It's Not Easy Being Green - Welcome To New House Farm

There is a lot more information available now compared to when we set off in 2004. These links are just to let you know where we found useful info.
The It's Not Easy Being Green Forum is also rapidly building into a veritable hive of information. Why not join in...

Good luck with your research!

Jump to a section:
House & Home, Garden, Animals & Livestock, Water, Bio Diesel & Transport, Wind, Solar

House & Home

Mailing Preference Service

Stop your junk mail contact the www.mpsonline.org.uk
MPS Registration line - 0845 703 4599

Telephone Preference Service

Stop people trying to sell you something just as you settle down with a cup of tea!
Telephone Preference Service Registration line - 0845 070 0707
www.tpsonline.org.uk

Strawbale houses

To get a feel for what is possible check out www.strawbale-building.co.uk

Yurts

Derick Nelson (01749 890457) at Archangel Yurts is really helpful you get the additional feature that each of their yurts also comes with its own, colour-coded "angel" motif, offering you your own archangel protection!

If you need a green audit

Donnachah McCarthy. Donnachadh McCarthy's book is 'Saving the planet without costing the earth' can be bought via his website www.3acorns.co.uk

Recycled Ardesia max slates

These may be of interest to anyone without restrictions.
Contact EBC UK Ltd www.e-b-c-uk.com 01909 479276

New guttering

Hours on the internet, lots of conversations with fitters and suppliers later we had found ARP, Aluminium Roofline Products, in Leicester. They know their onions and were extremely competitive.
Contact www.arp-ltd.com

Green Electricity

The company that was making the biggest investment in producing more sustainable power was 'Ecotricity' (08000 326 100 - www.ecotricity.co.uk), but when you subscribe you are only actually getting 27% (correct at time of writing) green electricity. That said, they are using all their subscribers to get a mortgage to allow them to build more wind turbines. Initially I spoke to them to confirm why they only provided 27 % green tariff. I liked their logic which I have paraphrased below:

'Buying already existing green power is not reducing carbon emissions. It is only supporting the status quo. It is the investment in new sustainable power and a relative increase in the sustainable sector that helps reduce Carbon Dioxide emissions. Ecotricity has committed to building more sustainable generators so that the proportion of green electricity increases'.

Green Glass

His products are very definitely recycled bottles they don't profess to be anything else, in fact the original bottle shapes are very easy to see. That said, I really liked the quality and utility of his glasses. Glen will also buy bottles in bulk whenever the opportunity arises - so if there are any companies out there who have waste bottles - contact him www.tradinggreen.co.uk

Kitchen / Bathroom

We have been using Ecover (08451 302230 www.ecover.com) and Clearspring (01617 642555 www.faithinnature.co.uk ) products in the kitchen, bathroom and utility for some time now, and I am completely satisfied with their performance. Another big plus with these environmentally friendly products is that you can often re-fill the bottles at your local health-food shop, which saves you having to re-cycle them…re-use is better than re-cycle!

Clearview Stoves

These are seriously efficient and extremely well made, apart from a very little maintenance I expect them to outlive me with no difficulties. If you are serious about a woodburner they are definitely worth looking at.
www.clearviewstoves.com

First and foremost it makes sense to move the air around the woodburners so it circulates, enter the 'Caframo Ecofan' its a heat powered fan designed specifically to circulate the warm air created by a stove. This fan does not use any batteries or mains electricity and its not magic.

Insulation Materials

The larger older part of the house was insulated by Thermafleece, a British Sheep wool insulation that is suitable for a variety of roof wall and flooring applications.
www.secondnatureuk.com

Heat Recovery Unit

www.ubbink.co.uk

Skincare

Brigit's favourite natural skincare ranges, in no particular order, are the following...

There are some lovely books on the market today full of tried and tested recipes…my favourite is 'the ultimate natural beauty book' by Josephine Fairley

Brigit found 'Quintessential', (www.quintessentialtips.com)a little shop that specialises in alternative goods and has a great selection of hemp clothing.

The Hemp Shop (0845 123 5869 www.thehempshop.co.uk) If you're thinking 'hairy shirts…', think again! For information on ethical consumerism try 'The good shopping guide' published by EMG, or 'The Rough Guide to Ethical Shopping' by Duncan Clark

If you want to guarantee a locally produced Christmas tree, www.christmastree.org.uk lists local suppliers by county. This will enable you to slash your tree-miles!

