Mike Hornsby, who chairs West Windsor’s Environmental Commission, was inspired to become an environmental activist as a child growing up near a polluted stream. Today, after decades of work in environmental concerns as an engineer, Hornsby brings his life-long interest in “green” energy to West Windsor — and to his own house.
Hornsby lives on Alexander Road with his wife, Angela; daughter, Nicole; and two golden doodles, Bonnie and Lucy, on a property that consumes no oil, very little gas, and with electricity purchased through an environmental company.
Three years ago, when their oil burner needed to be replaced, the couple decided to install a geothermal heating system, a decision that Hornsby says they are pleased with because of the substantial savings on monthly energy bills.
“It works as designed,” he says, which is for consistent heating and cooling. During the “polar vortex” last year, the house remained comfortable and the system worked just as well as his oil burner did in the past.
Following the guidance of West Windsor residents Andrew Kulley and Ed Hammerle, who had already installed geothermal systems on their properties, Hornsby hired contractor Tindall and Ranson, based at 880 Alexander Road, to install the system.
“A key part of the system consists of two, 250-foot wells that were drilled in our front yard in order to install the underground geothermal loop. The system works great and provides heating, cooling, and hot water,” he says. The system is kept at 70 degrees year round.
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, geothermal is the most efficient heating and cooling system available. And while the investment may initially be higher than a gas or oil system, Hornsby says he found that the federal tax credits and state incentive programs made the geothermal system he installed comparable to a gas system.
The total cost for installing the system, as well as roof and basement sealing and insulation, duct installation, and electrical panel upgrades, was $52,000. Government incentives help offset the cost, including a 30 percent federal tax credit, a $5,000 state grant, and a $10,000 no-interest loan.
To take advantage of state tax incentives to install geothermal, however, homeowners must have a home energy audit and seal and insulate their house first.
“They put a big fan in your front door and depressurize the house, and measure how leaky your house is,” he says. His own home was brought up to state standard before contractors installed the system. For details about this program and others, he points to the New Jersey Clean Energy website, www.NJCleanenergy.com.
Seeking to go even more “green,” two years ago the Hornsbys leased a Ford Focus Electric. “We’ve driven it almost 20,000 miles in the past two years,” he notes. “The Focus goes about 76 miles on a charge and it takes about three hours to charge on the 240-volt charger installed in our garage.”
Hornsby says one of the best things about the car is that he doesn’t have to stop at the gas station. The family also has a hybrid car that they use for trips beyond the range of the electric car. In another effort to go green, 100 percent of their purchased electricity is sourced from wind power, through Ethical Electric, a company available via New Jersey’s Clean Power Choice.
They avoid gas guzzling snowblowers and lawn mowers, instead choosing the “wovel,” a wheeled shovel, to remove snow and a push mower to maintain their lawn.
“Bottom line: we use no heating oil, virtually no natural gas, only a small amount of gasoline and 100 percent purchased wind power. So we have managed to reduce our carbon footprint substantially,” he says.
Hornsby grew up in Middlesex, the son of Leo and Marion Hornsby. Leo served in the Air Force during World War II and Korea and worked as a building manager for an Exxon research and engineering company in Florham Park. His mother was an artist.
The family lived near a visibly polluted stream called the Bound Brook. “It was in my neighborhood,” he recalls. “We used to play in it as kids, and there was a junk yard upstream, and every once in a while, tires would come floating down the stream. As a kid, that was disturbing, and it’s still disturbing.”
He says this experience piqued his interest in protecting the environment. “During the OPEC oil embargo in the 1970s there seemed to be a consensus that our country needed clean renewable energy for environmental protection and for energy security,” he says. “I bought into those goals then, and still do. I took an environmental science class in high school. That class influenced me to pursue a career in the field.”
He earned his bachelor of science at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, and then earned his master of science there in environmental engineering/toxicology. During college he worked aboard an EPA helicopter for three years, collecting coastal water samples from New Haven to Sandy Hook, especially around New York City.
“The samples had to be collected at the same state of tide,” he says, “so a helicopter was an effective way to do that, since there was such a large area to be covered. The most fun in that job was flying near Manhattan in that helicopter and coming face to face with the Statue of Liberty.”
Mike met Angela through mutual friends in 1984 and moved to Princeton Junction in 1988, the year they were married and a year after Hornsby graduated from NJIT, so that he could commute by train to his job at the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection in Trenton. His mother-in-law, Eva DiPierro, a Yardville resident, worked in the bakery at the former West Windsor Acme, and pointed them toward possible houses to rent.
The Hornsby family lives in a 1952 four-bedroom cape on Alexander Road, walking distance to shopping and the train, which further reduces their energy expenses. Angela works as the administrator of the Pediatrics Department at Rutgers-RWJ Hospital in New Brunswick. Their daughter, Nicole, 19, graduated from High School North in 2013 and now attends Mercer County Community College.
