Doing our best to be 'green'
In 2017 we were delighted to be awarded a Silver Award for Green Tourism. An inspector from Green Tourism came and assessed our site, checked what we have done so far, and made suggestions to help us further. We fully intend to work towards the Gold Award
It is quite difficult to keep your energy use as low as possible with old buildings but we hope that we are doing our very best to lower our carbon footprint.
We have for many years used solar thermal panels to heat the water in the coffee shop and have a new 135 panel photovoltaic system to help reduce our electricity consumption from the grid.
Our new office building uses a ground source heat pump with underfloor heating which is very successful and the total office space is lit by LED lighting.
The chocolate factory and shop have air conditioning with inverter technology using heat pumps as an integral part of the heating/cooling sysytem. A constant temperature is required in the factory for the production of the chocolate bars and filled chocolates
We have now replaced our last oil fired boiler with an air source system which has turned out to be very efficient and with low running costs
Other site heating is via a biomass boiler to reduce our oil comsumption to an absolute minimum. The biomass boiler has a zero carbon footprint and uses wood pellets and runs at 93% efficiency. The biomass boiler heats four units and supplies hot water.
We also have a biomass stove in the Coffee Shop to run the heating and water heating.
Throughout the winter months our renewable energy produces approximately 1500 kwH of energy per week and we should have a similar amount generated by the solar panels throughout the summer. We have reduced our energy costs by over 50% and not to forget our control of energy use by replacing hundreds of bulbs with LED lamps. We still have a long way to go in our attempt to get to as near zero carbon footprint as we can.
It is a good feeling to do your best for the environment and will of course save us money in the future.
Our latest addition, added during Lockdown 3 January 2021, is an EON electric charge point. With the number of electric cars increasing, you can now plug in and top up, as you enjoy a cream tea and a wander round our site. We recommend you download the EON app and register before you get here, due to weak mobile signal. This will save you time and allow you to just plug in and go.
A wind turbine would be an exciting addition but we are in an area of outstanding natural beauty and this may be one step to far!
