Enviro at the Delaware County Fair
August 18, 2009
Our Sign at the 2009 Fair
Enviro Energy is proud to be a part of the 2009 Delaware County Fair in Walton, NY, August 17-22.
Our Booth will be in the Human Ecology [Cooperative Extension] building and we invite everyone to visit this great event and stop by our booth!
EE on CCE Spring Housing Tour – June 6th
May 20, 2009
Enviro Energy is a proud and honored participant in the 28th Annual Cornell Cooperative Extension Spring Housing Tour (by car)
The tour will feature renewable energy systems for homeowners and businesses as well as NYSERDA energy programs and resources.
The tour kicks off on June 6th at 8:30 a.m. with Registration in Sidney at Quality Hardwoods, Inc. – 135 Route 8, and begins at 9 a.m. with a tour of Quality Hardwods, Inc.
The next stop is Enviro Energy, LLC – 2265 State Highway 7, Unadilla, at 10 a.m., followed by Grass Pellet and Solar Heating for Home and Business – Flying Rabbit Farm, 174 Main Street, Otego, at 11:00 a.m. The Franklin Town Garage is the stop at noon, and lunch (bring a bag lunch) is at 12:30 p.m. at the Franklin Fire Hall.
At 1:15 p.m., Don and Louise Hebbard’s energy-tight dream home at 558 Otego Road in Franklin is the next stop, followed by Tulikivi Finnish Stove – Jody and Cindy Pinney’s home in Franklin at 2:15 p.m.
The tour is wrapped up at the final stop at Geothermal Love and Hope Cat Sanctuary: Virginia Yancy and Myron Kops, 95 Stewart Road in Franklin at 3:15 p.m.
For more information, go to www.cce.cornell.edu, or call 607-865-6531. You may also email Corey at CCE at scp32@cornell.edu.
If you register for the Tour in advance, the cost is $5.00 for CCE members and $6.00 for non members. If you register the day of the tour the cost is $8.00.
We hope to see you on June 6th!
Franklin Farmer/Grass Bio-mass Meeting
March 29, 2009
Enviro Energy has been asked to attend the Farmer Grass Bio-mass Meeting in Franklin hosted by the Cornell Cooperative Extension of Delaware County.
The Cooperative Extension is holding this meeting to talk with farmers about the producing preferred grass for bio-mass. We have been asked to participate in the discussion to let the farmers know what grass works best for bio-mass.
The Farmers’ Meeting will be held on April 2nd from 1:00 PM- 3:00 PM at the Franklin Town Garage.
EE at Grass bio-mass research project Open House
March 26, 2009
Representatives of Enviro Energy will be at the Grass bio-mass research project Open House on March 28.
The Open House is at the Franklin Town Sheds, where they have the pellet furnace and stove installed, located on the corner of COUNTY RT. 21 (WALTON – FRANKLIN RD.) AND STATE RT. 357. The Open House is from 9am to 1pm.
Attendees will see the outdoor grass pellet furnace in operation along with an indoor pellet stove and will have the opportunity to ask questions, view displays, and visit with Enviro-Energy, LLC representatives, Extension Educators, and Delaware County Economic Development personnel. All are welcome.
EE Participates in Celebrate Ag Day – March 20, 2009
March 22, 2009
Enviro Energy was honored to Participate in this year’s Celebrate Ag Day event. Below is the Chenango County Farm Bureau’s announcement of the event:
Celebrate Ag Day March 20, 2009!
Please join Chenango County Farm Bureau at the Silo Restaurant, Coventry, NY on March 20th at 11:30 am for our Annual celebration of Agriculture Day in Chenango County.
This year marks the 36th Anniversary of National Ag Day, which occurs every year on the first day of Spring. That’s over 30 years of recognizing agriculture’s role in American life. Every American should understand how food, fiber and renewable resource products are produced and should value the essential role of agriculture in maintaining a strong economy, providing safe, abundant and affordable products, a source of renewable energy, and a world of job opportunities. That’s certainly an achievement worth celebrating!
As the world population soars, there is even greater demand for the food, fiber and renewable resources that the United States produces.
This years Theme is “Sowing Seeds Today…for our Energy Needs Tomorrow”
The program is scheduled from 11:30 am – 3:00 pm and will feature an excellent Buffet luncheon.
We will also have several speakers and presenters on the subject of Energy such as:
* Chris Callahan/Callahan Engineering and State Line Farm – Crop-Based Biofuels and production
* Bob Houser of the So. Tier Agriculture Energy Project – Biodiesel processing plant using locally grown fuel crops.
* May and Bob Miller of Enviro Energy – Fuel Pellet production from locally grown crops.
Please plan to attend.
For more information contact Chenango County Farm Bureau President Bradd Vickers at 607-334-6061.
Enviro in The Watershed Advocate
March 16, 2009
Enviro Energy is featured in the Winter 2009 Issue of the Watershed Advocate, a newletter from the Catskill Watershed Corporation.
We are very proud to be a part of The Delaware County Grass Bio-Energy Project.
Click on the Icon to read this very informative and well-written article.
