Are you sitting comfortably?

The reduce, reuse, recycle mantra is very much in our minds at the Heart of the Park project, particularly as we are trying to divert as much site waste from landfill as possible. So when Julie visited the site a few weeks ago for one of our taster days and asked if she could have one of the wooden pallets that were headed for the skip for a recycling project, we were only too happy.

Doing the green thing isn’t without its challenges says Julie, “we thought we had bitten off more than we could chew as it was the 'devils own job' to take it apart. No wonder they are so difficult to recycle!!!

However, Julie and her father persevered and we’re glad that they did, as a few weeks later they have transformed the pallet into this lovely chair. “It's a design we copied from something we saw on the internet so I can't take credit for (it).” We love it though and hope that Julie can now put her feet up and take a well earned rest.

Morden Hall Park looks fantastic in the sunshine, and plenty of visitors are out and about enjoying the beautiful weather. Our Easter Egg Hunt kicks off today too - let's hope the weather stays sunny for the next days of the event on Saturday, Sunday and Monday!

This week the two Zoës (Zoë Colbeck, Property Manager and Zoë Adams, Community Projects Manager) took a trip to our Livinggreen partner project in Ludwigsburg to catch up with the other project teams.

The team in Ludwigsburg are hard at work transforming a listed Flak-hall building (an old barracks gym) to be a demonstration of sustainable reconstruction. They're using a clever 'house-in-house' technique to protect the historic shell of the building, whilst the building inside will allow for innovative energy saving techniques. All very clever stuff! The Flak-hall is going to be a new child and family centre for Ludwigsburg, and it's great to think of the future generations who will be inspired by this eco building. Here's a picture of the outside of the building.

We also had the opportunity to take a quick stroll in the beautiful Baroque gardens surrounding Ludwigsburg Palace.

Finally, our hospitable hosts gave us the chance to try some local Ludwigsburg culture, after all, when in Germany...

Happy Easter from Morden Hall Park!

Lime - naturally green

The third in our series of taster days took place last week. This time the focus was on lime plaster with an informative and accessible presentation by Nigel from The Lime Centre, followed by an on-site demonstration of lime plastering.

Besides learning about the benefits of using lime in historic building projects such as the Heart of the Park project, the non-chemists among us also learnt about an additional benefit which is particularly relevant to our project. Cement and lime both give off considerable amounts of CO2 in production but unlike lime, which reabsorbs between 45% and 61% of CO2 per ton depending on the strength grade, cement does not reabsorb any CO2 as it dries. Some of the new, low energy materials that we are using in the renovation actually contain a large amount of embodied carbon. Lime, however, is one product that wears its green credentials on its sleeve.

PV-T: 2-4-1 solar power

The sun is shining which makes it the perfect day (apart from yesterday and with any luck the weekend as well) to introduce the latest addition to the stable yard: an array of 22 Photovoltaic-Thermal (PV-T) panels.  These innovative solar panels, manufactured by Newform Energy , have now been installed on the south-facing roof of the stable yard. 

A PV-T panel is a single solar collector or panel which generates electricity and heats water. It does this by combining a photovoltaic (PV) collector with a high efficiency solar thermal collector underneath. 

Strange as it sounds, PV collectors work most effectively at lower temperatures. Less hard to believe, especially on a sunny day like today, is that the surface temperature on the collector can reach 100˚C on a sunny summer’s day in England. At this temperative, the collector's efficiency is greatly reduced with the result that it could produce as little as 10% of its maximum output. 

The magic of the PV-T is that the thermal collector uses a fluid cooling system to draw excess heat away from the PV collector and therefore improve its efficiency. This excess heat is then used to heat water which will be used in the stable yard in under-floor heating and for handwashing.

Although bulkier than conventional PV panels, PV-T have the advantage of being up to 40% more efficient than the conventional PV panels which have been installed on the west facing roof. 

The PV-T on the south-facing roof. NTPL/Nancy Falloon

The PV-T, PV panels and PV slates will be commissioned (wired up) later on in the renovation work. 

Rocketeers - tidying the planet one apple core at at time

Morden Hall Park's Rocketeers

More excitement last week following the arrival of our very own A700 Rocket® composter! Imagine a compost bin with better looks and an attitude and you’ve got the Rocket Composter. Manufactured and installed by Tidy Planet, it is an impressive piece of kit that digests food waste, speedily turning it into usable compost in just two weeks. What’s more, it actually looks like a rocket!

Gwen, Tidy Planet’s master composter, was on hand to teach the new team of Rocketeers how to feed and take good care of the Rocket. It will be enjoying a tasty diet of fresh scraps and cooked leftover food (including meat and fish) from Morden Hall Park’s Riverside Café, as well as garden waste treats from the park. And if it's really good we even might let it have some leftover ice cream from the ice cream parlour in the stable yard when it opens following the renovation work.

 

Ian, our assistant gardener, feeding the Rocket

Photovoltaic solar slates on the roof of the stable yard. NTPL/Sarah Tebbot

Work continued last week with the installation of 300 photovoltaic solar slates on the east-facing roof of the stable yard.

These innovative photovoltaic solar panels are made by Solar Slate Ltd. They look like normal roof slates and although they are less efficient that the PV panels that we have installed on the opposite roof, they have the advantage of blending in well with the existing roof slates. Maintaining the appearance of the historic building was an important consideration for the National Trust when we were designing the project. These solar slates are therefore ideal, as although the stable yard is not a listed building, it is in a conservation area.

Each solar slate measures 500mm x 252mm and weighs 1.8Kg.  The slates are wired individually and together use over 1km of wire. The slates are installed in the same way as normal roof slates and the rest of the roof will be retiled using as many of the old roof slates as possible.

The solar slates are being installed by Greener Power Solutions Ltd working with their sister company of specialist roofing contractors, Old English Roofing Ltd.

Climate Week - One week to show how we can combat climate change

21-27 March 2011 marks the UK’s first Climate Week and to celebrate the Heart of the Park project team will be leading free hard hat tours of the renovation work taking place in the stable yard. Tours will take place every weekday lunchtime during Climate Week.

Tours will start at 12.30pm and will last for about an hour. Hard hats etc will be provided. Places on the tours are limited so please contact us to book a place on 0208 545 6856 or heartofthepark@nationaltrust.org.uk .

 

The Heart of the Park project is just one of the ways that the National Trust is working towards our 2020 energy goal to reduce our use of fossil fuels for heat and electricity by 50% by 2020.