Wheatland Farm eco lodges: Our green choices

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Otter Cottage gets solar hot water

2010-03-28T22:41:00.004+01:00

Ian has put the solar hot water panels onto Otter cottage...

...the last of our self catering accommodation to get them. These ones should really cook – being on a south facing roof. All we need now is the sunshine. Poor Ian must have wondered whether it was all worth it as he worked alternately on the roof with rain dripping down his neck and in the loft with tar dust falling in his hair!

We rushed it through because guests who had booked Beech and Nuthatch lodges also wanted the cottage – a bit party get together.

The system came from Navitron again. Ian says they've made some improvements. The new pumping station was much easier to fit than the old one and the clips on the actual tubes were better too.

See our other posts on installing solar:
Energy monitoring put to good use
DIY tips for installing solar panels
Energy saving switches for the lodges

Buying local brings us local benefits

2010-03-22T22:44:00.005Z

Once again we’re seeing the value of buying local...

...Ian is working on the floor for the new eco lodge.

First step was to get rid of the old floor and non-structural block walls. We were going to break up the concrete and re-use it in gabions to build a bank and reinforce the front of the building (waste not want not!). But Martin Bragg, our local (and reliable ... and well-priced...) digger driver had a better idea - scrape up a temporary bund, build the bank with the recycled concrete, then cover over with earth. Thanks Martin, that saved a few pounds on difficult-to-fill wire gabions, gave us the structure we needed, and created a much better feature.

Next task was to source the aggregate for the floor. The first lot came from Jewsons in Okehampton (11 miles), but it arrived in a huge delivery truck that buckled the edge of the concrete drive and barely manoeuvred through the gate. So when we realised a local builders merchant, AMP building supplies, was based at Winkleigh’s old WWII airfield, that seemed much more sensible. Phil turned up in a much smaller vehicle, and instead of having to set up a business account, with credit references etc, he just said ‘I’ll leave the tab open if you’ll be wanting some more'.

And once that was done, we needed some custom-made steel ‘shoes’ to keep the existing wooden posts inside the building from penetrating the damp course (see picture). Sounds complicated. But luckily, Chris Hodgson’s engineering workshop in nearby Hollocombe was more than willing to help, even tidying up Ian’s sketched drawings before they went for fabrication.

It's surprising what's available on your doorstep when you look! It's good for us, and it's good for the local economy too - these are the people we meet 'down the pub' and in the village, and that make Winkleigh a thriving community.

Impressive U values for the eco lodge floor

2010-03-22T19:54:00.005Z

Ian has finished calculating the thermal insulation value (the U value) for the floor of the new eco lodge.

The U value measures the overall ability of a wall/roof/floor to prevent heat loss. It’s measured in Watts per square metre per degree Kelvin (W/m2.k) and takes into account all the thermal conductivity (k values) of the components of the structure, as well as other factors that affect how heat is lost from the building. Until recently, building regulations required floors to have a U value of 0.7 or below. That’s now been brought down to 0.22 W/m2.k. So how do we fare?

Well, it's not quite finished yet, as the picture shows, but here's the plan. The floor will be high-proportion recycled aggregate, then 150mm insulation (Kingspan, for it's exceptional insulation value, which we think outweighs it's only light-green manufacturing process - well they have been trying at least), then another 150mm of concrete made of 70% ash cement and recycled aggregate. Because it’s above the insulation, this layer becomes part of the thermal mass of the building, acting as a heat store to help regulate temperature. On top of that we’ll be putting down larch floor boards sourced locally (8 miles) from Mike Moser’s oak woodland restoration project.

Overall, that will give us a U value of 0.11 W/m2.k – twice as good as the 2010 building regulations.

Scrub bashing on Popehouse Moor SSSI

2010-02-28T21:04:00.004Z

[Maggie] We've taken a huge stride forward in habitat management this year...

...but now it's time to finish the job by tidying up! We've been burning brash from our 'scrub bashing'.

We have a lot of really overgrown hedgerows on the farm, and in Popehouse Moor SSSI the willows have 'fall off' the Devon banks, and branches have taken root in what should really be grassland. Too much willow isn't good for wet grassland - it sucks the water from the ground, transpiring it through leaves, drying out the soil.

