Since working with Worcestershire County Council and Climate Essentials our farm stay business has been able to focus on the little things that make a big difference to our environment.
Our power consumption was typically 19241KW per annum in 2022 we managed to cut this by 65% taking our consumption down to 12603KW per annum. These figures were boosted by a 16% increase in solar generation, in 2019 we had a sunny boy smart home manager installed by Profit Energy, which allowed us to monitor where power was being exported to the grid, which effectively is not being used by the farm, simply by running washing machines at this time enabled us to make use of this surplus. This has increased self-sufficiency from 19% in 2020 to 27%, so a net increase of 8%.
When we only get paid £0.08 per KW for production and they assume 50% self-consumption, it is ever more important to make use of every single KW produced on the farm, wherever possible for our own consumption. Our supply currently costs £0.34 per KW saving us £0.26 per KW.
Our Environmental Impact
In the three years of monitoring our energy production and consumption, we have avoided 13.4 Tons of CO2 being discharged into the atmosphere which equates to 1079 trees being planted, in the ten years of having solar panels this results in 45 Tons of CO2 being avoided or 3597 trees being planted.
Key Changes For Energy Use
✅ Replace all bulbs every 40w bulb replaced with a 6w led saves 34w of energy.
✅ look at heating pumps they have typically 3 settings 1-3 this can reduce the flow volume, saving power through the pump and heat loss through your system.
✅ Reduce your boiler and hot water temperature.
✅ Be smart about when you heat your home, turn down radiators for rooms not in use.
✅ If your electricity company will install a free smart meter let them, you will learn far more about how your home or business works.
✅ Invest in green technologies.
✅ Measure everything within your business, working with Climate Essentials gave us a simple set of tools through their platform to make a big change in every aspect of our business.
✅ Running a farm stay business, it is hard to manage guest power consumption, we have therefore targeted our marketing on attracting guests to our properties who share the same values in conserving our environment.
✅ Use an air fryer, we still use the oven but in the winter we cook on top of the wood-burning stove, have a kettle on the top with a rolling boil, as the wood burner has a secondary burn process it is far more efficient delivering 10kw of heat, and a plate warming rack keeping the farmhouse warm.
for more information on staying with Oaks Barn Farm visit us at: Accommodation Options
Thanks to Climate Essentials, Profit Energy, Worcestershire County Council.
Read our other related articles: Oaks Barn Farm Working Towards Net Zero And A Sustainable Farming Future
