Motivated by planning restrictions on our use of fossil-fuelled cars, between us we’ve now got experience of owning or leasing 3 EVs, a Nissan Leaf, a Volkswagen e-up!, and a Renault Zoe, and one PHEV [1], a Mitsubishi Outlander. We’re often asked about the running costs, but it’s not all about the money. If you’re thinking of getting one, here’s who we think they work for, and who they don’t…
Yes – if you want lower running costs.
Our Leaf and e-up! get around 4 miles per kwH, which at our off-peak tariff costs 2p per mile. This compares with 8p for a comparable petrol-fuelled up!
All-electric cars [2] have zero Vehicle Excise Duty (VED), even after upcoming changes, saving £140 each year from the second year of ownership. Hybrids and PHEVs don’t get such a good deal under this Government’s restructuring of VED.
If it is a company car both company and employee pay less the more efficient the car, with employees currently paying 5% benefit-in-kind rates, compared with a maximum of 37% for the least efficent cars.
Of course there are still costs, which will now fall on your electricity bill. Annoyingly there is no smart tech built into our chargers, or the car, to easily track usage and costs, but hopefully that will come.
Yes – if you care for the global environment
We have long been aware of the environmental impact of batteries – our homes are grid-connected for this very reason. Battery technology is now evolving in a way that addresses some of this impact, but this is not just a question of a battery, or even low carbon transport.
EVs are central to the planned decarbonisation of the grid, provided the right tariffs and signals come forward to enable them to soak up otherwise unwanted renewable and low carbon energy, and supply to homes during peak demand hours.
Yes – if you care for the local environment
I’ll assume that if you read this blog you would charge from renewable power so are not simply adding to pollution levels elsewhere! The Government claims that the adoption of ultra-low emission vehicles could prevent 29,000 premature deaths each year from air pollution.
Yes – if you are happy to plan ahead.
Don’t base your choice of vehicle on the claimed range. Cold weather has a big impact on battery efficiency.
Consider what charger type the car uses. The language used around these is unclear, as is a future standard, so our recommendation is to be flexible. When you get a charging point, don’t get a built-in cable
Work out where you are going to charge, which for us is normally at home. It may take time to arrange a home charging point, so do consider whether you have an interim solution, which could be as simple as a standard outdoor socket.
Yes – if you don’t like planning ahead.
For all the talk about range anxiety, the standout benefit of EVs is no longer having to build petrol station visits in to your travels. For most of us, charging just means plugging in when we get home.
Yes – if you don’t like noise pollution.
Some critics cite the danger of quiet cars. Yes, you’ll find yourself giving pedestrians and cyclists an (even) wider berth, but do so in the knowledge you are cutting noise, as well as air, pollution.
Yes – if you have solar PV or other renewables.
At HHP, we estimate we’re losing £500 a year exporting power we can’t use onsite. The more we can store power in EVs or our immersion heaters, the less we need to draw from the grid, and the greater our autonomy.
Yes – if you want the best parking space
OK, this is only going to be the case whilst EV user numbers are low, but the free charging at service stations, the local Park&Ride, and Ikea(!) also means accessible spaces even on the busiest days.
Maybe – if you regularly travel long distances
Whether this is a problem depends whether your wallet is in Tesla territory, but even if you are not, there are options. Either take up the PHEV option or consider whether you are happy to stop for a coffee break. Both work for us, but there have been teething problems with some of the charging points on motorways.
Also, be warned that the Government’s Office for Low Emission Vehicles (OLEV) has allowed a patchwork of propietary charge cards to develop, meaning you have not only to work out where chargers are, but what charge card you need, and sign up accordingly.
In any case, there’s always the train!
Maybe – if you need to tow manure/sheep/caravans
Your choice will be limited, and this need was the major factor in the selection of the Outlander by one household. Pure EVs, and for that matter hybrids such as the Prius, don’t have this capacity.
If you do go down the PHEV route, take a look at online forums to understand real-life mpg for your type of journeys.
No – if you can’t charge at home.
Convenience is the EV’s unsung benefit. If you can’t charge at home and are not within easy walking distance of a public charging point, the hassle is probably not worth it. If you are close to one, you are probably also close to public transport – why not use that?!
No – if you are in it for the cost savings alone
The Treasury won’t easily give up the £31.58 billion [3] it earns from Fuel Duty and VED, as seen in this summer’s budget which undermined the fiscal incentive to purchase efficient petrol cars. Don’t expect ‘free’ charging points to remain free, or to always have a tax advantage over fossil-fuelled cars. If and when they become the norm, we should expect to see some radical changes to VED in response to the loss of revenue from Fuel Duty.