When Hornsby first moved to West Windsor, “the renewable energy field was nonexistent,” he recalls, “so I took on what I thought needed the most attention: Superfund sites. As an environmental engineer, I helped to clean up some of the state’s worst Superfund and brownfield sites. I later did the same in the consulting engineering field.”
“Over time I became increasingly concerned about the relationship between energy use and climate change. I took on environmental policy, plug-in electric vehicle, and renewable energy roles in the energy industry with companies such as PSE&G.”
In his current work as chief project development officer for the New Jersey Energy Resilience Bank, he works to create clean, onsite energy systems at public facilities. These facilities include water and wastewater treatment plants, hospitals, and public shelters, among others. Target energy technologies are fuel cells, combined heat and power systems, and solar/battery systems.
“Our goal is to protect these facilities from losing power as a result of extreme weather events like the next Superstorm Sandy,” he says.
He also works as adjunct professor in NJIT’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, where he teaches the graduate course Site Remediation, and is a guest lecturer in other energy and environmental classes. He wrote the New Jersey Licensed Site Remediation Professional (LSRP) licensing exam.
In 2011 PSE&G honored Hornsby for volunteerism in another area of interest — firefighting — which Hornsby says “wasn’t a big leap” from his training in hazardous materials clean-up. Hornsby is a top ten responder with the Princeton Junction Volunteer Fire Company. Firefighting is environmental protection, he jokes, “in its most rapid form.”
Greening West Windsor. As chair of the West Windsor Environmental Commission, a position he has held since 2001, Hornsby hopes to help make the township more sustainable. One of the present initiatives is a climate action plan that will be peer-reviewed as part of a course at Rutgers University. Once this peer review is complete this spring, the commission will reach out to the public to ask for input.
“We want to raise awareness among the public and the officials that climate change is here, it’s getting worse, and humans are largely responsible for it,” he says. “We can take action now to reduce our carbon emissions which contribute to climate change, and to become more resilient against extreme weather events.”
The plan will offer an array of different opportunities for West Windsor businesses, piggy-backing on state incentives to make businesses more environmentally healthy and sustainable.
The commission is supported by the mayor and council, by township liaison and landscape architect Dan Dobromilsky, and by West Windsor residents. Hornsby invites interested residents and businesses to consider joining the West Windsor “Green Team” to work together on environmental and sustainability issues.
The “Green Team” consists of people and organizations beyond the Environmental Commission who support environmental and sustainability efforts in the township.
Two examples of Green Team successes are Anisha Amurthur, a high school Girl Scout who developed the Mayors’ Wellness Campaign to equip the mayor and other leaders with the tools to develop and implement active-living initiatives in the community; and Chief Joseph Pica and the West Windsor Police Department, who have developed and implemented a vehicle anti-idling campaign.
Hornsby says he views the most recent dip in national gas prices as a side-step on the path toward a nation that uses more fuel-efficient cars. The market has already shown that trucks and SUV sales are up, while alternative-fuel vehicles and hybrid sales are down.
Most experts in his field, however, “feel that we are moving to electric and alternative fuel vehicles. It’s a matter of how quick it’s going to happen,” he says.
For himself, in making the personal choice to “green” his own home and vehicle, Hornsby said reducing his energy consumption of fossil fuels was a priority. He says asked himself, “If not now, when; if not me, who.”
#b#Sidebar: Geothermal Economics#/b#
Hornsby’s heating and cooling system cost $52,000, which included an overhaul of his HVAC system, roof and basement insulation, and electrical panel upgrades. Hornsby expects to recoup much of the expenses through federal and state incentives, as well energy savings.
Another geothermal convert is Barbara Fox, a U.S. 1 reporter who chronicled her family’s installation in an article on February 2, 2011, in U.S. 1. In 2010 the Foxes threw out the gas furnace, hot water heater, and central air conditioner. Fox reported the total cost for her insulation and geothermal system was $46,654, which was $21,846 after government incentives. A $10,000 no-interest loan halved the out-of-pocket payment. However, extra costs amounted to $14,330: lawn repair and a second sump pump were anticipated, though a new sewer line, asbestos analysis, and sidewalk and furnace repair were unexpected.
“The real payback is we never need to feel guilty about being comfortable all year round,” Fox says now. “We can be thrifty and be very cold in the summer and comfortably toasty in the winter all night as well as day, because the geothermal system requires an unchanging thermostat setting.”
Maria DePasquale, a sales associate with Long and Foster Real Estate, says she usually recommends replacing a whole HVAC system at once when a big component has expired, as old systems do not work well with new systems.
“When buyers are looking to buy homes, we have a document called the ‘seller’s disclosure,’ which lists important information on the house, including the age of a heating and cooling system, etc.” DePasquale says. “If there’s two competitive properties, and one has replaced its heating and cooling, and one has not, that could be a cost of $30,000 replacement value.”
This means buyers prefer updated and well maintained heating and cooling systems. “If it hasn’t been serviced, I may ask the owner to get the system serviced and up to date,” DePasquale says.
