Sleepy Hollow Friends of the Earth Program:
Welcome to the newest green addition to Sleepy Hollow! 4 new solar hot water panels. This will save us up to $2000 per year in heating fuel/pellet fuel costs. The system is designed to store water during the week 400 gallons of hot water storage, when our inn is not as busy. When the weekend rolls around we'll have plenty of hot water for all our inn guests! Check out the panels on the roof of our inn the next time you visit.
Pictured below we have two 4kw AllEarth solar trackers installed by AllEarth Renewables of Williston. These beauties produced 55% of Sleepy Hollow electric production in 2010 (Total solar production of 10,511 kwh), We pay just over $0.15 per kwh, so this offset $1584 worth of electricity for Sleepy Hollow in 2010. We paid $24,800 total after tax rebates, giving us an approximate payback period of 15.7 years. The new 2.8 cents/kw bonus credit will soon make the payback even shorter. Say hello to them on your next trip up to Sleepy Hollow, or check out their daily, monthly or yearly production at allearthrenewables.com (We are site ID #117)
We wish to do as much as possible to be environmentally friendly, and reduce our carbon footprint. We also hope to raise awareness and give ideas to those who may be interested in the greener lifestyle. To those who have taken the initiative already, we salute you!
Our Goals and Our Choices:
- We will seek to educate and promote earth friendly practices with our guests at Sleepy Hollow. This includes an emphasis on recycling, reuse of towels, turning off lights when not in use, and more!
We seek to use renewable energy whenever possible. This includes use of biodiesel in our inn (currently we are running 100% biodiesel in our furnace), our tractor, and using a pellet furnace to heat our eight guest rooms and domestic hot water in winter.
- We will use energy efficient fluorescent lights as much as possible. Currently our inn has been 90% converted to compact fluorescent, while our round barn is almost entirely fluorescent (except for the dimmable lights).
- We encourage guests to reuse their towels, resulting in fewer washes. This saves energy, water, and detergent. Also our towels are colored, which reduces/eliminates the need for bleaching.
- We use our woodstoves as much as possible for heating the Inn and Round Barn. The wood is cut sustainably from Sleepy Hollow.
- We pledge to be chemical free in our groundskeeping.
- Our maple sugaring operation which uses Sleepy Hollow maple trees, Running Saps Mapleworks, is certified organic by NOFA Vermont.
Future Projects:
- Next up in the next few years, more solar electric panels!
Below is a portfolio of what we're about here at Sleepy Hollow.
There are antique car shows, there are sportscar shows, and then there is our family hybrid car show:
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| Dave and Sandy Enman (head proprietors of Sleepy Hollow) in front of their house with 2 solar water collectors, as well as a beefy 2.1kw solar array that takes care of most of their electrical usage. |
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| It's a Traeger TPB150 pellet furnace. This monster has been operational since Dec.1 2006, heating our guest rooms and domestic water in a renewable and inexpensive way. We estimate we'll save up to $2000 a year on fuel costs. Better yet we'll be saving over 1000 gallons of #2 heating fuel per year. |  |
 | Eli and Kasie's house... Complete with solar hot water system, 880 watts of grid-intertied solar panels (my average net electricity usage is 50 kwh per month, about $6 of electricity). The house also features passive solar design (sunlight heats our slate floors in fall, winter, and spring), energy efficient lighting, great insulation, and super energy efficient washer/drier and refrigerator. |
| Kasie Enman with her 2001 Honda Insight. This gas-electric hybrid two seater gets 50-60mpg! We even averaged 70 mpg on a trip from RI to VT. But because the whole car is made of an aluminum alloy, this car won't rust away any time soon! Honda has now redesigned the Insight to be a 5 seater, similar to the Toyota Prius. |  |