And finally…
A few more good things: the acceleration; increasing your range going down a big hill; more data for us energy geeks; and some decent cupholders too.
[1] Plug-in hybrid electric vehicle, which can travel up to 30 miles on a single charge before switching to hybrid mode.
[2] That cost less than £40,000
[3] http://www.racfoundation.org/motoring-faqs/Economics
Earlier this year we heard Helena’s reflections on 20 years at Hockerton Housing Project. Now we hear from our newest neighbours, Deb and Pete, 2 years after moving from the local market town of Southwell…
“My husband and I moved in to Hockerton Housing Project just over two years ago. We are in our early to mid fifties and have a son of 27 years of age, who at the time was living in Japan but since then has come home to HHP which he loves!
We had lived in an ordinary house in Southwell for over 25 years and it was a big move for us albeit only a distance of 2 miles.
Why did we make the move? We knew we loved growing things, in fact we had an allotment in Southwell for a long time; we knew we wanted to have farm animals but didn’t want to be tied down by them or for that matter the growing; and we knew we wanted to live as sustainable a life as possible!
But we were worried about the unknowns of cohousing – the amount of work we would have to do in the community, privacy, and how we would fit in.
Two years on we wonder what on earth we were worried about.
It is great to have sheep, that I look after (by choice) on a day to day basis, but someone else is always around to look after them when I want to go away for the weekend or on holiday. It is the same with the people who look after the chickens, they just tell us when they are going away and someone volunteers to look after them until they are back.
As for the growing – it is a 1/5th of the work of looking after your own allotment and so much more satisfying than seeing food wasted when there is a glut of something. I have a well-used jam and chutney pan and a fully-stocked freezer to see us through the winter for fruit and veg. Our bees produce our own honey which tastes simply wonderful…in fact it’s a strong favourite with the extended family and hence I managed to get through 12 jars last year!
I have learnt from others to deal with the ewes lambing, there is always someone else about to help out when intervention is needed, and sharing the lambing experience is just awesome. We had 16 lambs this year, 8 boys and 8 girls so have a flock of 32 altogether. Amy, my next door neighbour who is ten is going to be a fab little shepherdess…next year I could almost leave the lambing to her!
No longer do I get in my car and go miles to purchase flowers for my little flower business instead I walk out into my garden or up to the cutting garden at the allotment to select seasonal sustainable flowers which smell gorgeous. That was something I never dreamed of doing until I moved here. I nip into our cooperative’s office a couple of times a week to check the inbox and promote and manage tours – it’s a twenty five yard walk from my back gate. I guide tours when we have them for schools and universities with other residents and also do catering for conferences when they are held in our purpose built sustainable venue.
In terms of privacy, my life is more private here than it ever was in the middle of Southwell. As residents there is a great respect for each others’ privacy but this all happens without being made explicit.
This is actually how I hoped life would be, it is idyllic. You do have to pinch yourself every day when you turn round that corner at the end of the road you come into another world. So many local people come and say I never knew that this was here and are blown away by its beauty and how warm our homes with no heating really are!”
If you want to find out more, do come and see for yourself on our next public tour on 19 September – booking essential!
Have we ever mentioned how thermal mass keeps our homes warm in winter and cool in summer?
No doubt if you have visited us you’ve heard the stats and felt the benefit, but a day like today makes the benefits all the more evident.
The thermal comfort of our homes is met through the application of three key design principles:
- Thermal mass to store heat in the summer months to keep the home cool in summer and warm in winter
- Passive solar gain to reduce the need for space heating and artificial lighting
- Super-insulation and buffer zones to provide a reduced temperature gradient between the inside and outside of homes.
So on a day like today we shut the triple-glazing between the living space and buffer zones, along with curtains and shutters if we are out and about, to keep out warm air and solar gain; and let the thermal mass soak up the heat when we are around the house. We have built passive ventilation into our buffer zones – otherwise known as skylights in the conservatory and porch area – which are vital to keeping the temperatures in those spaces comfortable.
Given the warnings yesterday from the Committee on Climate Change, we think cooling, or overheating, is an issue that needs addressing as part of the government’s home energy strategy. It should not be an add-on as there can be a conflict between approaches that keep heat in during winter and keep it out over summer.
The positioning of insulation in a construction element was completely disregarded by SAP up to and including SAP2005, and continues to be ignored by RdSAP. But it is essential if you want to get the heat storage benefits of thermal mass throughout the year for cooling, heat storage & release. Our walls, floor and roof could have the insulation placed on the inside, which would give exactly the same U-Values and hence RdSAP result, but completely different and appalling thermal performance of the house as a whole in warmer weather. Instead of being absorbed into the thermal mass, the passive solar gain would continue to raise the temperature until vented in some way.
