Welcome to the Off Grid College, a four day short course in practical sustainable living.
In 2016 our curriculum will include elements including build-your-own appropriate technology installations, wild food and medicine walks, permaculture and much more. Please take a look below as the programme develops….
Sessions run at 10am / 11.30am / 2pm / 4pm each day. Sometimes there are two sessions at once, one of which will take place outside the college barn.
The Off Grid College’s 13 modules (with extra walkabout sessions) will run from Thursday afternoon through ’till Sunday afternoon, curated over 3-hour morning and evening sessions. Please visit our Line Up A -Z for full biographies of every workshop facilitator.
If you are an experienced teacher/speaker and feel you can contribute to this programme, don’t hesitate to get in touch via our registration forms and we will respond as soon as possible to let you know if you have a space.
NB. This line up is subject to change before full confirmation. Please watch this space for updates!
Thursday
1. Rebecca Sarll: The principles of Earthships and applying them to British Climates
Earthships are a style of eco-building that are off-grid and built largely with recycled materials (often including lots of car tyres!). They harvest all their own water, generate all their own power and aim to provide space heating and cooling without the use of fuel.
Rebecca will explain how Earthships work and how the principles can be applied to any building in the British climate: new or old, large or small.
Rebecca has an MSc in sustainable building from the Centre for Alternative Technology, she lives off-grid, and has been teaching about Earthships and eco-building for 7 years.
Brighton Earthship Project
Friday
2. Forest Gardening with Sagara Vajra 10am
If only food grew on trees….Sagara runs the East Devon Forest Garden. As well as this talk explaining how to create a forest garden (and what they are), there will also be a tour to the East Devon site at the end of the workshop, for those wishing to see the place in action.
3. Introduction to Permaculture with Randy from Land Matters 11.30am
Randy lives off grid at Landmatters Co-operative Permaculture Project in south Devon. He was introduced to Permaculture in 2010 and has been practising and teaching the discipline ever since.During the talk we will explore what Permaculture is, where it came from, and why is it relevant today. It’s a short talk designed to inform and inspire.
www.randymayers.com
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4. Foraging Walkabout and Cook-Up with Trudy Turrell 11.30am
Off Grid regular Trudy returns to deliver daily wild food walks followed by a cook-up. These sessions are always very popular, make sure you don’t miss them!
LUNCH BREAK
5. Panels and Batteries : DIY Demo with Ian Westmoreland of Demand Energy Equality 2pm
http://www.demandenergyequality.org
6. Micro-Hydro and Storage Systems with Merlin Howse (Steward Wood Community) 4pm
College regular Merlin will take participants on a walk-through of low-impact micro-energy technology. The talk will look at Pico Hydro as used at Steward Wood and energy storage systems, a subject of much interest and innovation right now.
http://www.stewardwood.org/index.ghtml
Saturday
7. Community Energy Solutions with Sonya Bedford 10am
Sonya is a renewable energy lawyer experienced in all forms of renewables. She has worked for multiple community energy organisations and is an expert in planning, organisation structures, power agreements and much more. Sonya will look at the current and future community energy situation in the UK and locally.
8. Urban Permaculture with Steve Jones 11.30am
From ‘Permanent Culture Now’ and Bolton Urban Growers
Find out how permaculture can be applied successfully in an urban setting even in deprived areas.
9. Wild Food Foraging Walk and Cook-Up with Trudy Turrell 11.30am
Off Grid regular Trudy returns to deliver daily wild food walks followed by a cook-up. These sessions are always very popular, make sure you don’t miss them!
LUNCH
10. Herb Walk and Balm-Making with Helen Kearney 2pm
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11. Nic Dore: An introduction to DIY Solar water heating and plumbing 2pm
Nic has an MSc in Renewable Energy and Resource Management from University of Glamorgan and has hands on experience of renewable energy installation having worked as a project manager for a large installation firm and now being director of Open Door Renewables.
Nic offers a 1.5 hour introductory talk in which he will introduce some of the relevant components, tools and calculations involved in DIY Water Heating and plumbing.
http://www.opendoorrenewables.co.uk
11. Pedal-Powered Generation: A practical workshop with Nick Mercer 4pm
As Campaign for Real Events, Nick Mercer operates small child sized pedal generators in schools, community events and home education sessions. The generators are made mostly from recycled items with things like cotton reels, vacuum cleaner belts and motors from printers clearly visible. The idea is not so much to generate loads of energy but promote understanding of how it works and inspire use of waste as a learning resource.
Nick Mercer has been doing what is now called ‘hardware hacking’ since the late 1950’s, starting by chopping up valve radios with dangerous
high voltage inside. An early experiment of powering a light bulb with a small electric motor spun by a hand cranked grinding wheel triggered a fascination with electricity generation. Hearing the BBC Radiophonic Workshop’s Dr Who theme in 1963 inspired the construction of analogue synthesizers and building analogue guitar effects contraptions for Danielle Dax’s band in the 70’s. After 20 years making pedal generators, he’s now collecting and restoring vintage sewing machines and helping run Reading Repair Cafe.
Sunday
12. How to have all the power you need for £100 with John C. Scott 10am
How to design and build low-energy power systems that provide for all your needs, and at little cost.—
13. Planning Permissions for Low Impact Living with Charlotte of Land Matters 11.30am
Land Matters community near Totnes, Devon, has just received permanent planning permission on its’ site. Find out how this happens, the lessons learned and join the discussion about how more low impact communities can make this happen.
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14. Foraging Walk and Cook-Up with Trudy Turrell 11.30am
Off Grid regular Trudy returns to deliver daily wild food walks followed by a cook-up. These sessions are always very popular, make sure you don’t miss them!
LUNCH
15. Composting with Nicky Scott 2pm
Nicky has worked with numerous organisations advising on composting and setting up market gardens for more than 45 years. He is closely involved with Community Composting Network and the Federation for City Farms and community gardens member of the advisory committee on compost. Since 2005 he has been working with promoting composting in schools for all food waste and developing the equipment, systems and back up for this in collaboration with CCN members. He has been asked to write for Green Books making two films and four books to date. Nicky will be here at Off-Grid to share his wealth of knowledge with you, showing off the charcoal urinals we will be building, and the compost loos.
16. Rocket Stoves with Steve Jones of Permanent Culture Now 4pm
How to make a DIY Rocket Stove.
