[Closed] Self sufficiency

ground source or air flow heat pumps?

very UN-self sufficient. Pegged to grid electricity.

Self sufficiency:

Grow your own food
Grow your own fuel
Collect your own water
Dispose of your own waste

Veg beds/fruit trees - leeks, spinaches, lettuces, spuds, toms, raspberries, apples, pears, plums, gooseberries, beans
Chickens
Coppicing
IBCs/solar powered pumps/filters
Reed beds
PV is OK, but expensive to install.

check out
http://www.reuk.co.uk/
http://www.cat.org.uk/

Ok, poor choice of wording, just keen to know of people's experiences.

Check out the centre for alternative technology at muck n fluff - every time we go I just want to buy a field and a caravan

Get the building sorted - Fabric First should be your mantra. Make it so you need as little energy to heat and light the place - that is your starting point. Then you can look at the other stuff - but not before driving down the requirements.

As said above, the CAT website has a few good basic advice pages.

on the plants front, grow things you like!!!!!

After that think about the energy needed to grow, Tomatoes can grow in the UK but do best under glass, is this really a good use of water resources?

Unless you have a large acreage it is very unlikely that you can be self sufficient for food, or your going to have a very potato based diet!!! I would think about what you can grow to add and supplement your diet. Treats that are unusual or that are hard to obtain.

Also, have a search for permaculture and forest gardens. Designed to provide food but without having to re-plant every season.

Broad beans and runner beans give a lot of food for each plant. Tomatoes too if you have a greenhouse. If you have soft fruit, get some nets. Apple trees good givers, but take years to get fully going. My parents have a forry year bramley apple tree that gives a good 40kg of apples a year, wonder why I like apple pie!

If you really go for it on the food front get a good quality chest freezer.

Chillis are good to grow on window sills.

Good stuff. The cottage already has apple trees.
I probably could live on potatoes, I love them. Not sure my girlfriend would be too keen.

Is anyone on here self-sufficient? Or close to self-sufficient, either food or energy wise?

Something that came to me today thinking about the OP, was reliance on electricity. We're v lucky in the UK to be able to pretty much rely upon secure electricity supply, but in the event of a power cut, how do you deal with heat, light, cooking and water heating?

In the winds on Thursday, we had 3 brief power outages, quickly restored, but since we were going out for the night and were leaving the babysitter at home I got the oil lamps out and made sure they had paraffin in them. I dug out some candles too.
Doing that reminded me of one of the reasons for buying a wood stove with a flue that comes out the back rather than the top, so that I have a large hotplate that can take a casserole for cooking.

On a similar note, a gravity feed based heating system will run in the absence of electricity, assuming your heat source (say a back boiler on a wood stove) also doesn't need electricity.

It's not like we need to plan for armageddon, but they are all little adaptations that make it easier to depend upon yourself rather than the grid.

We're 80% self sufficient in heating and hot water fuel - it would be 100% but we still use pellets (which we have to buy in) for night time top up heat or when Im away so Mrs S doesnt have to light the furnace.

We dont aim for self sufficiency in food mainly because we live in the vale of evesham and theres great fruit and veg at good prices right here.

Somebody needs to post it
[img] [/img]

A young Felicity Kendal........sigh

Op your cottage sounds ideal. Post up a pic so we can all dream. Be careful Op The good life proves that self sufficiency makes you infertile!

Jekkyl, the cottage is far from ideal. But it is something long term. I'm 36 and it's in a spot where I can see myself wanting to live for the rest of my life.

Something like Stoner's sounds about the level I'd like to achieve rather than 100% self-sufficient.

Is there any reason why ground source pumps couldn't be solar powered?

As we also have wood rights to the forest, so a wood burner with boiler is probably a certainty.

This will all go into the extension which will be next summer before we even start, so plenty of time for research.
Someone posted yesterday saying they had solar powered shed lighting. I thougt that was quite cool and maybe will start with that as an experiment and see where it leads.

The problem with solar power is not the generation, but the timing of that generation. Which leads on to the next problem which is energy storage.

The "Grid" and the FIT (feed in tariff) policies make it possible for domestic PV generators to use the wider national network as a "kind of battery" but really, its a synthetic construct that doesnt really fix the problem of local energy production/storage/consumption.

My personal fantasy is for a safe, modular, 12v based generation system of hydrogen generation and storage that is then converted to energy from combustion/fuel cells on demand.

Until then, I have a wood shed and an axe 🙂

heat pumps are, IMO, a reasonable solution only in exactly the right kind of property. As an incremental efficiency measure they aren't bad at all, but as a specific "energy efficient" installation they are poor. I ust would not even consider one personally (and I have spent some time looking art all sorts of eco tech as an enthusiast if not a pro).

If I were you, Id be thinking of:
Wood burner, with back boiler, connected to a buffer tank, together with a solar thermal coil so you can add that later. Your primary heating source could be whatever you fancy - heating the buffer, but the tank itself makes it possible to collect energy from whichever multiple sources.

Coppice and harvest fuel wood (it will take a few years to be able to use the wood) or gather windfall when you can. Build well ventilated ([i]q.v. mcmoonter[/i]) wood storage capacity.

And above all, insulate as far as you can ([i]q.v. Edukator[/i]), and minimise consumption and dont underestimate the contribution that solar gain can make to your heating needs if you have the opportunity to build it into the house while you're working on it.