If you've been on a guided tour here, you may not agree with botanist Mary Breeds, who last year told us the site would be better wetter, but we've taken her advice and cut back some of the invasion.

My Dad started it over Christmas - with just a bow saw. Inspired by the potential that small difference made, we had 2 days chainsaw work done. That's by no means all of it, and we don't want to hit it all too hard in one go. But it has revealed some of the old hedge boundaries, and will significantly increase the grassland area.

Now we have to get the branches off the ground before the spring comes. If the birds start nesting there we won't be able to shift them. And the boughs will set root in the wet ground again, making the problem worse than ever.

Like they have in this picture.

So it's been bonfire time...

And for anyone who's thinking 'what a waste', we've saved what we could, as you can see in these wood piles. Our trouble is getting it off the moor and back up to the house where we can burn it. There's no vehicle access and the ground is boggy.

Log by log then? Lots more excuses to go down to this special place!

We've been selected as a Much Better Adventure!

2010-02-13T23:40:00.004Z

We are delighted to have been accepted as one of the early members of muchbetteradventures.com, a carefully selected community of fantastic adventure providers who have a strong ongoing commitment to sustainability...

You can see us featured as part of their local travel directory, which puts you in direct contact (no commission) with handpicked active holidays, tours, courses and accommodation. The site also provides travellers reviews, the resources you need to book a low carbon journey, and has started a collection of community built guides to each activity or sport, where users are invited to share their favourite spots, useful info, ideas and inspiration.

Since going live a few months ago the site has grown quickly. Muchbetteradventures.com aim to build the widest and fairest selection of responsible adventure travel and equipment choices that outdoor lovers have ever seen, and bring support to many important conservation and community development projects around the world.

Check out our Wheatland Farm eco lodge profile. You can help us to benefit from this site by leaving a review of us, and by spreading the word to your friends.

Green green heating fuel

2010-01-23T22:10:00.004Z

Here's some of our green heating fuel, three times green but not because it's green wood though...

...it's actually dry and seasoned - always more efficient in a wood burner.

More importantly, it's reusing waste - saw mill offcuts.

And it's local - the mobile mill is working a wood about 8 miles from us.

And on top of that it's a conservation project restoring an oak woodland by selectively felling conifer plantation. So the felling will be matched by a rejuvenated 'native species' woodland in our lovely corner of Devon.

And the icing on the cake? It probably saves us a significant outlay on heating oil for the house. OK, the house is 'cool' in the original meaning of the term, but we haven't had to buy central heating oil for about a year and a half now.

Here's Ian unloading the trailer.

And here's another earlier blog post about this source of sustainable timber - which we also hope to use in the new eco lodge we're building. The cutting list has been sent off already!

Energy monitoring put to good use

2010-01-12T22:13:00.007Z

Energy monitoring has helped us make a surprising but sustainable business decision. We're no longer rushing to change the shower in Beech lodge over to the solar hot water system as there is no energy saving case for it. Let me explain...

Since last summer I've been following the energy consumption of our lodges and cottage pretty closely. I take meter reading after most bookings, and work out the energy use per night and also per guest night for each holiday.

Two of the lodges have all their hot water on solar systems with immersion top up (they sleep 4-6 people). Larger Beech Lodge sleeps 6-8 and has solar hot water for its bath and basins (with immersion top up), but not for its shower, which is on-demand electic. Otter cottage is different - and I'll come back to that!

After we finished the solar installation, we meant to change the shower in Beech Lodge over to solar hot water in the autumn, but held off, worrying that the winter sun in Devon wouldnt be anything like enough to provide hot water for a potential 8 showers a day, and that the immersion heater would be slow to keep up too - especially as we have a timer switch limiting the heaters to two hours on at a time.

And now, the energy monitoring confirms that this was a good choice, and in fact has persuaded us not to change it at all. Look at this graph of energy use per night for all 4 of our holiday accommodation units.

Beech Lodge, the brown squares, is pretty much indistinguishable from the other lodges in its energy use per night, even though it sleeps the most people (up to 8). In fact, Otter cottage consistently uses more energy than any of the lodges, even in the summer, even though it only sleeps 4.

And when you look at the energy use per guest per night, you see that even in summer, when most of the energy use will be for water, rather than heating, Beech Lodge with its electric shower (blue diamond now) is no worse than the other lodges. And in the winter, it's arguably better.

