Sustainability at Woodlands

Here we describe our approach to sustainability at Woodlands.

Certified Passivhaus

Passivhaus has been described as the gold standard of energy efficiency so at Woodlands we use much less energy than we would in a similar-sized house built to the current UK Building Regulations. We’ve described why and how we built Woodlands in other posts, one of the benefits is minute space heating and cooling bills which reduces our energy consumption. (The other, perhaps the main one, is the amazing indoor comfort throughout the house with a near constant temperature whatever is happening outside, constant fresh air, no draughts, and this tranquil environment in all parts of the house.

Ground source heat pump

We’ve described this more fully in another post, but the key point is that a ground-source heat pump is incredibly efficient at providing both heating and cooling. Because of how they work (see our other post) for every kilowatt of electricity we use to heat domestic hot water and/or the house, we get the equivalent of three or four kilowatts of electrical heating by conventional means. And as electricity generation becomes increasingly ‘green’, we reduce our use of greenhouse gas generation still further.

For cooling, the heat pump circulates the ‘brine’ (which normally collects heat from the ground by circulating in a 250m pipe set one metre deep) through a ‘cooler battery’ and extracts heat from the air coming into the house. This has two effects: air circulated to rooms via the mechanical ventilation heat recovery system is cooler and thus helps keep the house cooler, and the heat removed from the air is stored in the ground and can thus can be used again to heat domestic hot water.

Lighting

With the exception of just one light bulb, all the indoor and outdoor lighting at Woodlands is from LEDs which are substantially more efficient than other types; for example, a 6W LED will produce the same amount of light as a 40W filament bulb. This further reduces our electricity consumption.

Caring for the environment - chemicals

Woodlands is rural and not connected to the main sewerage system. We, therefore, have our own domestic ‘package’ sewage treatment plant, more fully described in section 2 of another post. To take care of the beneficial bacteria in this unit, and thus ensure that the outflow to a nearby watercourse is acceptable by Environment Agency standards, we only use environmentally-friendly products. These include washing-up liquid, dishwasher tablets and rinse aid, body-washing soaps, house and toilet cleaning chemicals and the like, including toilet paper made from bamboo. We also use a steam cleaner for many cleaning tasks and buy products in bulk where possible, reusing containers, to reduce our consumption of single-use plastics.

Caring for the environment - plants and animals

Described more fully in a separate post, we are seeking to ‘rewild’ much of the land around Woodlands. Our project is a modest-scale attempt to support greater local biodiversity through native hedge restoration, creating a variety of habitats, encouraging more wildflowers in our field, and restoring two orchards. We hope that this will promote a greater diversity of both plant and animal life in the immediate environment and encourage others to do likewise as much as they can.

Buying locally

Much of the food that we buy for ourselves and for our B&B guests comes from local suppliers and, by choice, we are increasingly eating plant-based foods, although we have not yet completely stopped eating meat or cheese.

We see buying locally as both supporting local food producers and a way of contributing to a reduction in the environmental impact of transport. (That said, we appreciate that people need to work and that this often requires the use of transport; or intention is to help to reduce avoidable costs and environmental impacts.)