On a day like today when the wind is bitingly cold, but the skies are clear, and we enjoy some winter sunshine, it is great to be able to celebrate the fact that for once, everything is working, and we are able to take a moment to marvel at the fact that we have all the heat and light we need purely from the sun, even at a relatively northerly latitude.
For a January day, the solar thermal panels are managing to heat the water to over 40 degrees C, which in turn reduces the amount of work the range has to do.
The water in the tank is 81 degrees at the top, 43 at the bottom, and on the roof, the panels are at 47 degrees in the sun.
It’s only a short run to the compost loo now, past the last of the solar PV panels. The one place that doesn’t benefit from heating, unfortunately.
Despite having been unheated for a couple of weeks, once the rocket mass heater is lit in the classroom, it soon warms up. Incredible heat from a small fire, as it is so efficient.
The large thermal mass of the cob and stone traps heat from the south facing windows…
Even the little cottage has plenty of solar thermal up on the roof.
So as January draws to a close, we managed to generate over 70kwh of solar electricity, around 10Kwh of solar heat, and continued to heat entirely from wood. We’ve used around 8 cubic metres of wood, so far, a little more than we thought we might, but this should reduce once we replace our old, draughty single glazed windows on the north side of the cottage.
