The Saugerties Fish and Game Club celebrated this past Earth Day with a new solar heating installation members say will pay for itself in just two years.
Contracting with Catskill-based Upstate Solar, company president Bill Fitzmaurice, who is also a club member, said a Cansolair Solar Max system, which has a solar air furnace, was installed as a way for the club to cut costs for heating their building while helping reduce CO2 emissions.
What makes the heating unit unique, according to Fitzmaurice, is that its heating core is made from recycled aluminum cans. The aluminum cans with their tops and bottoms removed have two fins inside, which help conduct and distribute heat.
Roof solar panels collect heat from the sun’s rays, which in turn heats air circulating through the furnace and its aluminum cans.
Cost of the product is about $2,700, according to Fitzmaurice, and with heating oil in the mid-Hudson section of the state at about $4.20 per gallon, according to NYSERDA, along with a 25 percent state and federal tax write-off, the game club members estimate that they will see their investment pay for itself in about two heating seasons.
Fitzmaurice said that in addition to using recycled material, the game club will be cutting its greenhouse emissions and saving money, “all a plus for the club.”
“It’s a nice way to celebrate Earth Day,” he added.
Located off Fish Creek Road, the Fish and Game Club is one of the oldest in the state, having been established in 1884.