Since we’re “eco nutters”, as a friend of mine from primary school called us, we keep thinking up ways to run our dark retreats as ecologically as possible.
Wooden cabins for dark retreats
The first requirement is a cabin made of ecological materials, and 90% of that is wood. The cabins are entirely wooden from the floor right up to and including the roof. Each cabin is insulated with eco-friendly mineral wool 24cm thick, in 3 layers to prevent thermal bridges.
Heat recovery
Each cabin has ventilation with heat recovery. This heat recovery is up to 80% efficient, so even in the winter months no cold air flows into the cabin during ventilation; instead, the warmth from inside is used to heat the incoming air.
The heat recovery unit also has a timer, so that it doesn’t run all night (even by mistake).
Heating with a heat pump
To heat the cabins we use heat pumps with a coefficient of performance of up to 7, which in practice means that on a consumption of 200W they heat like a 1400W electric heater. The heat pumps can work down to -15 °C, so they can be used for heating even in winter. Now in January, consumption for heating is around 4kWh per day per cabin, which is an amazing result.
A bonus of heat pumps is that in summer they can run in reverse and cool, so even in summer heatwaves the temperature in the sanctuaries doesn’t exceed 22 – 24 °C.
Electricity for dark retreats from the Sun
Since December we have had a photovoltaic power plant up and running, which supplies 93% of the cabins’ electricity from the Sun. So heating, cooking and even hot water are overwhelmingly covered by green energy from the Sun. The plant should produce 10 MW of electricity a year, and whatever we don’t manage to use ourselves we send into the grid, wherever it’s needed 🙂
This brings one small limitation: the hot water in the cabins’ boilers is only heated when the Sun is shining, but we believe you’d rather take a shower in lukewarm water heated by the Sun than in hot water heated by coal. So far it’s been nice and sunny, so there’s hot water every day from the Sun alone.
Organic waste from participants
If participants leave any waste behind, such as packaging or unwanted toothbrushes, we always sort it.
If you don’t finish something, we have 2 dogs and some hens. If the dogs and the hens are already full, the organic waste goes onto our compost, which then turns into cucumbers or tomatoes in our garden. We never throw anything away.
Thank you for walking the green path with us, and we wish you all the best <3
P.S. The chimney is there because we heat our house with wood 🙂
