Some taking part in Saturday's Capital Area Solar Tour felt like they'd turned about medium rare in a solar cooker. And that was only after a 10-minute hike to the first stop.
It was just 10 a.m., but the temperature was already in the high 80s and headed for the low 90s.
The all-day event " sponsored by the Frankfort Climate Action Network " took a group of 42 to four homes near Frankfort that feature energy efficiency and renewable technologies in their design, construction materials and appliances.
The group toured:
>Mark Schimmoeller and Jennifer Lindberg's passive solar, timber-framed cedar cabin in rural Franklin County near Peaks Mill. The one-bedroom home uses a small solar electric system and a homemade solar water heater.
They use a wood stove for supplemental heating and burn about three-fourths of a cord of wood each year. They use rainwater collected in a cistern and a solar cooker for preparing the vegetables grown organically and stored through the winter in a root cellar. They are currently building a small bakery with a wood-fired masonry oven.
>The geodesic dome home of Susan Lambert and Hugh Archer in rural Anderson County, near Franklin County, that got its start in the 1970s as an architecture class experiment. It has evolved into a model of energy efficiency featured nationally as an "extreme home" on the HGTV network.
The group on tour learned about the wetland septic system and the virtues of dome construction that contribute to its low-energy use and great structural strength.
>The Bridgeport residence of Angela Mitchell, who has introduced energy-use modifications to her home that have reduced her electricity use by 60 percent. This year she has added extra insulation, changed her lighting to compact fluorescent bulbs and installed energy-efficient appliances and a solar hot water system.
Mitchell is the first Frankfort Plant Board customer to request tying a solar electric system into the municipal utility company's electrical grid. Last week Jeremy Coxon of SunWind Power Systems in Floyds Knobs, Ind., installed the solar photovoltaic panels on the roof of her home. He will do the wiring as soon as the Plant Board approves the net-metering system. Mitchell hopes it will be in operation before Thanksgiving.
>The Gail Robinson-Kevin McNally home in the Bald Knob area, constructed with an open passive solar design. Large windows face south and the roofs are constructed to capture winter sun and shed summer heat. They have an indoor greenhouse where plants can grow year-round. Rainwater collection provides water for irrigation.
The home is heated comfortably in winter by only two cords of wood, due in part to radial positioning of bedrooms around an opening that extends through the second floor. Cross ventilation contributes to summer cooling, as does the location of the house beneath a canopy of mature trees.
They say their indoor composting toilet is both trouble- and odor-free. An evacuated tube solar water heater is being installed before winter.
Frankfort High School's star quarterback E. J. Fields, who led the Panthers to a 33-14 win over Trimble County Friday night, participated in the tour for his ecology class taught by Kelly Helton.
"It's been an enjoyable day, a good learning experience," Fields said after the last stop. "Now I'm going to try to get my mom to put energy-efficient compact fluorescent light bulbs in our house."
His senior classmates, Brittany Wideman and Sam McWilliams, and Michael Fleck, an eighth-grade student at Capital Day School, say the tour made them more aware of what they can do to improve energy efficiency in their homes and help the environment.
"The world needs to come to a change," Wideman said. "We need to all get together and inform everybody about change."
Reba Pierce, a member of the Frankfort Climate Action Network, said, "We saw there are all kinds of ways of approaching being greener in our lives. You can take small steps or large steps and we saw examples of both today."
Mark Robb and Tom Lowery, electrical engineers with Lexmark in Lexington, said it was nice to meet people on the tour with similar ideas. "It's disappointing that more people aren't interested in things like this," Robb said.
He said he's "not 100 percent convinced" global warming and climate change are "human caused. But we're contributing. I think we all could learn to live a little bit simpler with a little bit less."
Lowery was the first person to install a grid-intertied solar electric system at his house in Clark County.
Robb has an underground, passive solar home in Bourbon County.
The solar tour, to help celebrate October as Energy Awareness Month, was sold out. Thirty-two went on two city buses and others followed in cars.
Allison Fleck, who works in communications for the state Division of Water, said it was a great turnout.
"It shows there's a greater interest in all aspects of alternative energy and incorporating that into everyday lives," she said. "This has shown it is doable " maybe not on this scale but on a smaller scale.
"My son and I (on the bus) talked about changes we can make that aren't drastic " like better insulation and using rain barrels " but for us would be modest and doable," she said. "It's a first step."
During a vegetarian lunch at the Paul Sawyier Public Library, the group watched a film, "Kilowatt Hours."
It shows connections between an average homeowner's energy use and mountaintop removal, global warming and nuclear power, and demonstrates what homeowners can do to save energy.
After the film, Andy McDonald, of the Kentucky Solar Partnership, and Dean Sorg, of Sorg Heating and Cooling, talked about what state and local leaders can do to make it easier for people to use renewable energy and practice green building.
At the last stop on the tour, Jeff Owens, of Owens Architects in Anderson County, gave a presentation on residential projects that demonstrate green design and passive solar principles.