That's probably because more people are sharing the winter heating component in the larger lodge. And that's probably also part of the reason that Otter Cottage energy use per guest night soars in the winter. The cottage attracts more couples than families, and its conventional stone construciton makes it harder to heat.

There are some other excuses. Otter cottage electricity supply runs the shared washing machine and also an always-on pump. Nevertheless, having now seen Otter Cottage's rising winter consumption we'll be looking for ways to reduce it. Solar hot water, planned for this spring, would probably be good here - it would run the bath and basin (and probably the shower too as there are fewer guests to service).

And we have some other ideas for making the space heating more efficient - but that's for another post.

Christmas and New Year waste

2010-01-09T22:11:00.006Z

[Maggie] This post is a big thank you to everyone who stayed at our eco lodges and cottage over Christmas and New Year. We asked you to recycle and you certainly did!

Totted up, a total of 146 people nights over the two week holiday period (that figure includes us) produced just 13kg of kerbside waste - and at least 43kg of recycling. I say at least, because that doesn't include the cardboard and paper yet to be taken to the recycling centre, or any estimate of food waste going into the green cones - and I know you were using them.

So at a time when people often falter on their green intentions, you've really made a difference, cutting what might otherwise have gone to landfill by well over 75%, and probably somewhere between 80 and 90%.

Thank you so much. Sorting the rubbish can be one of the more disheartening jobs for accommodation providers trying to be green - but not this time, and that was an extra Christmas present for me!

Recycled office paper

2009-12-18T21:20:00.004Z

I've bought a ream of recycled copier paper. Not big news, you'd think...

...Except that I can't remember when we last bought paper, so this time I thought I'd make a note of it and see how long it lasts.

We just don't use it much - the prompt this time was needing to refresh the welcome information in the lodges and cottage.

We used to buy office supplies from Viking, but got so fed up with endless catalogues we asked them to take us off their mailing list. The last thing we bought from them was a replacement printer I think - delivered to the farm house door. A fat brochure was delived to the door separately the next day by courier. The paperwork was delivered to the door separately the day after that by the postman. And we'd partly done it to save driving to a shop!

This recycled paper came from a local high street retailer, though I've seen it in the big supper markets too. At least it's getting easier to buy recycled products now.

I'll add a comment on this post when the paper runs out. Sweepstake anyone?

Cutting landfill by 75 per cent

2009-12-10T22:36:00.006Z

[Maggie] Since September, when I started monitoring our rubbish, our recycling has cut what would otherwise go to landfill by 75 per cent...

...it could be higher, but I don't want to over-egg things. For those that need convincing about green stats (and why not), here's how I work that out.

From the beginning of September to date (13 December) we've put out 132kg of residual waste for 895 'people nights' (that includes us). Our kerbside recycling for that period was 126.5kg (weighed each week on the bathroom scales).

So far, that means we cut our landfill by about 48 per cent.

As well as what the council collect, we've taken cardboard (32kg), paper (49kg), mixed food plastic (12kg) to the recycling centre, as well as other waste they separate and recycle there (metal items, electrical items, batteries guests separate from their general waste etc - 36.5kg in total).

That means we've reduced what goes direct to the tip by about 65 per cent.

But we also encourage guests to put all their food waste into the biodigesters, as we do (well, we compost mostly, but the digesters can even cope with left overs like pizza).

That's harder to gauge, but we'll try...

If you're interested in UK food waste statistics, a new report (November 2009) makes very interesting reading.

The average UK household of 2.4 people throws away 330kg of food/drink a year, or just over 6kg a week. An average household of 4+ throws away 480kg a year.

About 9.6 per cent of that is disposed of down the drain.

So for arguments sake, and ignoring what goes down the drain, the average household throws out about 298kg of food waste a year, or 0.82kg per household per night.

Our guests are usually groups of more than 2.4! Often families, very rarely singles. But for argument's sake and so as not to be greedy, let's stick with the average and also assume guests only compost half the UK average - and the other half still ends up in the bin.

And for ourselves, since we're careful about food, I'll assume we compost/biodigest the average for a 2.4 household (6kg a week), not the figure for the 4 person household we actually are. That brings our estimated food kept out of landfill to 157.3 kg to date - and that's a conservative estimate.

