Solar shower power

A few weeks ago, we bought a 28-metre string of solar fairy lights from Nigel's Eco Store. Twenty-eight metres! That's enough to go all the way round the snail-shell solar shower, then across to - and all the way around - the tree bog. Look:


Can't see them? How about now:


Only one thing confuses me about these lights - and that's this claim made on the box: "Up to 40 hours run time per night".

The écovallée snail-shell solar shower

A solar shower was always going to be part of the écovallée experience. Originally, I wanted us to have the latest and greatest green technology for our guests to enjoy. But the costs of running electricity to the field, the twin-coil boiler, evacuated tubes etc. - in France - were prohibitive.

Of course, we've got books on DIY solar showers and considered black radiators under glass, hoses in strings of plastic bottles, buckets with holes in the bottom and all that fun stuff. But even with our "budget", we're still aiming to provide an unexpected level of luxury. Plus, many of our guests have very young children who need a controllable source of hot water.

So we ended up buying an aluminium swimming-pool shower, and knocked up a temporary cubicle for 2011...


...while we worked out how we were going to make this (as conceived by Her Outdoors):


Fortunately, Project1p happened and we swapped what we had (one week in a yurt) for what was on offer (a custom-made metal object):


I asked a local company what the wood would cost, turned down their estimate of €1,400 and bought it for €83 from a local wood yard, then spent five days sanding it. Finally all the elements were in one place:


We laid out the snail shell shape:


And started with the short side:


Which was up by the end of the day:


And looked pretty good, even if I do type so myself:


The next day saw the snail shell finished:


Which just needed oiling and photographing:


A few times:


Even if it meant lying in the shower tray to get the shape just so:


And not forgetting the penny that helped it all happen:


You might have noticed the gravel bed behind the temporary shower cubicle in the first shot. This is the first stage grey-water treatment before draining into a willow trench planted a few years ago. Here's what it looks like at the moment, after one year of plant growth and some finishing touches by Her Outdoors:


Something else that will only get more and more beautiful over time.

On my work bench

Just over 12 years ago, I bought a work bench from Travis Perkins. I don't think it cost much. I used it for the occasional DIY job when we lived in a house. It lived outside (it was only a little house) unprotected from the elements. It came with us to France and still lived outside. The leg braces broke a couple of years ago, but nothing that couldn't be fixed with a bit of rope. Sadly, at the end of last year, it died.

I looked at the work benches in my local DIY place and was STUNNED by the prices. Not just that, but none of the benches on offer had wooden worktops (my cheap old one did - which is how it survived for so long). Fortunately, my dad had an almost new leading-brand work bench in his garage which he let me scrounge. I tried to look after it, but eventually it found its way outside for a few days. I also did some round-wood work with it, which is quite normal for us, but which immediately demolished the pressboard worktop. Look:

Absolute crap. Almost certainly designed to fall apart*. For the price it probably was, scandalous.

Fortunately, I had some pieces of chestnut lying around from a failed kitchen cupboard project and knocked up a new worktop in a couple of hours.

I had to do this because I was just about to go to work on the project1p solar shower. And I hope you'll agree, if you're going to work on a solar shower that's been in the making for a Very Long Time and has cost an Eye-wateringly Large Amount of Money, you're going to need a decent work bench.

More on this, later.

*(For more on designed obsolescence, I strongly recommend you watch Pyramids of Waste aka The Lightbulb Conspiracy (2010). Contains some very surprising information and tells you why that leading-brand printer isn't working any more.)

In for a penny

Luke Seal started the year with 1p. His goal: to end up with something worth more than one penny by 2012.

Things went very well, very fast. He swapped the penny for some fish, some fish for a guitar, a guitar for a bike, the bike for £50, the cash for 10 square metres of Bulgaria and the land for a custom-made metal object.

Which is where we came in.

Readers of our website will know that, this year, guests will enjoy the luxury of a solar shower. Not some knocked-up arrangement using an old cast-iron radiator, a length of hose encased in plastic bottles or a dustbin painted black. Nor one of those hanging bags that leave your hair smelling like plastic and break before the end of the week. No no. We're going for a professionally made shower where the temperature can be controlled. (People wanting the more rustic experience can always pour a bucket of water over their heads. We just think they should have a choice.)

And even though most of our guests know each other very well, our new shower needs a cubicle.

Years ago, Her Outdoors designed a cubicle in the shape of a snail shell; it just needs to be held together by a custom-made metal object, like this:


Hmn.

Jumping on the idea like a small child on a trampoline, we proposed a week at écovallée in exchange for the custom-made object and, turning down a valuable wedding cake at the very last minute, Luke said Yes! Our object will be made by corner-of-a-field-in-Bulgaria owner Darren of Darad Fabrications in Atherstone and, if all goes to plan, brought down by friends at the end of the summer.

Our week in a yurt has since been exchanged for a portrait of a man who lost millions of pennies, made out of pennies, by artist Adrian Firth. For more details, take a look at Luke's superbly written blog here