E3 - Energy and Efficiency with Emily is a podcast dedicated to energy efficient home building in cold climate areas of New England. In this weeks podcast we had the pleasure of talking with Fred Greenhalgh with Revision Energy. Revision Energy is a full service renewable energy contractor, who provides a full range of engineering, design, installation and equipment services for homes, businesses, municipal buildings and nonprofits. But most importantly, they are on the forefront of solar expansion here in Maine. They have installed solar in-spite of poor legislation and have helped lobby for the better policies we now see coming to Maine. If you’re at all interested in solar, this is the podcast for you! Fred has been with Revision for a number of years and has a great deal of information to share, including his journey of living completely off grid and the challenges that go with that. Check out the new construction + solar guide he put together: HERE Learn more about Revision and their mission HERE or Learn about the technology for your home HERE They have a great website including blog posts and updates on the legislature. They often put on events and tours for you to see solar in action, and their employee owners are often seen out and about in the community. We hope you enjoy this episode and let us know if you have questions we didn’t cover with Fred!
Fred Greenhalgh
Creative Services Director
Hailing from Downeast Maine, Fred completed his studies at USM in 2006 with a focus on Media Studies. Fred’s a passionate writer, as well as an audio producer, and since 2007 has been running a radio show called Radio Drama Revival at community station WMPG. He also produces his own fiction stories as audio plays with his award-winning FinalRune Productions.
Since joining ReVision Energy in 2010, he has had the joy of using his new media skills to promote the sound economic and environmental return on investment of solar energy. He is also committed to sustainability and simple living in his own life.
He and his wife Amy, their daughter Nyana, dog Henry, 28+ chickens, goats, and seasonally-varying cast of other critters live on an action-packed 4 acre off-grid homestead in Alfred, Maine.
Fred and Amy built their cozy yurt-inspired SIP-house themselves, and can attest to the wonders of insulation (over 20°? who needs heat?). They recently traveled to Lesotho (in Southern Africa) to install solar panels on a community hall, where it will help bring educational activities to a remote area of the world (they lived in a round house while there, too).
In addition to living sustainably, Fred and Amy are passionate about environmental conservation and serve on the Town of Alfred’s Conservation Commission.
Fred and Amy’s off-grid home contains a super-efficient audio post-production facility which can pump out quality productions for less than 2kw/hr of power a day! Meeting this modest electric load is a 750W solar electric array cobbled together from ReVision’s scratch and dent bin. They have a rarely-used gasoline generator as backup.
The Winter Panel SIP home uses around a 1/2 cord of firewood a year, most of which is harvested from their own land. They have not fired up their propane back-up heater since 2010.
Finally, they have a DC-powered Solene Aurora solar hot water collector, completing the suite of renewable energy systems.
