May the sun shine

May the sun shine

  Today we were most fortunate to be able to go and pick up a not inconsiderable quantity of used solar pv panels – 0ver 3kW worth, together with a load of mounting rails. Although the panels are a few years old, they’re good ones, and should barely...
Lighting the rocket mass heater

Lighting the rocket mass heater

    Today we pushed on, built a brick support around the base of the firebrick burner, – above, and then backfilled all the gaps with perlite and a clay mix to thoroughly insulate the fire itself, which we want to burn as hot as possible. The clay mix...
Rocket mass heater progress

Rocket mass heater progress

  Having tried (and failed) to get clay soil cleaned up enough to make smooth clay mortar, I just went out and  bought some clean clay, which was thirty quid well spent, and allowed the burner for the rocket mass heater to get built. Several of you will be...
Solar hot water – new and improved

Solar hot water – new and improved

We’ve had our solar thermal panel up for nearly 2 years now, and while it has been great, we always knew it was slightly too small for the size of hot water tank we have. Some time ago our friend John Clementson was kind enough to let us rehome a couple of older...
Making a start on the rocket mass heater

Making a start on the rocket mass heater

Now that we’ve the outside of the build done, (regular readers will realise that there is something of a gap here, but don’t worry its coming soon), we are turning our attention to the rocket mass heater that is going to keep the space warm. For those who...
Turning up the heat

Turning up the heat

This is a rocket mass heater – the way in which we will be heating our crowdfunded ecobuild.  It is an incredibly efficient way to burn woodfuel, and extracts the maximum amount of heat energy from the fire. The flue gases heat a big cob bench, which then...