Sun Day is a national celebration of Renewable Energy with events happening throughout the country this coming weekend 9/20&21. Laura and I have put effort into moving our home toward being carbon neutral and thought it might be useful for those with a similar interest if we held an open house where folks can see some of our fun clean energy equipment up close.

So this Saturday - not Sunday - from 1:00 to 4:00 PM we invite you to stop by at 50 Inwood Place 14209 and see our:

· Solar Edge display documenting the 10 years of output from our 6.67 kW, 23-panel solar rooftop system that has saved us money from day one, fully powering our two apartments and vehicles most years.

· New LG Heat Pump Clothes Dryer – 50% of which was paid for by NYSERDA under the Appliance Upgrade Program.

· Wonderful induction oven – when I have to use a gas stove or an old-fashioned electric stove after experiencing induction, the wait for water to boil drives me crazy

· 2012 Mitsubishi I-Miev EV that has saved us thousands on fuel and maintenance and is still going strong

· Level 2 charger on our back porch that charges the Mitsu

· Prius Prime plug-in hybrid that frequently gets us to New Jersey to visit our 17-month old grandson Charlie and provides us with electric local driving. It’ll do while we wait a couple years for an affordable EV with long range capacity. (Did you know that the Chinese IM Motors L6 with a semi solid state battery has a 620 mile range and sells for $28-45k? It boasts a 12 minute, 280 mile charge.)

· On- Street charging for the Prius

· Electric lawn mower that starts right up with no fuss each time including at the beginning of each season – back when we used a gas mower, I’d almost always have to spend $ to have it serviced to start the mowing season

· Emergency Power Source Inverter that hooks on to the lawn mower battery to provide emergency power sufficient to charge phones, computers, the TV and some lights during a power outage.

Not in place yet

· A geothermal heating and cooling system. We’re waiting for our gas steam heating boilers to age out and are excited about the possibility of a no-money down 3^rd party owned system that was surprisingly made possible with recent changes to the federal tax code.

· Depending on when our water heaters go, they may be part of the future geothermal system or we may replace them with heat pump water heaters.

And if you’ve got tips or technology you’d like to share, let me know – maybe we can make you part of this event.

Bring the kids! They can safely help start the lawn mower and maybe help making some popcorn on the induction cooktop.

And if you’d like to know a bit more about Sun Day, check out this video.