Shining in the Sun

During the winter months, the wood furnace heats our water, our office and our Lodge. We get the wood from our managed, sustainable several hundred acres of forest - and yes it is very true that wood heats you three times. The first is when you cut it. The second when you split and pile it. And finally, when you burn it.

During the summer months, however, firing up the furnace is not an option. Doing our Green Best to reduce hydro consumption, we researched alternative forms of energy. Bondi has always been pretty Green... nowadays, even more so.

The answer is the sun. Brian has installed solar panels on the garage that will provide the heat for the water this summer. No doubt they will also provide a conversation starter for many of our guests. Perhaps they will spark some environmental awareness, trigger some bright new ideas. Maye it will cause folks to pause and think, and turn off the unnecessary lights. We'll see.

In the meantime, Blackstone Solar have been hard at work attaching the panels to the roof of the garage. This array, unlike the big one across the way, consists of long slender vacuum tubes. Within each of these tubes is another tube, containing a glycol-solution. That heats in the sun, and rises to the top of the tube, where the heat is tranferred to the piping that carries it to the end destination.

Yes, I'm fuzzy on the details... it is new... I'm learning. Brian is the man to ask. Or the folks at Blackstone.

Suffice to say we are not only the greenest, but we are by far the 'coolest' garage on the block!