Wrapping paper made from recycled paper, which is available from shop.wwf.org.uk

If you don't have an agent to spoil you, you can find your closest organic winery by logging on to www.whyorganic.org

Recently there has been an growth in the 'Eco-gifts', a whole range of ideas that can be eco-friendly. There is a handy list of ethical gift ideas at www.goodgifts.org

Ethical consumer... promoting change by informing and empowering the customer.
www.ethicalconsumer.org 0161 226 2929

Garden

Patrick Whitefield, author of the Earth Care Manual (if you haven't seen it look for it in a bookshop/library it's worth a flick through before you decide to buy it - and you will)

So we managed to find a reasonably priced greenhouse that we felt we could attach to our wall. Well done Richard at Greenhouses UK (www.greenhouses-uk.com)

Steve from Kysteline (www.krysteline.net) a machine that imploded glass so that the bits that were left were not sharp.

www.gardeningexpress.co.uk, they even have truffle impregnated trees for sale that start to yield after 4-6 years, is there no end to the fun!

Living Earth... the soil association magazine www.soilassociation.org tel:0117 314 5000

Ecologist... Its been around for a long time and is full of info www.theecologist.org

Permaculture magazine... solutions for sustainable living; colourful, informative and inspiring www.permaculture.co.uk tel: 0845 458 4150

If you don't have the facility to feed leftovers to your pigs or chickens, there is something called a 'Green Cone' which looks really useful and should work anywhere (ie you don't need a lot of land to maintain it - just a sunny well drained site). www.greencone.com 0800 731 2572

Animals & Livestock

Hens - rather nifty pods available check out www.eglu.com

How to rescue a battery hen - Jane and the rest of the ladies are lovely www.thehenshouse.co.uk

Water

Put a small contribution into a charity box for 'Wateraid' (www.wateraid.org) every time they collected some water. Why not take a look at www.frankwater.com which offers non-profit, natural bottled spring water.

Bio Diesel & Transport

See also Courses at New House Farm

It is possible to find sources of biodiesel in the UK, www.biodieselfillingstations.co.uk, but the industry is still in its infancy.

A diesel, two wheeled, trailer pulling All Terrain Vehicle (ATV). It was different and very interesting. Unfortunately, with a very small smallholding I couldn't justify buying one. With oodles of miles to the gallon (over 120 depending on how it was driven (0.6 litre per hour)) and very low top speed it would be great for short journeys to collect animal feed, remove rubbish etc. Check it out www.ecorider.com - a couple more acres and I probably would have got away with it.

An electric Rickshaw by one of the teams who built them for a living - an awesome idea, not cheap but great fun. Check out www.cyclesmaximus.com

Finally tracked down Mariner engines with 'ultra low emissions' Matt at Barrus in Oxfordshire came up trumps (www.barrus.co.uk). Having sorted out the power it was just a matter of making it float and steer properly. Just up the road at Lostwithiel, Jim found Outboard Services and Marine (www.outboardservices.co.uk)

Counteract the extra CO2 you are producing. British Airways allows you to do this when you book online, or, alternatively, you can do so at www.climatecare.org . The easiest way to minimise the CO2 you produce is to plant trees. But remember that it takes the whole lifecycle of 6 trees to counter the effects of a single long hall flight (if you remember back to 'O' level biology, trees, and other green plants, convert CO2 into O2 as part of there growing process. Little tree will do a little big trees a lot - that is why we need to protect big trees were possible)

Wind

It is possible to get the necessary information that will tell you what to expect in your area without having to try and understand it all. Try the British Wind Energy Association at www.bwea.com and follow the step by step guide.

Wind turbines really cheap and cheerful.
Ivan at www.navitron.org.uk came up trumps at just under £300 for a complete system (mast, blades, alternator, charge controller complete with dump load) it was a bargain.

Mains linked wind turbine contact Windsave (www.windsave.com). The amount of energy you can hope to harness depends on where you live. Scotland, Wales, and the SW can expect to get about 3000 hours of maximum operation per year.

Solar

Solar Thermal - we got ours from Ivan at www.navitron.org.uk