Pulling the plug: a sustainably built, off-grid farmhouse

Creating a double-height living space brings extra light into the sitting area

A carefully planned 17th-century conversion is not only sustainably built, but off-grid, too. 

No utility bills. No payment demands for gas, electricity, water or telephone lines. Sounds utopian, doesn’t it? Yet it’s a reality for Paul and Tessa Priestman because the old Northumberland farmhouse they have renovated is off-grid. 'The only bill we pay is to the council,’ Paul says. 'And if anything happened to Britain’s utilities, we’d be blissfully unaware.’

The Priestmans’ project began six years ago when they decided to plant a new woodland. As co-founder and director of a London-based design consultancy, Priestmangoode, which recently set up an office in China, Paul’s regular international travel was making him think about his carbon footprint. 'I wanted to put something back,’ he says. Finding a 200-acre plot in Northumberland, where Tessa has family roots, seemed like serendipity. 'It was larger than we originally planned but slap in the middle was a ruined farmhouse dating from 1600, and I immediately saw its potential,’ Paul says.

The semi-fortified farmhouse perches on a sweeping valley with wide-open views towards the Cheviot Hills. Derelict for many years, one end of the building originally housed cattle and a dairy while the owners lived upstairs. Water came from two wells; a stream runs through the land.

Permission was granted by the council to plant 60,000 saplings, towards which the Forestry Commission (which specified native species including oak, ash, holly, hawthorn and beech) offered a grant. Cost wasn’t a primary consideration, though. 'We wanted to get the land back to how it was before anyone set foot on it,’ Paul says.

Rebuilding the farmhouse for holiday use also required planning consent. 'I worked closely with local planning officers, architects and even an archaeologist because it’s adjacent to the site of an Iron Age fort,’ Paul says. 'Consent took ages because the land is partly in Northumberland National Park. We weren’t allowed to change the house exterior, but this didn’t matter since we wanted it to melt into the landscape.

'Being off-grid, it was vital the house should run efficiently. I’ve always been interested in sustainability in my work.’ Over the past 25 years Priestmangoode has designed homeware, trains, hotels and cruise ships, so Paul has had good experience putting sustainable ideas into practice. 'And the idea that we could enjoy a carbon-neutral holiday here became increasingly viable.’

The star of the home is the wood-burning Rayburn, used for cooking and heating water, and a super-efficient tank upstairs stores hot water for radiators and taps. An industrial generator in an adjacent outhouse is powered by liquid petroleum gas (LPG) stored in an underground tank. This kicks in for a couple of hours every two days with the energy stored in a huge bank of batteries. The generator is controlled by an inverter (a kind of computer), which keeps the batteries topped up. The external walls, made from the original stone, insulation and plasterboard, are more than a metre thick (more than five times the thickness of those of an average Victorian house). Combined with double-glazing, it provides effective insulation. In addition to this an LPG gas boiler runs the central heating when the temperature in the house drops below a certain level.

'The whole house is low-energy,’ Tessa says. 'There’s no electric kettle, toaster, hairdryer or television, although we do have a portable radio. We find it’s more labour-intensive to be carbon-neutral but also more satisfying.’

Employing builders who worked with locally sourced materials has also boosted its green credentials. Now the stone building evokes a sense of peaceful permanence. Its remote position means you hear no planes or cars – only birds, and the susurration of wind in the rapidly growing trees.

'It’s the atmosphere that counts and that’s created by all the little details,’ Paul says. 'With careful design you can make something beautiful and enjoyable that is also sustainably built to last.’

Creating an off-grid, sustainable house
• Electricity is generated using an industrial generator powered by LPG (liquid petroleum gas). Off-grid advice and installation from Inherent Energy: inherentenergy.co.uk.
• We use a wood-burning Rayburn for all heating, cooking and hot water for the radiators and taps. Hot water is stored in a hot water cylinder (rayburn-web.co.uk).
• Our water comes from a borehole and is pumped automatically into a small, pressurised holding tank. Advice and installation from Dunelm Well Drilling: dunelm.co.uk.
• A small product called Waterpebble – a Priestmangoode design – in the shower monitors water usage and encourages you to use less each time by indicating when you should finish showering (waterpebble.com).
• We installed a non-powered treatment plant, sunk into the ground, which uses natural organisms to dispose of waste. Biorock Treatment Unit: biorock-uk.com.
• The only ceiling lights are in the kitchen. We fitted separate lighting circuits operated by a single switch so the lamps in each room can all be switched on or off simultaneously.
• We fitted Jetmaster fires in both sitting areas. They’re efficient and direct heat into the rooms rather than up the chimney (jetmaster.co.uk).
• A naturally cooled larder was created with wall vents that open on to the exterior. It is kept cool through convection and fresh air drawn through the larder to the Rayburn.
• We used reclaimed materials. The tables and benches are made from recycled oak (oakbeamuk.com; hadley-reclaimed.co.uk).
• We used local businesses and materials
to cut transport costs and energy consumption (csmarchitects.co.uk; dpbuilders.co.uk).
priestmangoode.com