Grand Opening of Bicton Earth

Now this is weird!. We have been invited to, and have accepted, an invitation to attend the official opening of Bicton Earth training centre, a local training school for renewables near Budleigh Salterton and part of Bicton Agricultural College.

The weird part is that when the development of the centre was announced 18 months ago, we offered to support the project and donate equipment, PV panels, etc as we felt a project like this was just what the area needs... I still do!.. However, after an initial meeting and a small flurry of emails indicating our intent, etc. All contact broke off. We naturally assumed there were delays, etc. As we now see, the centre is completely built (and looks lovely), but they actually PAID a company to install the equipment, which will have left less in the budget for all the teaching stuff they could have bought.

Although Graham, who is running the show now & was not around at that point,  is really pulling it all together and is ready to take on a bunch of C&G courses, (plus he's a really nice bloke), I am still feeling a little bad taste in my mouth over what went before him. I'd like to think our offer of FREE stuff was not snubbed, but I was looking at some of the installed gear that would have cost them thousands, and wonder if there was a level of incompetency or something else going on a year or so ago!

If your there on Friday, see you then, we'll be there, looking onwards and upwards. Graham has plans for the Earth Centre, and they are all good.. And despite the other stuff, I want to help him along, there is now some vision running the place now.

Film Sponsorship Deal for 2012

We have been inspired to support a group of local film makers starting filming their first major film right here in the East Devon area. See the press release below..

A trio of local lads have formed a film production company ‘Primley Road Productions’ after much acclaim for their pilot episode of ‘Clive’ last year. Their first feature film, - The Catch – starts shooting in East Devon and other locations in July this year, and whilst they have been supported with location and studio equipment by MWS Media, a film production company in the Thames Valley, much needed funding is required for hiring locations and more. Rudge Renewables have helped with some sponsorship, but more is needed to bring this home grown comedy to the UK’s film screens.

‘The Catch’ is a character driven, coming-of-age comedy, with a truly original story. Supported by the acclaimed production company, MWS, who are eager to nurture Britain’s next generation of film makers, Rudge Renewables have also been keen to invest in the future of these local talented youngsters who obviously have a planned future in British film writing and production.

Resume of the three, all from East Devon:

Based in Seaton, Oliver Dowling has gone on to graduate with honours from Kingston University in film and creative writing. His passion for comedy was rewarded in 2010 when he won the award for 'Best original Joke' on BBC Radio. He co-wrote and starred in television series pilot 'Clive', and has been a guest speaker several times at the London Comedy Writers Group, based in the heart of London's west end.

Joel Emery graduated from Middlesex University with a first, and has since worked on various projects. His short-film 'Exposures' was shortlisted on several national film festivals. He collaborated on 'Clive', co writing with Oliver Dowling and directing the pilot. Joel currently works for the BBC, as head of graphic design and moving images on such shows as Match of the Day and Football Focus. 

Adam Jarrell is an actor/singer who has performed all over the world, ranging from cruise-ships to international tours. His debut feature film 'Nuryan', in which he played the lead, won the prestigious 'Best Film' and the London Independent film festival. Adam also played one of the lead characters in the award-winning production of Stephen Sondheim's 'Assassins' at the Union Theatre, Waterloo in 2010. He is currently on tour with 'Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat' in which he is receiving rave reviews for his portrayal of 'Pharaoh'. 

Using your excess generated power

Our clever Immersion Heater switching device has proved to be a runaway success since going into full production in January.
To give you an overview, our unit is simply installed by your consumer unit (fuse box), where both your Solar PV (or wind system) is connected along with your immersion heater. When your PV/Wind system generates more than 1kW (or other setting of choice), it will switch on your immersion heater to heat water instead of exporting power out onto the grid.
For more information on our Immersion Heater Relay system, go to www.chrisrudge.co.uk/immersion.htm

Ideal for premises with Gas or Oil heating and a hot water tank with a backup immersion heater fitted.

Solar PV installation for Dorset artist

Living in a conservation area can be a problem for people with plans to have renewable energy plans for their house and family.
Such was the case for landscape and portrait artist Harriet Barber, who lives near the beautiful Lulworth Cove in Dorset, UK.
She and partner Dan wanted to offset their carbon footprint and escalating power bills and give them better options for their children rather than spend most of their income on paying power bills.
We took on the planning permission application paperwork for Harriet, which for people unfamiliar with the processes can be very onerous. This was all included in the cost, as we feel that any of our customers needing assistance in obtaining planning should be helped every step of the way.
Harriet simply gave us the go-ahead for the work, and we did the rest. Her, the family and her neighbours are extremely pleased with how its all worked out, together with the local planning office, whom like most we encounter are very helpful.

Speaking at Ecobuild

I had the privilege of being invited to give a presentation at EcoBuild at the Excel, London, to Self Builders on the outlines of generating your own power at home.
As it turned out, though I thought I was going to be right on time, it ran over and I sadly needed to miss out some stuff, so apologies to anyone who attended the packed room and needed more information. You can email me at chris@chrisrudge.co.uk for all the notes.
A kind person in the audience took a phone photo and posted to Twitter.. Thanks, I've included it here.

RNLI Press release

It was great to see the RNLI had sent out a press release to show off the new Solar PV system we had installed at the Sea Survival Centre back in November last year.
As the press release indicates, we had designed it to offset the vast amount of electricity the building uses to  treat the water, run the wave machine, plus all the systems that a normal building of this size will not have.
Its really good to know the RNLI is moving to being as low carbon as possible to minimise their carbon footprint, something many companies are doing now without regard to profit. The systems simply need to be self financing without the past greed of big investors.

For the whole story from the RNLI CLICK HERE

Government delay the RHI for another year!

Your now going to be waiting even longer for the long awaited Renewable Heat Incentive. Despite all the Government hype about helping people to heat their homes using renewables rather than expensive oil and LPG, they have decided to push the release date from late summer this year to late summer 2013.

In some element of compensation, the Renewable Heat Premium Payments (RHPP), scheme has been extended in a phase 2 starting on April 2nd.
The original RHPP, which is just about to expire, has not been that successful, probably owing to both complexity and misleading terms used in application. For example, the 'Voucher' was not actually a voucher at all, and the email system failed to send out the information or vouchers to applicants. Lets hope this time they have a working system finalised!

For the full release from DECC, click HERE