An introduction from our latest members
We’re very lucky! When we saw one of the Hockerton houses was for sale last summer, we never thought that we’d be moving in to one in the New Year but time seemed right for a change. Not only were the global energy, food and financial markets signalling that our concerns about the future were starting to emerge in reality, other projects were coming to an end.
We are now working from Hockerton, in one of the most sustainable home offices in the land! Both of us work in related fields so it’s an inspiring location, Liz now works for Consumer Focus, the consumer watchdog, in the Sustainability team, and Rob is continuing to work for London’s Green Homes Concierge Service.
What are we looking forward to?
Having been involved with Camden’s very successful EcoHome last summer, we’re both keen to get involved with the tours and speak to visitors about Hockerton and how elements of life here can be transferred elsewhere. We hope that Hockerton can play a part in inspiring, teaching, training and engaging others in the journey.
The Age of Stupid
We’ve also taken an unconventional approach to investment in the past couple of years. As well as investing a couple of Energy4All’s community windfarms, we also gave some money to a small documentary film-maker a few years ago. The small documentary about oil and climate change has mushroomed on the back of a huge amount of goodwill and the final cut, starring Pete Postlethwaite, will be premiered on March 15th in a solar-powered cinema in Leicester Square as part of the largest premiere ever!
After 12 years of being part of the Hockerton Housing Project, Nick White & Trudi Macagnino and their three girls; Rebecca, Francesca and Freya are preparing to leave.
A personal note from Nick White
In 1996 my family had the opportunity of joining the Hockerton Housing Project… Within months we had sold up, moved into a caravan, and started to build our own zero-heated, ultra low energy homes with four other families. Since moving in 1998, our earth-sheltered home has used less than £10 on space heating, whilst never going below 18degrees C. Overall we only use 10% of the energy we used in our previous cottage, and most of that we meet with wind and solar power….a huge testimony to the insight of designers!
I would like to acknowledge the wealth of knowledge and experience gained over the twelve years from being part of the HHP; living in the ultra low energy homes, installing renewable energy systems, being part of an eco-community and developing an eco business supporting others to achieve greater levels of sustainability.
The unusual nature of HHP means that your fellow Directors are first your neighbours and friends and second your business colleagues. So a huge gratitude goes to Simon, Helena, Pete, Nick, Sandy, Bill, Louise and Tina for their; support, tolerance, strength, drive and kindness as our young family has matured within the Hockerton fold.
I feel very grateful to have had the opportunity of joining the HHP and going on a very real and practical journey of creating the ultimate in low energy living. I hope that our experience shared with thousands of visitors and others that have read or seen HHP on the numerous broadcasts, has played a part in turning the tide towards greater awareness of mans environmental impact and brought about significant change to reduce this.
Looking back I have to pinch myself to realise how far we have come, turning stapled information packs to a publication available from Amazon, from tours of a muddy building site to full day technical workshops, from student dissertations to GCSE curriculum material. However the HHP people haven’t changed very much – Whether you are a politician, royal, businessman, architect, student, environmentalist or even Laurence Llewellyn Bowen or the many others that have walked through our homes – you have all been asked to take off your shoes and share the experiences or normal people trying to do things differently.
Over the last few years the sight of buzzards around Hockerton has become increasingly common, mirroring their wider success across the UK. We are also fortunate to have resident kestrels to keep in check the abundant vole population and occasionally a sparrowhawk races through the site.
Over the last couple of weeks we have been very pleased to also have regular sightings of a peregrine (and in one case a pair) dashing across the skies over Hockerton.
The most exciting sighting at Hockerton was an osprey last weekend. It travelled from one of the far ponds near our wind turbines, flew over the lake in front of the houses at quite a low level and did a flypast for the group visiting that day!
One of HHP’s objectives is to enhance wildlife by providing suitable habitats in association with our own human habitation. The siting of the osprey represents something very important about the Hockerton Housing Project…it’s biodiversity.
Sustainable Hockerton (SHOCK), a group of residents from the village of Hockerton, are celebrating the planning approval for the installation of a 225kW wind turbine within parish.
Background Information
Wind turbine
Since July 2006 residents of the parish of Hockerton have been meeting regularly to discuss becoming a zero carbon village.
The key objective of SHOCK is to try to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide production. A key first step was to develop a proposal to erect a community owned wind turbine, to generate clean electricity and use any profits to promote other objectives.
Location
Care was taken to ensure that any area being considered was at least 500m from any property (well in excess of Government guidelines). A site about 1km from the next nearest village and sympathetically sited away from the neighbouring parish boundary was agreed as the location for the wind turbine.
Local support
A vote was conducted in February 2007 with about a quarter of the village residents responding of which 28 supported the idea and four were against. The majority of those in favour were also interested in financially investing in the wind turbine. It was therefore agreed to develop the proposal further towards a full planning application.
Power Generation
The objective of the wind turbine is to generate the equivalent amount of clean electricity that the homes use in the Hockerton parish.
Do you want to cut your energy bills?- Would you like a more energy-efficient home?
- How can your home achieve a better Environmental Performance Certificate?
- Do you want a greener life at little extra cost of effort?
Saving energy in the home is a book written by Nick White in association with HHP. Nick has been a member of HHP since the start of the construction of the homes in 1996. He contributed to the self-build and has led the development and marketing of the Project’s on site ‘eco-business’ since 1998. Now with this book, Nick offers you straightforward and achievable strategies for reducing your energy bills and living a more environmentally aware life. With lots of useful tools to assess your energy and carbon use, Saving energy in the home gives practical advice on everything from heating homes to managing those teenage consumers.