So, in total, that's 413kg recycled and 132.5 to landfill - a 75.7 per cent reduction.

Still a lot though - even better would be to bring the overall amount down further. 545kg is a lot of waste, even if some can be re-used. It always makes me think of times before bin collections when rubbish had to be disposed of at home (usually down the privy). We'd be digging a lot of new out houses... When I get a chance I read My Zero Waste - a blog by the Green family who aim to have the bin emptied just once this year. Inspiring!

Seeing a Gaia 133 wind turbine in action

2009-11-28T15:49:00.008Z

Last Thursday (26th Nov) we went to see a Gaia 133 11kW wind turbine in action.

I haven't had time to blog about it before - too busy making a tractor cake and getting other things sorted for Euan's third birthday celebrations.

It was an open day at Helland Barton, in Cornwall, organised by wind turbine makers, Segen. The Gaia 133 is the model we're looking at for the farm and I particularly wanted to hear it. Guests come to our self catering accommodation for the peace and quiet, and I wouldn't want to jeopardise that.

Tony, one of our neighbours, came with us. How can I put it? The best site for the turbine is directly in his and Sally's line of sight from their kitchen window, albeit a field away. And unlike us, they are not avid wind turbine supporters. (Fair enough Sally?! :) ) They wouldn't mind if it was somewhere else, but do mind seeing it in their view. So thanks for coming along to actually look at the thing.

Laurence, from Greenthinking (who did our wind turbine site survey) was there, and on chatting all agreed the next step for us was for him come back and look at other sitings - to advise on whether they are viable given any likely drop in generating efficiency.

Wind turbines are surprisingly polarising things. They're still relatively new, and at the moment people either love them or hate them. So I feel this discussion process is worth sharing because it'll be being played out all across the country, at various scales (eg the Glyndebourne opera house 70m turbine approved after much wrangling last year) and at various levels of animosity (I'm thinking of the Cumbrian school where even an existing tower - taller than the proposed 18m turbine - didn't lessen entrenched opposition).

So, for the debate, - these are my views, and I've already declared where I stand...

As soon as we drove into Cornwall, there were turbines everywhere. Wow! I'm thinking - They've gone to town on turbines. They're really ahead of Devon - is it public opinion or planning policy that suddenly changes over the border?

We went past some wind farms. From a distance I thought they must be pretty big structures compared to what we wanted. They were sturdy things with robust towers. But when we got closer they didn't seem so tall. Oh dear! I mean I like them, but they did look fairly 'dominant' in the landscape. How did they compare to the 18m Gaia we were thinking about? So it was a considerable relief, when we got closer, to spot the Gaia in the landscape and get a 'Oh - is that it?' feeling.

The Gaia is slender, and much more elegant than the turbines we'd passed. I didn't think it looked at all out of place (yes, I know I would say that).

And the noise? When we got there it was a breezy day. Maybe force 3? We walked up a muddy track towards the turbine and I heard an almost-whistling noise. Oh dear again... but no - it was the noise of rain water flowing through a channel under a cattle grid. It wasn't until we were in the field that you could hear the turbine above the normal background noise of the hedgerow trees in the wind. Yes, stand near it and you can hear it. But it wasn't noisy. I didn't find it offensive even right up close. We walked around it, took a few video clips for the blog (and Sally, who couldn't come), and paced out 100m to see what it might sound (and look) like from Tony's house - although it's not necessarily the same I know...

And I know that just because I would be happy to look at it out of my window (enjoy actually), that doesn't mean everyone else feels the same. So we will see if it can be put elsewhere.

One idea would be to put it much closer to our own house (fair suggestion) in the corner of the top paddock where our sheep are. And having seen it I think that would be fine, even though it's probably half the distance from the nearest dwelling (ours this time!). But the house itself may be the problem, and it's why this site wasn't really considered first time around. Laurence says the turbulence a structure generates affects air flow for roughly twice the height and 20 times the length of that structure. So would the turbine be in the 'shadow' of the house? Hopefully he can give us more detail soon.

And if there is no viable alternative site?

I don't know. I want Euan to be able to make his kids a tractor birthday cake in a world not entirely wrecked by climate change. I believe that's a fight worth joining and one that demands action on all our parts. So I truly hope we can find a solution.

