Energy Use

Lighting

All corridor lighting is LED and on motion sensors, if there is no one in the corridors the lights are off.

Most of our meeting rooms have large windows, therefore eliminating the need for artificial lights during most day light hours.

Solar Panels

We have had 4kw of solar panels on the roof of the lodge since 2011. We are hoping to add more panels to the new mountain bike workshop/workshop in the future.

Biomass

The biomass boiler was installed in Jan 2013 to initially heat the east wing, south wing and activity wing. We have now been able to add the main part of the building into the system as well. The boiler is an ETA, 199kw, Austrian manufactured biomass boiler and along with the accumulator tanks was provided as part of a biomass heat cabin which was constructed off-site, delivered on to a concrete base and commissioned. Heat is piped to the existing boiler room where the existing oil boilers are retained to provide back up heating in the event that the biomass system is not producing. Pellet fuel is blown into the 30m3 fuel store which is contained within the heat cabin and deliveries take place around twice each month during periods of peak demand.

We have also added a smaller 26kw ,Grants UK Spira biomass boiler, to heat the MTB workshop , classroom and offices.

By using biomass instead of gas we have reduced our CO2 emissions by 57% on our baseline of 2008/09 and this is set to reduce further.