On the Bright Side: Open House Set for Pellet Project
March 7, 2009
An article about the three-year pilot Delaware County Grass Bio-Energy Project appears in the March 7th edition of The Daily Star and discusses Enviro Energy’s important contribution.
“…Kiraly said the local project became possible when Bob and May Miller of Franklin, owners of EnviroEnergy LLC in Wells Bridge, purchased equipment to make grass pellets.
The Millers have been purchasing hay from Delaware and Otsego County farmers in a 40-mile radius. They then grind and pelletize it, selling it by the bag to homeowners who primarily used wood pellets in their pellet stoves….”
To read the full article, please click here.
We at Enviro Energy are very pleased to be a part of such an exciting program, and we will continue to keep everyone updated as it progresses.
Sharing Our Experience
February 18, 2009
We at Enviro Energy would like to thank the following organizations for inviting us to present our idea of manufacturing grass pellets and to share our experiences, for better or for worse, thus far on our journey.
- Franklin Rotary Club
- Oneonta Lions Club
- Oneonta Kiwanis Club
- Unadilla Rotary Club
Plan Ahead & Help Our Feathered Friends Too!
February 11, 2009
We recently received an email from Joe B. and with his permission we wanted to pass along his very helpful information. . .
“I manage nature preserves for a living, including some meadows. One of the major reasons for conserving meadows in this region is for grassland birds, which are in decline nationally. I think that your organization should mention grassland bird conservation as another benefit of mowing fields for grass pellets. However, the timing of mowing is critical for grassland birds. If you mow too early (which many people do), then you can disrupt and destroy grassland bird nests and young.
As a general rule for this region, it is best to mow after August 1. You mention wanting to purchase August hay. Perhaps your site could promote a first mowing in August as a best management practice that provides environmental benefits. See the Massachusetts Audubon site for a good overview of this issue http://www.massaudubon.org/Birds_and_Birding/grassland/small.php ”
We at Enviro Energy thank Joe for taking the time to review our website and for passing along another very good reason to plan ahead now and help our very important feathered friends too! We need August-cut hay to make our pellets, and now is a great time to start thinking about the upcoming season.
Thanks Joe!
EE Family
Enviro Energy’s Pellet Testing
November 25, 2008
In early November we contacted a group of local folks that expressed interest in our pellets to ask them if they would be interested in testing a few bags of our pellets in their own homes. We are so grateful to all those that participated and are very happy to have had so many interested in doing so.
Along with 2 or 3 bags of our pellets, our testers left with a simple fact sheet attached to a questionnaire, that both we and they will find helpful, provided by our friends at the Cooperative Extension.
While we have not received feedback from all our testers, the feedback we have received so far has been very helpful and informative. Below are excerpts from just a few:
“I tried out your grass pellets this week. Here’s my feedback- burning them alone is difficult…. they ignite at a much slower pace than wood. … i found out if you mix the pellets at 70% wood to 30% grass it helps a lot. There is a lot of ash but the auger can handle it on a setting of 2. using the wood pellets to them does help with the amount of ash… I’m think about trying them in my fireplace. They make a basket you load pellets into. Seeing they seem to burn slower it may work perfect for that. Thank you for offering a new alternative to oil and making it locally. Dwight”
We do not know the brand of stove that Dwight has. While we have found that several original wood pellet stove brands do handle burning grass pellets well, we are aware that some stoves intended to burn wood pellets only, will not handle the ash from grass pellets properly. From our feedback we have found that stoves made for multi-fuel work best. We may have corrected your slow ignition problem by making a lower moisture pellet. Some folks are changing the air flow to their stoves for more success. Thanks for your feedback.
“I picked up a bag of grass pellets from you. I found them to burn in my stove the same as wood pellets. They did not break up or cause any problems. My stove is set up to burn all kinds of free flowing product, corn, commercial pellets and wheat. I think you are the right track! Leslie”
Thank you Leslie for the feedback , and for testing our pellets. Indeed, with a multi-fuel stove such as yours, we expected you to have a good amount of success. Thanks again for participating!
“I tested a few bags of your pellets and wanted you to know that I was concerned about burning grass pellets because my daughter has severe allergies to hay. Well, I am pleased to tell you that my daughter had no problems what so ever and the pellets burned just fine”
Thank you so much for the feedback and we are so happy that your daughter had no ill effects from the grass pellets. This is such an important piece of feedback for us and for potential consumers.
And finally, we at Enviro Energy have been burning/testing our own pellets in our outdoor boiler. We have had great success, even using our experimental “cast offs.” The boiler is burning the pellets very well. Even more interesting is that there is no smoke emitted from the boiler. In fact, the gentleman that installed our boiler dropped in one day and asked why we were not using the boiler. We asked why he would ask that since it has been continuously used. He said he had driven by several times and never saw any smoke coming from the stack[pipe?], so he finally had to stop to see if there were any problems! Nope, no problems at all with the boiler or the pellets!
We will keep adding the feedback from our testers as we receive it, so please check back to read about our progress.
All of us at Enviro Energy extend our sincere appreciation to all our testers and we look forward to receiving more feedback. We are still perfecting the formula and continue to work on improving Enviro Energy grass pellets every day.
Our family wishes everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving and a joyous holiday season.