Heating and cooking thoughts

Only problem with our land is there are no trees and so we have to buy in wood, and oil for the boiler. Oil's going to get very scarce very soon, and everyone will be turning to wood heating as a substitute, thereby bumping the price of wood up.

It would be good to go into partnership with someone who has enough wood to spare but is no good at the gardening. We could provide the food all year (meat, fruit, veg, diary) and they could provide the wood. We'd need about 10 cords per year, which would cost E160 per cord, or E1600. E1600's worth of food equals about E31 per week - about what it would cost to get a bag of veg, a bit of cheese or eggs and a chicken from a market. Each week I could drop off the food and collect 10 cords of wood each winter. It would mean having a bit more of the field taken up with veg beds, but time-wise it wouldn't be too different as I'd be out there anyway.

Also, there's the hangar. The roof faces south-west and gets the sun full on it from midday. All corrugated iron, getting hot. Must be 200m2 in all, which is a big old solar collector. Paint it black, lay pipes in the channels of the sheeting, cover with corrugated clear sheeting and connect to a thermosyphon system with a big accumulator tank? Wouldn't be the world's most efficient system but who cares if you get at least some warm water from it and save on the electric bill?

Then there's biogas. Anaerobic bacteria kept warm enough will break starch down into methane and carbon dioxide, which happens in stagnant ponds, and cows' backsides. If you fill a vessel with slurry and put a lid on it to keep the air out, it ferments and gives the gas off. How long it takes depends on the temperature - 55C is thought to be the best. There is an interesting document at www.bioenergylists.org/compactbiogas about a system used in India that cooks a meal for 5 people each day from 2 kgs of flour. India tends to be warmer than here, but you could use some of the gas produced to keep a pilot light going under the vessel, and insulate it well. If chicken manure mixed to a slurry with vegetable waste could do the same thing, or Farmer Phil's slurry tank could be utilised, you could get a source of heat for nowt.