Meanwhile, here's the clip. And it sounds louder on the tape than it did standing there (and of course there's noise from the wind and the fairly-oldfashioned camcorder). But if you're thinking about one of these but have concerns I really recommend going to see it for yourself.

Rainwater harvesting in recycled industrial containers

2009-11-28T15:15:00.006Z

[Maggie] 2000 litres of lime and ginger body lotion, 1000 litres of tri enzyme rejuvenating mask and 1000 litres of Japanese camelia oil - supplies for our self catering welcome packs? Not quite...

They are four 1000 litre industrial storage cubes we'll be re-using in the new eco lodge to store rain water off the roof. Because of the legislation about drinking water quality in the accommodation we'll probably only be able to use rain water for flushing the loos, unless we get into energy intensive treatment sytems. But we'll see. Maybe a clearly labled tap in the kitchen and or bathroom?

The cubes have come from a local company, Barnstaple-based Devon Pallet Recycling. They cost of £48 each. A new one might have cost us up to £600. So thanks are due to our friend Paul for the tip. And good on Devon Pallet Recycling for turning waste into a marketable resource.

The cubes will need a bit of a rinse. Ian reckons there may be a litre or so of the lime and ginger left in one. If I get body lotion in my stocking in a recycled plastic bottle I'll not know whether to be apalled or impressed.

Probably appalled actually - lime and ginger isn't really me.

Saving 80 per cent of our laundry energy or just 'a fart in a teapot'?

2009-11-16T15:42:00.006Z

[Maggie] Should I be congratulating myself on cutting my laundry energy by nearly 80%? Or is it, as Ian memorably called it, just a fart in a teapot?

...I did 27 washes for the business in October. I use a machine that can take a 9kg load and I always do a full wash. I usually wash at 40 degrees (tried 30, but it doesn't get things clean enough with my eco - friendly washing powder), sometimes at 30 and sometimes at 60 degrees for really dirty stuff - teatowels etc.

We have a tumble dryer. I try hard not to turn it on, and when I do its heat is reused in the house because it's a condensing model. I managed to keep it off all October (actually it was only on 3 times between April and the end of October). But if I had used it, data I've just collected (November) suggest it would have used about 2.87 kWh per load.

If I'd washed everything at 40 deg and tumble dried the lot it would have used about 98.4 kWh. Instead, my smart monitor on the machine reads 18.4 kWh for October.

So should I be congratulating myself on cutting my laundry energy by nearly 80%? Or is it, as Ian memorably called it, just a fart in a teapot?

It takes an awful lot longer to line dry things than to load the tumble dryer - eye on the weather, out, back in, out again, wearing a path to the line... And in financial terms I've saved only about £8.00 (our daytime tarrif is about 10p per kWh) and am likely to save less than £100 over the year. If I'd spent the time earning money rather than trying to save energy we'd probably have been better off.

My point is that nobody is going to go green for the cash savings - it's just too much hard work. I can do it (and will continue to, on principle) because I'm at home most of the day and it's relatively easy to take advantage of good weather etc.

But it's not going to get us out of the climate change hole we've dug ourselves. It goes back to the arguement about spurious big number multipliers - a lot of small changes still only add up to a small change and we need something much bigger. It's another depressing thought I'm afraid.

Meanwhile, I'm still on the trail to find the big energy guzzlers in our house...

Helping fund raise for the community centre

2009-11-16T14:54:00.002Z

Another use for the recycled AA van - collecting furniture for a 50:50 auction in aid of the community centre...

After long battles, Winkleigh has persuaded the council to 'give' it the community centre, previously earmarked for development. But now the money needs to be raised to do repairs and maintenance. Ian helps out on the fund raising committee, and the hedgelaying demonstration we held recently was in aid of the centre. This time we've been out collecting contributions to the 50:50 auction and shifting tables for the event back and forth from the sports centre. The van is so versatile. Seats in, you can drive 6 kids to school. Seats out, you can load it right up.

Buying recycled goods

2009-11-16T14:17:00.002Z

[Maggie] It may seem obvious, but if we want to be able to recycle our rubbish we'd better buy it back again...

