Heating

		Responsible use of heat energy is a land stewardship practice
				using less oil and propane for heat means we are emitting less carbon, mercury and other pollutants into the atmosphere
				being less dependent on oil and gas extraction means that fewer natural spaces are destroyed through mining and pollution
				living more simply reduces human suffering brought on by climate change and resource scarcity

The buildings at Windhorse Farm are heated with solar (passive and active), wood, propane and oil. Our goal is to reduce the CO2 exhausted from these sources by 50% within five years.

We are working with both conservation and changes to more efficient heating sources. In terms of conservation, energy audits are revealing how we can tighten up and better insulate all the buildings, and we are working with ways to live comfortably at lower ambient temperatures, which involves changing some deeply ingrained habitual patterns.

For the heat we continue to need, we are moving away from fuels like oil and propane to more sustainable ones such as local wood and sun. Of course, burning wood also results in the production of CO2, so we aspire to move away from the use of conventional fireplaces and heating stoves and make greater use of highly efficient heating with kachelofens. The wood heat in two of our buildings (Juniper Lodge and White Lion) is with kachelofens and we plan to increase the use of this great technology. The primary heat for Juniper Lodge is through solar heated water in the concrete floor, the most sustainable system. We are investigating how to increase the use of solar heating in other buildings.