leaf Inn project out in front of like minded people. More info at www.greenfestivals.org Last year 35,000 people attended the show. With our plans to condo-tel our building and all of the renewable energy systems- perhaps we can find potential investors interested in owning a piece of a net zero hotel for the revenue, tax benefits and pride of owning something unique.
We have now gone to a couple of other B&Bs to experience their “hot tub” as well as an all inclusive in Mexio that had in-room hot tubs in every room. We have a lot of hot tubbing experience because we have an outdoor one that is square and normal bench seating (currentyl covered under 10″ of snow) which is what we feel is the best.
One was an oval and not really big enough to sit side by side and be able to turn and talk. We do a lot of talking and thinking in our hot tubs. There is just not enough room and the curved walls make it awkward to move about.
The Mexico one was a rectangle and large enough- but it had those seats preformed in them like you were sitting next to each other in a small foreign race car. That also made it too difficult to move and turn- in fact it almost caused me to spill my champagne just to turn a little to see my wife. But we are on the right track- now we just need to look thorugh the multiple catalogs of designs, sizes and shapes. It looks like we will take a trip up to Kohler WI to see the bathroom museum where we can see all the models and actually sit in them to check them out. We have not chosen a brand yet but feel that the size and shape dictate the experience for our guests more then a brand name.
Today was the meeting with the Fire Marshall about our proposed building layout and needs and concerns for the fire department. The change in WI building code law already meant we have to sprinkler the buildings. Normally not a huge issue for new construction except we don’t have city water and the water pressure they provide. Instead we have to design underground water storage (hopefully we can fill with rainwater from the metal roofs) about 5 feet or deeper (10-20,000 gallons is my wild guess) and of course since we do not have the city water pressure, we will need a back up generator for the pumps in case our electric feed was interrupted and we had a fire at the same time.
What I want to check on is whether we can put our ground source heat pump loops through these tanks to utilize the heat sink available in the water. Much better energy transfer compared to just the ground.
We also need to adjust the Wind building to the east to allow for a turn around for the fire truck. We really could use the property next to us to make the traffic patter easier but that is a whole other story.
Our current driveway has a turn around cirlce in it past our current home’s front door. We had planned on removing it but the Marshall wanted to keep it for truck access in case the fire is in the existing home structure. That will move the rain garden planned a little east but in the long run it will perhaps make an easier traffic path for buses bringing tours to go through the energy confernce center and the grounds.
