Welcome to our Website!

Don & Sue Watkins

If the title is a bit misleading eventually we will offer some ideas for saving energy.  I designed and built my own solar passive home in 1981 and I used every method and idea I could to have a home that would consume the least amount of energy.  

Our home has saved us enormously over the years by simply being well insulated and situated in a woodsy area.  Our own land provides us with plenty of wood to burn in both our upstairs and downstairs stoves.  We have an oil furnace for backup on only the coldest winter days consuming less than 100 gallons of fuel oil per year. Although we do burn wood the house is also heated by the sun on clear days.  The south side faces 10 degrees west of south and at Christmas last year the temperature inside the house was 78 degrees and the wood stoves were not burning.  Last year we also started to use 100 % Bio-diesel in our furnace and it worked perfectly.  I cut the line from the outside tank and introduced the bio-diesel from a 30 gallon heavy duty barrel to the pump on the burner.  From what I had read I thought I might have a problem with the seals on the pump, and I even bought a new Webster pump to be safe, but not one single problem appeared.  Incidentally, I produced the bio-diesel we used in our furnace myself.  The furnace burned so clean it even got rid of the soot from the petroleum oil that was in the flu pipe.

I have been retired now since March 09, so I will have a little more time to spend on new or old energy ideas.

Check in from time to time.  I hope I won't disappoint! 

Our boat "Ruby Slipper" now floats from her mooring in North Cove in Old Saybrook.  41 17.338N, 72 21.904W

The boat is a Cal 25, and was manufactured by Jensen Marine from California in 1973.  We have been racing her this year and have already completed several at the time of this writing.

Wish us luck!

Thanks for visiting.