Even though this is beginning to be recorded by SAP, RdSAP does still not differentiate between internal and external solid wall insulation. Neither assessment reflects the benefits in their overall assessment of thermal comfort. If the Government wants to prepare homes for the 21st century, and beyond, these tools will need to both recognise and reward the way external insulation can “lock in” the mass of the walls to deliver summer cooling and winter heating.
Visitors to Hockerton come expecting a tour of our homes, but the first stop – whether the visitors are permaculture pioneers or planning professionals – is our orchard and allotment area.
We are often asked why we haven’t just focused on low energy housing but we were clear from the beginning, 20 years ago, that a sustainable lifestyle has to balance social, environmental and economic factors. This cannot be delivered by architecture alone.
In 1997 the Building Research Establishment published a General Information Report GIR53 which was entitled “Building a Sustainable Future-Homes for an Autonomous Community”. Within this report it was pointed out that at that time the average family produced about 4 tonnes of CO2 through car transport, 4 tonnes of CO2 in heating the family house-yet twice that amount of CO2-8 tonnes was associated with food consumed by such a family each year.
This is because food is often the product of intensive farming which uses fossil fuel based fertilisers and is then transported thousands of miles to our shops where it is stored until it is transported to our homes, usually by car.
So by focussing on heating costs and transport alone without addressing food production we would miss out on impacting half the CO2 emissions we could potentially address.
Hockerton thus incorporated a land management plan in its design, which as well as providing an environment for wildlife to flourish would contain an organic growing area.
Over the years our food production has added to our organic allotment. We now have and orchard with fruit trees, bee hives, chickens and a flock of sheep.
The added bonus of all this is that we are kept in touch with the natural cycles of nature, spend time outside in our green gym and benefit from food produced to high standards and on our own doorstep.
So if you are thinking about your own sustainability projects, don’t forget the opportunities for food production which could outweigh the reductions in CO2 from household energy saving measures that you take.
One of our longest-standing residents reflects on her time at HHP….
This is the 20th year since we joined HHP. We had recently returned from volunteering in Namibia and felt that sustainable development needed to start in the affluent West. We had relocated to Nottingham as I had a medical job there and Simon was looking after our small son Luke and looking for some way of using his engineering skills and doing it sustainably. By chance he came across HHP who were looking for a family to join them and the rest is history!
In those days (1995) I think we were more about sustainable and autonomous housing and climate change was not such an obvious issue but of course that has all changed and Simon now spends a great deal of time thinking about Renewables although our core business of demonstrating and promoting zero energy and sustainable housing continues and has lost none of its relevance today.
We moved into our brand new house in February 1998 after 18 months in a caravan with by then 3 small children. Simon had contributed to the self-build and being on site allowed him to juggle the family and building whilst I went off to a warm comfortable hospital every day! Our neighbours at the time were in a similar position which allowed some complementary childcare and a lot of mutual support!
Over the 20 years the Project has grown in so many ways. We had not realised the amount of interest it would generate with about 30,000 visitors, a significant amount of media interest and a small business that has continued to promote sustainability and provide employment for some of the residents.
Families have come and gone and we are now the last original family. Our children are grown up and Flo who was born when we were in the caravan is doing A levels and considering her future. It is perhaps not surprising that Luke is studying permaculture and small-scale organic horticulture in Leeds and Naomi is down in Falmouth studying Environmental Science. Their childhood in this wonderful site has been spent in the woodland and lake, in a small community of children and adults where they have had the freedom to explore and learn in safety. Parenting them has been easy. It is a pleasure to see other small children growing up and enjoying this space that we have helped to create.
As old families have moved on it is sad to lose that collective memory of the first days and the struggle to get planning permission and the houses built. We will be the last to remember why we did things this way or that and why that particular phrase in the secondary rules was written that way. But new families have brought in fresh energy and ideas and keep the direction of the business gently changing depending on interest, skills and available time.
Simon and I have no plans to leave and this lifestyle and place is perfect for us. The apple trees are in blossom and the new plants in the polytunnel are thriving and ready to go out. As the spring sun floods the conservatory after earlier rain, I am as excited as ever to throw open the doors to the bedrooms and know that the temperature in the house will stay in the low 20s until November.
After 20 years here our lives will change as the children leave and we have a bit more time for ourselves. More time to spend on the land, more time to sort out 20 years of childhood paraphernalia and more time to sit in the kitchen, conservatory, garden or lakeside depending on the weather and the season just enjoying this extraordinary place we helped to create!
Helena
