I've always loved the cost and quality advantage of
home made over shop bought – or maybe that is another way of
admitting to a more than healthy dose of thriftiness. If I had
thought of it, reduce, re-use and recycle would have been my mantra
long ago. We baby boomers have enjoyed a life of ever increasing
affluence, benefiting from what we didn't realise were fantastically
cheap house prices and power and a time when astonishing
technological advances made an ever increasing choice of consumer
durables for the home available to everyone. And yet deep, or in my
case, not so deep in our psyches is the World War 2 mentality of make
do and mend, dig for victory and don't throw anything away unless it
is completely past it – and frequently, not even then. I have tins
of string, jars of rubber bands, boxes of buttons, collections of
carefully folded wrapping paper and despite a recent cull, a plastic
box mountain of european proportions.
 |
| Woodburning Stove at Kirkland Lodge |
The Green movement suited me down to
the ground. A way of spending less and being lauded for my
environmental concerns rather than castigated for my meanness. The
light bulbs were changed for low energy, never mind that in our less
than tropically heated house they take some time to give more than a
dim glow and fail to fulfill their promise of long life. The loft is
heavy with insulation, the windows are double glazed and woolly
jumpers are de rigeur when the temperatures drop.
 |
| Log Boiler and Insulated Hot Water Storage Tanks |
In 2007, being ever more concerned by
the rapidly rising cost of LPG to run our central heating and a
boiler which was starting to make strange noises, we decided to
install a log fired boiler to provide heating for the house, cottages
and workshop. Surrounded by trees on our own land and Knapdale Forest, free logs rather than costly chips or pellets
seemed the way forward. Offcuts from the sawmill add to the stocks
so rather than hand over vast amounts of money, we have taken on vast
amounts of work to supply the fire monster in the boiler house. Our
dismay when, in a bid to deal with overheating, visitors ignore the thermostats in preference for open
windows and jumper removal, is now
motivated by the work rather than the cost of providing the heat. We
may not do it all with a hand axe and bow saw but it still requires
effort which we would rather use in the pursuit of keeping cottages
cosy, than in the impossible task of warming the whole of Argyll.
 |
| Firewood Pallets - each one provides about 10 days of heating |
Now we have joined the ranks of the
Kilowatt Bores. The hot topic at dinner parties (if we ever get
invited to any) will not be the state of the economy or house prices
but how many kilowatts we have generated from our photo voltaic solar
panels. Our lovely slate roof has been partially covered with
fifteen shiny panels which, in theory, with unbroken sunshine shining
at exactly the right angle, could generate 3.75 kilowatts of
electricity per hour. We could have had the full 4 kw with sixteen
panels but that would have left one panel on its own and aesthetics
won over maximum generating potential. My new hobby will be
attempting to use as much of the power generated to maximise the
savings on the electricity bill as well as gaining from the feed in
tariff. Sadly this will mean slaving over a hot oven, hoovering or
doing the ironing whenever the sun is shining – or maybe not.
 |
| Solar Panels on Stable Cottage Roof |
Earth Fuel Scotland installed the
panels and did a great job. It would be nice to be able to say that
the sun came out as soon as we were plugged into the grid but
instead, the panels got well soaked by a rain shower. But even
during the late afternoon, post rain gloom, the meter stopped turning
and for a short while before darkness set in, at least some of the
power going into the fridge and freezer was home grown.
And the forecast for this week?
Showers and rain giving way to torrential downpours. It might be a
while before our investment pays for itself. In the meantime, I'll
keep saving string.
