Overview: Our household in its everyday operation uses energy, water, air, and an ever-expanding amount of materials. Our journey toward sustainability involves returning to a lifestyle and household where mindful consumption catapults us forward to living more in balance with a healthy and vibrant ecosystem. Conservation and efficiency -- the two most important aspects of our approach to responsible energy use -- inspire us through their remarkable simplicity of implementation and through their stunning effectiveness. Conservation means using less. Efficiency means using the energy we need as carefully and optimally as possible.

Timing: On-going and incrementally, as budgets permit.

Short-list of Top Energy Savers:

• Front-loading clothes washer: LG front-loading washer replaced a 15-year-old Maytag Neptune. It uses about 50 percent less water than the average top-loading machine and about 37 percent less electricity per year.
• Energy Star-certified refrigerator with freezer on top and refrigerator below (no water or ice in the door): A refrigerator's electricity needs make up 12 percent of an average home's electricity bill, so the refrigerator we purchased should reduce our bill by about $50 per year.
• Pulling the plug on the clothes drier: Never used it! We line-dry all laundry, 365 days a year.
• Compact Fluorescent Bulbs: We replaced practically all incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs. About ninety percent of the energy used by an incandescent bulb is given off as heat, not as the light that we actually want.
• Buy other Energy Star products: We use the EPA's Energy Star label to guide our decisions regarding many other appliances. This logo identifies products that have been evaluated and qualify for the Energy Star seal for energy efficiency.
• Kill the "safety light": Not long after we moved to the farm, we dismantled the farmyard "safety light" that had burned all night. It saves us roughly 500 kWhs/year in electricity use. Plus, we can see the stars better.

Ecological Impacts:What energy we do use, we try to use as efficiently as possible. Based on utility records, we've discovered that we're using about 40 percent less energy than the former owners did, putting us below the average single family home in Wisconsin of about 10,000 kWh/year. Selecting energy efficient appliances immediately helped reduce the amount of energy we used, which saved us money and reduced our impact on the environment.

Eco-nomics Investment Tip:
What $10 investment provides a guaranteed return of 120 percent per year, tax-free?
Switching one incandescent light bulb to a compact fluorescent bulb.

Farmstead Overview and Self-guided Booklet: Print out the 20 page booklet, The Good Life Guide: A self-guided tour of Inn Serendipity & the renewable energy systems that make it possible.

Demonstration Grant Funding Support: Portions of this website and related Good Life Guide: A self-guided tour of Inn Serendipity & the renewable energy systems that make it possible were made possible, in part, through funding provided by the Wisconsin Focus on Energy Program.

An overview of the many renewable energy systems, "green design" approaches, natural building projects, and conservation measures employed at the Inn are summarized in an Inn Serendipity fact sheet and detailed in the innkeepers' books: Farmstead Chef, Rural Renaissance, ECOpreneuring and the vegetarian cookbook, Edible Earth. You can also read Lisa and John's latest "Farmstead Chef" blogs on HobbyFarms.com.