1. Heating: The large wood-fired boiler has been removed together with the large thermal store; both were purchased by other eco-enthusiasts. The heating is now generated by a Mitsubishi 11.2kW Ecodan heat pump couple to a 300L Solar Thermal Cylinder. The 'Melcloud' software controlling this is very easy to use and operates the units with almost no user input. The efficiency and heat generation is now so efficient that half of the solar thermal tubes had to be removed to avoid overheating in summer. These too went to an offgrid eco development near Oxford.
2.Energy use: To optimise the use of the PV generated energy from the barn roof, a Tesla Powerwall 2 battery has now been installed. Illogically installing this alone would have incurred VAT but installing at the same time as solar panels would be VAT free. We therefore added a further six 410W solar panels ( an additional capacity of around 2.5kW and enabling the installation to be VAT free. Over the last couple of months UK government have removed this requirement an batteries can now be added to existing solar VAT free. The excellent Tesla software controlling charging times enables the battery to be programmed to recharge at off-peak rates (just over 7p per kw from Inteilligent Octopus Go).
3. Testing v2h - bidirectional charging: Colemans Hill Farm is now a partner in a test programme for v2H - using the considerable spare capacity of an electric car to power the house (our Nissan Leaf has a 60kW battery and for quite a lot of the time is standing idle). This is also pretty automatic so the EV is programme to top up the battery during off-peak and if remained plugged in, will automatically take over supplying the house when the Powerwall is exhausted. Using the combination of the Powerwall and the Nissan battery enables the house to be heated with off-peak electricity on most days for a full 24hrs.
4. Growing vegetables: two reclaimed greenhouses and a number of raised beds made from pallets, enables quite a lot of vegetables to be grown organically
5. Biodiversity: Some of the original oak trees along the drive are now more than 10 metres high and a large area behind the house has been sown with native wildflower. The original pond has been enlarged (with a rubber liner) and this has attracted frogs, toads and newts together with mallards which have bred on site. Some control is required to dissaude a large Grey heron from using the pond as a free larder! Maturing hedges, wildflowers and more uncut grassland have increased the numbers of mice and voles which in turn has attracted nesting barn owls to the next boxes installed in the barn. In 2022 a pair produced 6 eggs but didn't seem to know what to do with them. In 2023 a different pair produced a late clutch of 4 eggs from which two youngsters survived to maturity. A new larger box has been put up in 2024 and we haope that one of these nesting pairs will be back in the Spring.
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