Sustainable Futures | Les Vignes Basses

Our top tips for increasing energy efficeincy and reducing your outgoings as well as your footprint

Another day, yet another phone call from a family member bemoaning the increasing energy bills and asking for off-grid advice in order to reduce their payments. Through an increasing and alarming number of these conversation it struck me that some of the adaptations we’ve made to our lives which enable us to live off-grid have now become useful in a wider context.

Off-grid energy is no longer a novel idea reserved only for forest-bound dreamers. Over the last couple of years we have received calls from many friends and family members asking us about solar energy and, particularly in winter, heating efficiency.

1 Comment

Posted on February 13, 2023 by Kungfuflee

Sustainable Futures

ecobuilding, energy efficiency, heating, lower consumption, passive, permaculture, reducing energy, self-sufficiency, simplicity, sustainability

Rising bills, compounding energy crises, the head of the UN announcing an existential threat to humanity. When the head of the largest diplomatic organisation in the world uses language that wouldn’t look out of place in the Extinction Rebellion manifesto, it only adds to our desire to be a part of what follows this madness. A few questions we often ask ourselves follow the ‘four Rs’ set out in Jem Bendell’s famous paper Deep Adaptation, what can we relinquish? What can we restore? How can we be more resilient?

1 Comment

Posted on November 2, 2022 by Daniel Colman

Sustainable Futures

ecobuilding, permaculture

A design principle and critical assessment of our needs as human beings

Over the course of the last 4 years, whilst building our strawbale house, installing the systems and becoming accustomed to them, we have consistently applied a thorough design framework.

This has come to be known between us and in various conversations with friends, family and volunteers as The 90% Rule which goes something like this:

2 Comments

Posted on June 13, 2021 by Daniel Colman

Sustainable Futures

carbon footprint, diy, ecobuilding, ecological design, financial freedom, permaculture, renewable energy, simplicity, solar power, strawbale, Sustainable, treading lightly

I always look forward to Sunday mornings and the simple pleasure of visiting the compost heap with our latest offerings. For 4 years now we have had a dry toilet, which, for those of you unfamiliar with the parlance of composting, means collecting your poo in a large bucket, covering your deposits with sawdust, separating the urine (to keep it dry and the bucket light) and then creating an active compost pile in the garden somewhere.

5 Comments

Posted on January 1, 2021 by Kungfuflee

Permaculture, Sustainable Futures

Compound interest is a term few really understand, yet it adds a significant cost to what is already the largest investment most people make in their lives, the mortgage. This impacts everything, our car, our credit card our store cards and we end up, as a friend put it, running in order to stand still. I want to turn this concept on its head and talk about compound savings.

7 Comments

Posted on November 17, 2019 by Daniel Colman

Sustainable Futures

A little over two years ago, I put together a small powerwall (battery pack) to store solar energy in our caravan. Read more about the process of putting it together here. We have been off-grid for this entire time, with free power, no stress and an immense sense of connection with the sun! So, here’s an update: Read More

4 Comments

Posted on October 7, 2019 by Daniel Colman

Eco-Building, Sustainable Futures

International Women’s Day is a demonstration that our modern world fights the good fight daily in terms of equality, anti-discrimination and liberty to transcend gender boundaries. Some areas are making this transition in leaps and bounds whilst others are laggards stuck in their traditional ways with little or no thought towards progression. Thinking about this started a reflection process about our house build and the stereotypes which I unwittingly fought (and still fight) against on a daily basis.

8 Comments

Posted on March 8, 2019 by Kungfuflee

Sustainable Futures

action, building, confidence, construction, diy, ecobuilding, empowerment, energy, fitfam, fitness, gender equality, greenbuiilding, International Women's Day, Les Vignes Basses, life affirming, mental health, Natural Building, permaculture, permaculturedesign, permaculturedesigncourse, selfbuild, selfsufficiency, straw bale building, StrawBaleBuilding, sustainability, Sustainable, wellbeing

“If the rules are such that you can’t make progress, then you have to fight the rules”

7 Comments

Posted on June 7, 2017 by Kungfuflee

Sustainable Futures

batteries, battery, batterystorage, cleanenergy, diy, ecobuilding, ecofriendly, freeenergy, laptopbatteries, liionbatteries, permaculture, recycle, renewableenergy, repurpose, solar, Solarenergy, solarpanel, solarpower, Tesla

Over Land And Sea To Japan And Back Again

8 Comments

Posted on March 20, 2017 by Kungfuflee

Sustainable Futures, Travel

adventure, backpacking, beijing, china, culture, ecotravel, france, germany, irkutsk, Japan, lativa, lithuania, mongolia, poland, qingdao, russia, siberia, southkorea, sustainabletravel, train, TransMongolianRailway, TransMongolianTrain, TransSiberianRailway, TransSiberianTrain, Travel, travelslowly, tripofalifetime, Ulanbaataar, vladivostok, voyage

5 Comments

Posted on February 17, 2017 by Kungfuflee

Eco-Building, Permaculture, Sustainable Futures, Teaching English Online

diy, fieldlife, flexibleworking, france, lesvignesbasses, livefree, outdoors, permaculture, ratrace, Straw, StrawBaleBuilding, teaching, working

Once the foundations and box beam of the straw-bale house were completed, we focussed on a quick project to create a beautiful space for yoga, meditation and general chill out. The foundations for this area were made during the summer with lots of help from our friends and they served as a practice ground for the rammed-tyre foundations we used to make the house foundations. Read More

5 Comments

Posted on October 17, 2016 by Kungfuflee

Eco-Building, Permaculture, Sustainable Futures, Yoga & Meditation

decking, diy, lesvignesbasses, rammedtyrefoundations, wood, Yoga