...otherwise there'll be no market. It makes sense intrinsically, but I have to admit I've only recently really taken it on board. Of course, we've long bought recycled toilet and kitchen paper. And charity shops provide our replacement teapots etc. But that has been more about not cutting down trees and reducing waste rather than closing the recycling loop.

So in future, I'll be looking out for products made from recycled materials as a matter of priciple. Yes, I bought these from Tesco. Some might question my principles there... But at least the labling was clear - they're made in the UK from recycled farm plastic. And today I almost got conned into buying 'recyclable' bags in Lidl. On the shelf it said Recycle rubbish bags. Bad English? An eco instruction? More like a fiddle. On closer inspection, the bags were made from recyclable, not recycled, plastic. Well, most of it is if you have the right facilities - but who recycles their bin bag?! Certainly not the council after they've collected it. Green wash I call it.

Advice on sustainable building

2009-11-10T23:18:00.003Z

We've had an inspiring visit from Rob Buckley, of the Dorset Centre for Rural Skills...

...This is it, this is the very start of our new Eco lodge! We have the planning permission, now we have to rise to the challenge of creating truly sustainable holiday accommodation. And one of our first steps has been to listen to what Rob as to say - afterall, he is 'mr straw bale south west'.

We've met him a few times over the last couple of years - at an open day at the Dorset Centre for Rural Skills, at a sustainable building show in Exeter etc, and he has offered to talk us through some of the basics. So we've swept the straw out of the barn, tidied the wood store, and thought through some ideas.

He's suggested modifying the overall design, keeping more of the 'barniness', reusing what would have been building waste within the structure, and making better use of the interior space. But most importantly, he's talked Ian through the stages of the build, and shared his knowledge of techniques and materials. There's nothing like experience!

Barn Owl friendly rat control

2009-11-10T22:17:00.004Z

No-one likes to talk about rats, but they're sometimes a problem we have to deal with - without harming wildlife, especially our owls...

...at this time of the year, when other food is getting scarcer, rats are around the outbuildings, looking for spilt chicken feed and scraps.

So this year, we've decided to try Eradibait - as reccommended by the Barn Owl Trust.

The biggest problem with conventional anti-coagulant rat poison is secondary poisoning - when animals consume a poisoned rat, poisoning themselves in the process. It takes a while to kill a rat. Anti coagulants disrupt blood clotting, thining the blood until the rat dies of internal bleeding. It can still be moving around for 2-12 days. And that means you'll probably not find the body before another opportunistic animal (a bird of prey maybe) does. Second generation rodenticides are worse than the first generation ones.

So even if you use the poison correctly, keeping it covered etc, you can't guard against secondary poisoning.

Barn Owls, along with Red Kites and Kestrels, are the most likely to
suffer secondary poisoning. And it's a growing problem.

Between 1983/4 and 1995/6 the percentage of Barn Owl carcasses containing residues of second-generation rodenticides increased from 5% to 38%.

But Eradibait doesn't cause secondary poisoning. It's based on ground maize combined with wheat and a sweet molasses attractant. The rats eat it, and it makes them dehydrated. The manufacturers say rats become lethargic, retreat to their burrow where they lapse into a coma and die. And apparently, because of the dehyration, the smell is less too...

Of course, you don't have to poison at all. You can trap rats, use cats (not very selective though), terriers, ferrets or just shoot them. And if you must use a conventional poison, and you're in the south west where resistance to anti coagulants is still low, you can use a first generation poison like Warfarin - see a list in the more detailed information on rat control from the Barn Owl Trust.

Hedges for wildlife

2009-10-18T22:51:00.003+01:00

Today we hosted a 'hedges for wildlife' event - in aid of the Winkleigh community centre...

...But we were just the hosts. Many thanks to Tom Hynes, of the North Devon Coast and Countryside Service, who provided the expertise, and Maire Claude, Margery and Claire who did the catering.

About 20 people turned up - not crowds. But it made a good number at the hedge where Tom demonstrated how to steep hazel, cutting through the uprights and bending them over, but leaving a hinge to living wood to sustain next year's growth and fastening the whole thing with a crook.

So that's a start on the long hedge at the southern end of the nature reserve, There's so much left to do though. By the time we've done all our hedges they'll all be overgrown again...

