New Eco Hub Outdoor Classroom at Coddington Primary School

Video for Renewable Energy Mix Eco Outdoor Classroom

We have just finished the installation of a new eco hub outdoor classroom building for Coddington Primary School in Nottinghamshire. The school wanted to have a building that they could use for outdoor learning and lessons but also that it had to feature systems or accessories which would encourage and foster a greater awareness and knowledge of sustainability, climate change and in particular renewable energy.

The eco hub is a 5m octagonal outdoor classroom which has some standard additional items – these include solid timber wall panels, felt shingle tile roof, roll-down canvas panels for the windows and entrance (to provide for shade from the elements when so required), internal desks and benches for ease of use for the classroom outdoor studies and an access ramp.

Then we have added in the special eco elements – these include guttering and water butt for rainwater harvesting so that the children can water whatever it is they are growing in the planters.

But the special item is the energy mix renewable energy system which features a 150w wind turbine mounted on a pole to the side of the outdoor classroom, roof-mounted 200w solar panel, special kinetic energy bike the children have to pedal to create power and the wall mounted board which features the four screen digital data read out display, two power sockets, isolator switches and energy neo-pixels with LED lights showing the flow of power from each source. The system also includes a light and an electrical certification by a qualified electrician and curriculum based lesson plans as to how the energy mix can be used as an educational tool.

The digital display screen on the wall mounted board has multiple screens which the children can alternate between by the simple pressing of a button – these are:

Battery Visualiser

Purpose: Show the percentage of the battery being filled by each energy source
Design: Marching lines at the top and bottom indicate energy flow from the board above. These “fall” into the battery, and we can see how much of the battery is being filled by which energy source. When charging the battery, the different coloured blocks add 4 blinking pixels at a time, adding up rows as they charge. When one of the three is turned off, the flowing lines at the top disappear and that color in the battery block stops blinking.

Watt Hours Visualiser

Purpose: Watt-hours shown numerically
Design: Marching lines at the top and bottom indicate whether the electricity is currently flowing. The numbers are there for students to see the cumulative amount of energy contributed by each renewable energy.
The numbers change to reflect just that day, week, or the last 30 days

Trends Over Time Visualiser

Purpose: Show the amount of watt hours over time
Design: marching lines at the top and bottom indicate electricity flow. The visualiser shows how many watt hours have been collected per day and teachers can use this to ask students to calculate trends (say 1 line = 5 wH). It also looks like how you might visualise audio levels, a throwback to the name Energy Mixer.

For more information on the above, please contact the Hideout House Company on 01832 275902 or email: info@hideouthouse.com