by Jodie Gray, Good Energy
River Cottage HQ in Devon doubled as Good Energy HQ for two days last weekend as we headed south as the sustainability partner for River Cottage's Autumn Fair.
The team from Good Energy, led by our resident microgeneration guru Hugo, set out to spread the word about the work we're doing with River Cottage to improve sustainability and energy efficiency at their HQ. The farm's a real hive of activity with its huge range of courses, visitor days and special events. All that activity needs energy, and RC wants to make sure it's as sustainable as possible.
After weeks of planning, arranging, booking and organising, we set off for RCHQ on Friday afternoon from our office in Chippenham down to the rolling hills of Devon. After a couple of essential stops (for hay bales, tools and, erm, ice cream) we arrived at Park Farm, River Cottage's idyllic sprawling smallholding.
We set up base in the producers' tent, next to some deliciously tempting honey and chocolate stalls, and installed four ‘sustainability spots' around the site. These spots - wind, water, wood and sun - provided specific information on RCHQ's sustainability projects; from the newly-installed wind turbine to their reed bed system for treating sewage.
Once everything was looking good, we headed to a local campsite to pitch our tents. We raced against the clock to hammer in the last tent pegs just as the sun set, then it was off to the pub for locally-caught fish and chips, before crashing out.
We awoke bright and early and while the girls raced the rest of the campsite to the showers, the boys put the obligatory morning coffee on to brew. After bacon and egg sarnies (local, outdoor-reared and free range) we set off back to RCHQ for the big event.
Visitors started pouring in as soon as the gates opened, and their first port of call was our wind sustainability spot. Manned by Good Energy Shop manager Katie and Toby from Freesource Energy - one of our fantastic microgen installers - it was crowded with families keen to find out about the new wind turbine and how Good Energy was involved. Further down the hill they reached the sun spot, and as they strolled towards the River Cottage kitchens they were met by our MD Barney, asking "Why is wood good?" on the wood spot and Head of PR Sophy on the water spot.
Hugo and Stewart from Satellite Architects addressed a standing-room only audience about some of the eco-measures at River Cottage and offered lots of advice to people signing up to the 10:10 campaign about how to cut their carbon emissions.
The Good Energy was clearly spreading, as loads of people came to chat to us in the producers' tent and find out more about how they could get our 100% renewable electricity; and more about generating their own. The next generation of sustainability experts got involved too, as the kids rushed around to collect a card from each sustainability spot and collect a tasty little reward.
On Sunday evening, as the last of the visitors were heading home, we enjoyed a well-earned cider with Hugh before packing up our van and heading home.
The Autumn Fair was a really brilliant event - Hugh and the River Cottage team at RCHQ made us really feel part of the action. The crowd was great too - it was great to get out there spread the word to people who didn't know about Good Energy before, and also to catch up with some of our customers who stopped by to say hi.
Hope to see you next year!
Solar hot water is really only suitable for the hot water supply. For central heating, a wood burning stove is probably best provided that you have a suitable chimney/flue.
I thought about the Solar Hot Water System,i was thinking about the Central Heating mainly ,to save on cost of Oil.
But,apparently it does`nt work,so the Rep told me when he called to do a Survey.
A solar-electric/battery system just to run the pump would not be expensive - assuming that you are talking of hours rather than days. For general use, a generator will be more cost-effective, at least in the medium term. Environmentally, the best thing we could all do (mea culpa) is to install solar hot water systems. They are much more cost-effective than solar-electric and "greener" too in terms of the materials used.
Dear All, In one of our farm magazines a farmer in the outback has been running his farm on Solar power for 20 years and has not had a problem. In Australia we too can return excess power to the main grid and be paid for it. My husband and I would really like solar power. Our power goes off quite regularly We have a generator to run the water pump when this happens nb we are on tank water.
In the UK, most premises are connected to the main electricity supply. Rather than store surplus generation locally, it is exported back to the power grid and then bought back when the local demand exceeds the local supply. Domestic supplies are usually between 14 and 24 kW. I'm guessing that places which rely on locally generated power don't cook on electricity.
The way I understand it is these Turbines and Solar power are generating power to batteries (well they are in Australia). Wouldn't it be the amount of batteries one has and how much power they can generate. Anne-Marie
Of course, the real issue is that we shouldn't be using cookers at all - gas or electric.
To minimise our energy use, we should all be buying ready meals and microwaving them. 5 minutes at 1.5kW gives 125Wh per day or less that 46kWh a year! Or better still, buy a sausage roll from the garage and they'll heat it for you :-P
Good Energy,
You must be very efficient,you answered 3 Blogs in 1 minute,
But with the same message,so not really answering the total questions,
Shame them Satalite boys have gone quiet,i thought they were adviseing on efficiency.
I like to eat food from a BBQ .
No need for any KW s of big fans blowing in the wind just sling it on and watch it burn.
As for good Energy , I reckon you can get that from Honey or milk.
Happy days
M&K
Love this Blog!
I went to the Argos site and had a look at electric cookers. Its pretty misleading. They give the energy consumption for the OVEN, with most of them coming in at 0.9kwh (the Beko s502 for example!). No news on the hobs, which obviously must be pretty thirsty and much along the lines of a traditional bar fire. So for your Sunday Roast you must be well into the 2-3kw if you have the oven and a few hobs on.
But you are not going to have your oven and hobs on all day are you? Kettle and toaster in the morning perhaps....then my whacking plasma screen so I can watch Hugh 'as though I was there'!
Gav