DIY solar air heater update

2009-10-16T23:07:00.004+01:00

We found a computer fan for the DIY solar air heater...

...thanks to Gareth and his computer shop in Barnstaple (01271 327627). Gareth doesn't like chucking stuff away any more than we do, and kindly gave us two fans. He repairs computers and sells reburbished ones - so maybe we'll be back to see him later. IT can be destinctly ungreen sometimes and the big suppliers aren't always great at their recycling.

Ian fitted the fan into some spare drain pipe, put the pipe and a back board on the contraption, mounted a 12v solar trickle charger we used to top up the electric fencing onto the front, and stood it facing the evening sun.

It worked a treat. Really impressively well. It was late afternoon, almost dappled shade, in mid October yet a hand to the end of the pipe detected a steady and surprisingly strong stream of warm air. Ian's Dad says he has a pair of heat probes
hanging around from when he did energy saving consultancy work (back in the 80s!) so we hope to get some proper figures.

Next decision - how to weather proof it and where to put it...

Blog action day - climate change

2009-10-15T00:01:00.003+01:00

You can make a difference - but switching off your phone charger won't do it...

This year's Blog action day is focussing on Climate Change - so here's a couple of thoughts.

You know those stats about unplugging your phone, switching things off at the wall etc? Well the other day I figured out that if I unplugged the washing machine at the wall when not using it, it would save me ooooh... £1.65 a year, roughly (I'm monitoring our business energy use closely these days!).

Not a lot then. Not much hope of getting people across the country as a whole to take that sort of thing seriously either.

But how many homes are there in Britain with washing machines? Must be more than 10 million. Twenty million maybe? So £33 million pounds worth of electricity going on standby a year - and that's just washing machines?

Hmmm. Maybe government should pass some laws about more efficient domestic appliances.

But if you think that's a lot of money for little red lights in the country's utility rooms, think about it a different way. The following is from Sustainable Energy without the hot air by respected academic David MacKay:

“The mobile phone charger averages around ... 1W consumption, but if every one of the country’s 25 million mobile phones chargers were left plugged in and switched on they would consume enough electricity (219GWh) to power 66 000 homes for one year.”

66 000? Wow, what a lot of homes! Switch off the chargers! ...... but 66 000 is just one quarter of one percent of 25 million. So... if you leave your mobile phone charger plugged in, it uses one quarter of one percent of your home’s electricity.
And if everyone does it?

If everyone leaves their mobile phone charger plugged in, those chargers will use one quarter of one percent of their homes’ electricity.

The “if-everyone” multiplying machine is a bad thing because it deflects people’s attention towards 25million minnows instead of 25million sharks.
The mantra “Little changes can make a big difference” is bunkum, when applied to climate change and power.... We all use power. So to achieve a “big difference” in total power consumption, you need almost everyone to make a “big” difference to their own power consumption.

Oh dear - that's depressing. What to do then? Well, maybe a big change is tricky all at once, but you genuinely can make a difference.

Already turned down your thermostat by 1 degree? Cut down on those unnecessary journeys? Buying your kids good quality second hand toys?

Here's another easy one, and you don't even have to do without anything.

Eat your way to a better planet. Start by eating less energy intensive highly-processed and highly-packaged food-mile laden grub. The average Brit throws away 400g a day of packaging - mostly food packaging. The energy footprint of that is about 4 kWh/d/person.

And don't throw food in the bin - give it away. Or freeze it, or serve it up differently with curry sauce, or whatever - as a last resort, compost it, or get yourself a cheap plastic biodigester that can take cooked food waste (some councils are subsidising them to around £10 a cone). You'll save money.

And if everyone did it we'll save on the lorry coming to take the rubbish, save on the landfill sites that have to be dug, save on the pest control, the .... Oh no, I'm getting carried away with the big number multipliers again.

Look - I reckon it's pretty simply. We all have to make a BIG effort to USE LESS - of everything. That's a good start at least.

And vote for a government that will help us collectively do the smaller things too.

Dormice getting ready for a Devon winter

2009-10-14T22:02:00.002+01:00

I've been out with Jan again for some more dormouse training. It was one of those beautiful autumn days you have to store up against grey November. And this time we found lots of dormice in their nest boxes, getting ready for winter...

They looked distinctly fatter than last time.

