Back to the Garden

‘Back to the Garden’ is the brain child of Delaval Astley, Lord Hastings. Located between Holt and Letheringsett in North Norfolk it offers fresh produce, organic and freshly prepared meals from a barn environment of around 500 sq m.

As it represents the first stage of a projected rural business complex, the choice of heating system was critical to its economic operation. Having examined wind power and ground source heat, biomass was selected as both environmentally friendly and pretty well inflation proof.

Besides the farm shop, the Reka 160Kw boiler also provides heat and hot water for an adjacent six bedroom farmhouse using less than 50% of its capacity, the remaining capacity being available for future developments.

So successful has this scheme been that Lord Hastings has had a smaller (60Kw) biomass boiler installed at his 6 bedroom farmhouse in a nearby village where it also heats his swimming pool.

Reka boilers are fitted with a safe and reliable automatic feed system using a series of infrared eyes to monitor and control the quantity of fuel being auger fed to the multi-burner. Safety features such as fire lock and water sprinkler system provide a fully automated, worry- free heating.

Reka multi fuel boilers are fitted with a moving floor which accommodates a range of biomass fuels. The moving floor breaks up the residue know as clinker, allowing air to move freely through the grates, producing a much more efficient burn and reducing maintenance.

Grants were not pursued in view of the effort and time anticipated to achieve relatively modest assistance. Whilst investment recovery periods have not been considered, these will be faster the more that oil and gas prices rise. The Danish built Reka boilers were supplied by Reka UK of Attlebridge near Norwich. Tel 01263 577301.