"A guiding light to conservation"
The first floor museum is authentic to the 1912 period (coal stove, pitcher pump in the pantry, kerosene lamps, and player piano). On the other hand, the 2nd floor keeper’s quarters are modern with running water, electric lights and other appliances including a microwave, TV (small color set), coffee maker, toaster and vacuum cleaner. Before using any of these electrical appliance, however, the keeper must first check the batteries for available power. One rule of thumb at the Lighthouse is: If the wind blows, vacuum. If it doesn't, sweep!
HOW IT WORKS --ELECTRICITY
- Wind provides 90% of our electricity by our Bergey 1500 wind generator, which was installed in December, 1993. After 2 or 3 calm days in a row (and depending on how much electricity has been used), the keepers will run the 5KW diesel generator to recharge the 24-Volt, lead-acid, "solar" battery bank. Eventually we will add some solar panels to supplement the wind power during the summer. Because of the historic status of the Lighthouse, the panels need to be placed out of sight, so they will be installed inside the anti-aircraft gun emplacement at the base of the windmill tower. Also, we're watching the price of solar panels coming down....WATER is carefully gathered off the roof into a cistern in the basement. When it rains, the first flow--bird droppings and all--is diverted into a rain barrel outside. Then when the water runs clean, the keeper closes the diverter to direct the water into the cistern, which is a plastic-lined room in the basement that can hold up to 3,000 gallons.
Chlorine bleach is added to kill the bacteria and a series of filters removes microscopic particles, chlorine and also copper, which leaches out of the gutters. We use cistern water for flushing toilets, bathing, washing dishes and cleaning. Bottled water is provided for cooking and drinking. In the public toilet building bottled water is supplied along with moist towelettes. You will notice we ask people to discard soapy waste water onto the garden where it can grow some vegetables, rather than down a drain.
On this island of sun and fun, we don’t flush for number one! During the summer droughts, we learned that conserving water in the first place was the best way to insure having enough throughout the summer for everyone’s personal needs, as well as the plentiful vegetable garden.
HOT WATER - People staying overnight on the first floor get to heat up water for washing their dishes, for bathing and for cooking as in the old days--in a pot – but on a propane gas burner, which pollutes much less than the original coal stove would. In the second floor keeper’s apartment, a Paloma propane tankless water heater produces hot water only when it is needed, thereby saving a lot of water as well.
SEWAGE goes into an underground septic system. The Lighthouse and the public toilet building each have a 1000-gallon septic tank. The underground septic field is designed to handle a whopping 800 gallons per day. On average it sees less than 50 gallons per day, however, because water is so carefully conserved by our keepers, overnight visitors and our daytime guests. For example, the toilets use only one gallon of water that is pumped by hand into raised tanks and flushed only when necessary. (We don’t use sea water because the salt would pickle the bacteria in the septic tanks and would crystallize in the septic field pipes causing blockages.)TRASH is managed by the three Rs principle -- Reduce, Reuse, Recycle -- in that order. Another
motto along the same lines is "Use it up, Wear it out, Make it do, Or do without.
We call things that have to go to the landfill "trash".
If you can avoid buying these things in the first place, you have lived by the
first R -- REDUCE! The next step is to REUSE everything that you possibly can
-- washable utensils and Tupperware containers are preferable lunch containers to
so-called "disposable" plastic bags, for instance. At the lighthouse,
paper and cardboard packaging, plates, napkins, and other burnables can be used to start a
fire in the wood stove.
Finally, our RECYCLING principles are based on the idea that you
want to put things back as close to where they came from in the first place -- for
example, vegetable "garbage" is recycled to go back into the garden via the
compost pile; meat scraps and lobster carcasses become bait in the lobster traps; mussel,
clam and lobster shells go back to the sea, etc.
Rhode Island (not California or Washington as you might expect)
was the first state to adopt mandatory curbside recycling in residential areas.
Newport recycles all colors of glass, as well as metals, #1 and #2 plastics, plus
newspapers, cardboard and drink boxes.
If you look inside the linen closet on the first floor you can see one of the circulator pumps and manifolds (there is one on the second floor, too) which circulates heated anti-freeze through plastic tubes that are secured with aluminum shields to the under sides of the floorboards. (You can see these tubes and shields in the basement ceiling over the boiler).
Oil consumption averages only between 400-600 gallons per year. We keep the thermostats set at 60-65 degrees. In addition, the second floor keeper’s apartment has a wood-burning stove. Cordwood donated by a local landscaping firm is brought out on our boat and driftwood is also gathered from the beach.
In the downstairs museum, besides the central heat in the floor, old-fashioned hot water bottles and fluffy down comforters are provided for warmth. And don’t forget you can always buy a Lighthouse sweatshirt or fleece blanket (made of recycled plastic bottles) to keep you warm!
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