One dormouse heard us coming. As we approached the box a golden head poked out of the opening hole. While I dithered, not wanting to bop it on the nose with the paddle used to close the box while it's being checked, the dormouse nipped out and headed up the tree. Ah well - we at least ascertained there was a healthy dormouse in that box, even if we couldn't weigh or sex it.

And it sat still for some photos. They're not brilliant - I had to rest the camera on a tree to keep it still enough for a non-flash pic, and that constrained the angle. But it's the best dormouse picture I have from the natural environment...

Meanwhile, my Dad says he's made another 15 or so dormouse boxes, so come next spring I should be ready to put them up and join the National Dormouse Monitoring scheme. Jan says I'm about ready for a licence, but I need to find another referee, and anyway I'd like a bit more experience checking boxes at other times of the year - for example when young dormice are likely to be there.

An end to paper marketing

2009-09-26T22:05:00.002+01:00

This month sees the last of our paper marketing...
We've dropped our last brochure and will be concentrating on web marketing from now on - it's so much greener. We think our accommodation pages, our nature blog and our Devon days out ideas will convince you to come and stay in this wonderful part of Devon.

Devon Green Tourism Business Network - Wildlife for Economic Gain

2009-09-22T21:45:00.002+01:00

[Maggie] On 22nd we had 35 people from some of Devon's greenest tourism businesses here at Wheatland Farm...

... it was a meeting for the Devon Green Tourism Buisness Network. The topic was wildlife for economic gain, with presentations on the upcoming Wild about Devon project, how a nature trail can add value to a business, and our own case study - asking visitors to choose us for their self catering 'eco' holiday because we run the whole farm for wildlife.

Speaking in front of a crowd isn't one of my natural strengths, so the best bit for me was taking people on a walk and chatting about dormouse boxes, minimizing the mowing, greening the lodges, sowing yellow rattle so as to encourage the wildflowers, creating new habitats and laying hedges etc, ending up in the nature reserve, which is always my favourite place to be.

Fiona's Farm Fayre - the shop from the farm that also loans us the cows to graze our nature reserve - did a lovely lunch with far too many cakes...(great!). The village hall loaned us chairs for free (because we're helping fund raise for them by hosting a hedge laying demo - more later) and we gathered all the cups in the house and the mismatched crocks saved from when the lodges need new plates. It was a squeeze, but we rarely use that big room for anything else so there wasn't much furniture to push aside...

It was lovely meeting like minded people from other parts of Devon and sharing encouragement!

The Devon Green Tourism Busines Network was set up by Devon County Council to support sustainable tourism businesses. It provides a forum for the 165 Green Tourism Business Scheme (GTBS) accredited members in the County.

DIY solar air heater

2009-09-19T20:54:00.003+01:00

We're experimenting with a solar air heater made from an old sun bed and some secondary glazing. OK, so it won't do away with all our heating bills, but it could help in spring and autumn when it's sunny but still chilly inside.

We saw a commercial version of this earlier in the year at a eco-building event - but the price was high, around £1500 for a small unit.

Yet in principle the thing is so simple. You have a heat sink behind glass, an air intake at the bottom, and air out take at the top, and a solar powered computer fan to drive the circulation when it's sunny.

Apparently they've been used for a while in Germany, often to air heat caravans or holiday homes that aren't in frequent use.

So when Ian spotted the bulb-holding section of an old tanning bed down at the dump, he couldn't resist. And when my parents had their house double glazed, I nabbed some of the old secondary glazing they had been using.

Ian has painted the corrugated metal of the tanning bed black and fitted the glass on the front. A vent at the bottom lets air in - and warmer air rises out of the top. We still need to find a fan - back down to the dump probably - and decide where it's going to go. To heat a house of course you need to 'plumb it in' and that means holes through windows or doors, which isn't something to do without thought. We might test it on the garage first! We'll report back later.

Meanwhile, a little web research throws up some similar designs:

More here about how to make a solar air heater from drink cans.

On the fantastic Instructables site there's another design for a solar garage heater that circulates air from inside the garage through an external wall mounted heater (using metal fly screen, not beer cans)and back into the building.

Or if you just want something simpler to amuse yourself (or a science project for the kids) look at this page for a solar heater made from drinks cans that is hung in a window.