Southwest Windpower - Renewable Energy Made Simple

‘Green Day' packs them in

The Daily Triplicate
November 18, 2008
By Kelley Atherton
www.triplicate.com

It's easy being green — if you count going to a green expo.

Organizers estimate more than 1,000 people visited the "It's a Green Day" vendor fair Saturday.

Packed into the fairgrounds main building, about 30 businesses from Del Norte County and the surrounding area had representatives on hand to talk with local residents about alternative energy, recycling and composting, sustainable building and everyday Earth-friendly things.

Over at Crescent Elk Middle School on Saturday afternoon, teacher Joe Gillespie's sustainable living students demonstrated their wind turbine and solar power panel systems, winter gardening and composting.

At the fairgrounds, Angela and Sal Hernandez of Your Creation Cabinets explained how customers can buy cabinets and countertops made of bamboo — a rapidly renewing resource — and cabinet doors and hardware made of recycled glass and metal, respectively.

"Customers wants to be green," Angela said about the positive response they received.

The Hernandezes wanted to have the green options available for customers, but they also wanted to do their part to protect the planet.

"The number one reason is being environmentally friendly," Sal said. "It's for the future of our kids."

Over at Chimney Kraft, maintenance technician Rick Bertolini explained how the Daikin Split System works — the Japanese technology that cuts heating and cooling costs.

There's only one outside unit that connects to as many as four units inside. The refrigerant liquid in the outside unit is either converted into air conditioning or, when compressed, it heats into a gas, Bertolini said. A fan then blows the hot or cold air into the room. The trick is that it senses when someone is in the room — if you leave for more than 20 minutes it adjusts the temperature to save energy.

The Daikin runs on electricity, which cuts down on oil consumption, Bertolini said, predicting that oil prices will spike again. Interest in kerosene and propane heaters has been dropping over the years as customer are looking for more energy efficient units, he said.

"This is a fit," Bertolini said about the Daikin. "It's a long-term investment."

The winner of the Publisher's Award of Most Outstanding Exhibit was Renner Petroleum's display of a 1.9-kilowatt wind turbine.

"It's a plug and play unit," said Craig Wooster, a representative for ComTech a distributor for Renner Petroleum.

Wooster said the Skystream 3.7 display had generated a lot of interest throughout the day.

Wind power is the cheapest form of alternative energy, he said, and has become increasingly popular as the price of oil continues to rise and consumers see the negative impacts of burning fossil fuels.

The huge wind turbine costs $12-$18,000 to install, but Wooster said state and federal rebates can pay back almost 50 percent of the cost. Plus it's free energy — after five to seven years the wind turbine pays for itself.

"It makes good economic sense," Wooster said.

Rick Hiser, "Green Day" event coordinator, said vendors were pleased with the turnout.

Since the event went off without a hitch, organizers are already planning for next year's "Green Day," which will be Oct. 24.

Triplicate Publisher Michele Thomas, event host and creator, said the mission to inform people about all things green was successful. But she added that next year she wants more vendors to get more information out.

"I've spoken to a lot of people who said they discovered things they didn't know existed," Thomas said. "It had a huge impact on their personal greening."