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Cheap & efficient web hosting
Mark - Our friendly plumber for Solar panel and heatpump
installation as well as conventional plumbing work
Rapidplumb 07952 928685 |
This
site exists to follow the progress of our applying
energy and water saving ideas to our house here in
Clacton-on-sea in Essex UK.
Our mission statement:
- We want to be as self
reliant as possible without being fanatical about it.
- We try to structure
our garden on Permaculture principles
- We aim to
recycle
our rainwater and grey water through a reed bed.
- We plan to use
solar
energy and waste wood wood to heat our water and home and to
cook with and
solar electricity to lower our use of mains power.
- We want to consume
less and recycle more
- We want to grow and eat our
own vegetables, fruit, eggs and honey
- We hope to create all of
this ourselves (DIY) where possible from recycled materials.
Over 70 people to our last open
weekend (in spite of the showers.) It was fun and we met some new
friends! (Pictures later). If you would
like to visit contact us for an appointment, click
here for directions and details.
Our next open weekend is with
Heritage Open Days
on 12th 13th of September |
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Chris,
Rosie, Merri (11) and Robin (20 and away at Uni') moved to Clacton
in July 2007. We soon added Zero a Labrador puppy (born in
July 2007) to the family as well as eleven chickens (I won't list
their names!)
The plan is to put Rosie's and Chris's passion for recycling and
green living together with Chris's experience of self sufficiency
and alternative engineering to create a 'green' dwelling near the
sea with enough space to offer experiential 'Eco' holidays to
people with similar passions to ourselves. The result is lots of
work and a fair bit of chaos!
Things are working well here. If you want to visit us as a working or as a
paying guest get in touch. We have a three room unit to
rent or trade. Also we are members of
WWOOF and you
can visit us through that organisation as well trading your labour
for food and lodging. We offer a friendly place to
stay close to the sea where the focus is on low consumption and a
return to some of the greener ways of living. We try to live
closer to growing things and with an awareness of the connection
between the way we live and the rest of the world, both human and
natural.
We are proud to announce we have been assessed by the Sustainable
Energy Academy as having made a 76% reduction in our home's carbon
footprint. |
Last Winters work
- We have installed a
wood-fired central heating stove
and cooking
range to make use of the plentiful
supply of waste wood available in the nearby industrial estate.
- We have installed a
solar panel kit (20 vacuum tubes 1700mm long) from
Solarsavings
on eBay (Around
£1000 for the complete kit, half the cost advertised by other suppliers!).
- I have found a
source of insulation off cuts in the industrial estate and the
skip company are saving me flat panel radiators so watch this
space for progress on a home made flat panel solar panel!
- We have planted 30 willow cuttings from
Willowbank
- 4 varieties for comparison - 3 sorts of super willow and one
for making baskets etc. These arrived as unrooted lengths
of willow shoots and have been planted at 1 meter spacing.
They have grown over two meters in the first year!
- We
have built a
rain water harvesting system
and a
grey water recycling system consisting of:
- A surge tank to collect the water from the bath, washing machine and
vegetable washing sink.
- The reed bed: a combination horizontal and vertical gravel filter
planted with reeds and rushes. We have recently dug out an old well
which will be used to water the garden in the summer.
These systems feed:
- A leaky pipe watering system watering the polytunnel, dipping ponds
and fishpond.
- A series of vegetable deep beds made from scrounged turf & soil, horse
manure & scrounged roofing tiles for edging.
- We have completed a lean-to
greenhouse obtained from
Freecycle and using recycled concrete blocks from a demolition
next door to give us solar gain and
plant growing space, including a rock storage for excess heat
recycling (now working well).
- 1.6 Kw
solar PV (electricity
generating) system - now completed. We are using a
battery bank to store the electricity but will go over to
feeding into the electricity grid when the government increases
the feed in payment tarrif.
Upcoming projects
- DIY solar water panel system
- Rainwater flushing system for
the WC (see this article)
- Making our own bio fuel from
re-cycled chip oil (we have a supply of oil already).
- Continuing to insulate the
roof and floor with insulation off cuts from the industrial
estate - see pictures.
Contact: Chris Southall
email
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