Eco Classrooms

The Off-Grid Eco Classrooms Project

We were thrown another interesting challenge recently from an independent Eco school who have a big forest school area within their grounds. As this woodland area is somewhat remote and distant from the main school buildings, they are wanting to have an enclosed outdoor classroom building which they can use for a whole host of applications and will be used for at least a couple of hours a day. In all seasons and in all weathers.  So they need some sort of power and heat plus they need to have a WC facility for staff and visitors.

As the site is nowhere near any service connections, there is no other option but to go “off-grid”. But we believe that we have cracked it.

The building itself will be 7m x 4m so easily enough room to cater for a class of 30 children and will have bi-fold doors to the front elevation so that the building can easily be opened up to allow for free-flow. It will be fully insulated to roof, walls and floor so that it is as thermally efficient as possible as well as being double glazed. The toilet is to be a modern environmentally friendly eco composting toilet so no water, no sewage, no harmful chemicals, no smell and no waste.

The lighting will be LED strip lights which in turn will be powered by an array of four ground mounted solar panels (capable of producing a Kw of electricity) and a mini wind turbine. The energy created by this system will be stored in two batteries and by way of an inverter will be converted to usable power so that the children and staff have two power sockets they can use for laptops, tablets etc. We are also investigating the possibility of this power supply being “topped up” by electric pedal bikes which the children have to pedal for a period of time – but to keep them interested we have developed a system with an LED display unit so that the faster they pedal, they can see how many more kws of power they are creating.

Heating of the building will be via an internal wood-burning stove and because this is a forest school, the children will be responsible for collecting the logs to burn.

Should be a very interesting project and truly an eco classroom in every sense. So if you are looking for something similar, then please contact us on info@hideouthouse.com or phone 01865 858982

or please visit eco classrooms