News
RENEWABLES AT BLACKBROOK FARM
Summer of 2011 saw a 1kW photovoltaic array installed on the roof of the farmhouse.This will meet some of our electricity requirements and will compliment the existing solar water heating panel on the roof beside it.
When the sun isn't shining a stove with backboiler heats domestic hotwater and radiators. Fuel for the stove comes from managing the farm's six acres of woodland and from woodwaste created by the carpenter and furniture restorer operating in one of the outbuildings.
Any excess firewood and kindling is sold to our neighbours to create a small income which goes back into managing and developing the farm.
When it gets seriously cold the stove is backed up by an air source heat pump which is far more efficient than our old calor gas powered boiler.
Plans to utilise a small stream running through the farm to power a 1kW micro hydro generator are in the pipeline and this should be up and running by 2015.