Come to Maes yr Onn Farm and find out what it is like to live and work using a renewable energy systems designed and built with the support and partnership of Wales Low Zero Carbon Hub, Caerphilly CBC, BRE and SSE.
One answer to the energy efficiency issues faced by many households and businesses in Wales is being showcased at the second Farming Connect event to be held at Maes yr Onn Farm on 17 June.
The event at the ground breaking farm in Caerphilly will be an opportunity to see how well the building and renewable energy systems are performing since they were first installed 12 months ago. Owner Arthur Davies will explain the implications of being completely without mains services at the flagship farm, and his experience will help farmers hoping to install similar technologies how to adapt to a new way of life ‘off grid’.
Wales Low Zero Carbon Hub, part of the partnership responsible for Maes yr Onn along with Caerphilly CBC, BRE and SSE, provide a role in monitoring and evaluation of the building and renewable energy systems at the farm. A team from Low Carbon Research Institute at Cardiff University have been commissioned to look at the day to day running of the building and record any changes in behaviour needed to maximise the use of the available resources in this remote location.
The Davies family farm award winning South Wales mountain sheep and when the original dwelling fell into disrepair the family then lived off site. The construction of a new farmhouse has ensured effective management of the holding and stock and will enable further expansion of the business. The new house is highly insulated to ensure that its energy requirement is significantly reduced from the outset.
A number of technologies were considered to address the challenge of being offgrid. The solution included the installation of a 20kw biomass boiler fed from the family’s own woodland, a 1200 litre combined capacity thermal store, an innovative skirting radiator system, rain water harvesting linked to a 5500 litre underground tank, a 3.88kwp capacity solar photovoltaic array across the south facing roof and a battery bank to store surplus power from the solar panels.
All the installed technologies can also benefit those who are on grid and can be replicated individually or collectively. Lessons learnt from how the family adapt to living differently will form a significant part of future research and the farm’s energy usage is metered and can be remotely monitored by the Hub. The results will be used to demonstrate the benefits of sustainable living without losing quality of life and provide a template for other rural businesses facing similar off grid challenges.
The event takes place from 11am till 3pm on Tuesday 17 June 2014.
The WLZCH will be publishing the Maes Yr On monitoring and evaluation report autumn 2014.
