Reconstruction of the roof timbers of Phase 1B? - as close as practical to the original timbers of the adjacent Phase 1B, as defined by the 1999 Report of Archaeology South East (London University). This structure represents considerable carbon lock in the timbers, where we are shy of increasing our carbon footprint - unless and until being considered as a UNESCO world heritage site.

Such an extension appears to be covered in the GPDO of 2015. Presumably, depending on the planning status of the building, which remains to be defined by the Secretary of State. It is unfortunate indeed, that in 1986 information was provided to the Planning Inspectorate (not by ourselves) that was not at all accurate. The Inspectorate were told that the two extant Phases, where not original. Equally unfortunately, in 1997 the County Archaeologist was not consulted in seeking additional guidance from the local authority and thence the Planning Inspectorate. Hence, the incorrect 'non-assessment' was carried over until today at time of writing in August 2024.

In or around 1936, the Weald Supply Company were forced to pay compensation to Charles de Roemer under the tenets of the Electric Lighting Acts 1882 - 1909. The Weald Supply Company were none too pleased to have to pay monies to Herstmonceux Electricity Works, taking revenge as they may, by taking down Phase 1B? and removing much of the ancillary plant. A heritage tragedy as far as we are concerned. Not many years after that, the National Gas Engine was taken to Herstmonceux Castle. And from there, we think during World War Two, the engine may have been scrapped, as there was an iron shortage to make steel for weapons of war; tanks and ships.

The section of building taken down housed a second generator, ancillary equipment and gas producing plant for the National 36hp gas engine. This is the engine that Ronald Saunders (we think) mistook for a steam engine. Phase 1B? also housed a large underground condensation chamber. Due to the nature of the equipment in this building, it is assumed that the roofing and roof structure would have been similar in construction to Phase 1A, except perhaps including lean to extensions. As with the faggot store.

THE COST OF SOLAR PANELS Vs GRID ELECTRICITY

In recent years the cost of solar panels has fallen, with China now producing around 80% of commercially available units, being artificially cheaply shipped using dirty bunker fuels to power the container ships. Fortunately, there is a move to bring production of silicon based photovoltaic panels back to Europe, where the energy used in fabrication is more sustainably generated, and shipping costs are thus reduced, with less pollution to cause acid oceans. In China they burn coal that is open cast mined, with some being imported from Australia.

The plan is to install 24 panels with a north-south orientations. With additional panels facing east-west, on the adjacent pergola. As a technology showcase.

In all, the assembly should generate around 3.6Kw at peak times. In the summer months, that should equate to eight hours of solid energy harvesting. Giving us 3.6 x 8 = 28.8Kw/hrs @ 0.24 pence per unit, that saves around £6.91 pounds a day, or £193.54 pounds a month. Wow!

Obviously, the Museum would not use so much electricity. Around £2,322 pounds a year, adjusted (rounded down) by 50%, to account for winter months. So, £1161 pounds saved a year. That is more than the average household uses. So, we may have to find a way of storing the electricity, in batteries in situ, and to charge a BMW i3 battery, to cover some of the cost of EV motoring. Because, we don't want to sell to the grid, where there is a staff electric car to charge. You will appreciate that the lithium batteries in most EVs, are reasonably capacious energy stores: 21.6 to 43.2 Kw/hrs for a BMW i3. Much more for a big Tesla.

What might be an interesting idea in a setup like this, is being able to draw power from the car's battery, as a load leveler. For sure, EVs will replace ICEs, in the transition to Net Zero targets. Meaning that energy self-sufficiency will become ever more important.

As with solar panels, lithium/cobalt based car batteries are mostly made in China at this time, European policies not favoring domestic manufacturers. We are also considering converting electricity to hydrogen, for the hydrogen cartridge systems on our H2 City car. Once again dependent on clarification as to the law and legal requirements. That is why the Lighting Acts had to be redrafted so many times, because the original terms did not incentivise sufficiently to make it happen.

CONCLUSIONS BATH ABBEY STUDY - The decarbonization of historic buildings such as Bath Abbey is essential in the move to net carbon zero. In this study, a PV system has been designed to cover the south-facing roof of Bath Abbey. This system has been designed by considering historical weather data, the orientation of the Abbey's roof, and any shading the system may occur. It was found that the PV system will have a payback time of (13.3 ± 0.6) years following an initial investment of £134,000 and would yield a profit £(139,000 ± 12,000) over the system's 25-year lifetime. This financial saving is a result of reduced electrical energy bills over the lifetime of the system as well as selling some excess electricity. Additionally, financial stress tests have been performed to confirm that the system would be profitable in all likely scenarios. Therefore, this case study provides the important insight that is relevant to other historical buildings, namely despite the additional costs associated with the installation of a PV system on the roof, it can still be a financially sensible decision to do so for the owners of such buildings. Furthermore, it has been argued that the installation would have significant environmental and social benefits.

Beyond the financial aspects, there are other considerations such as the positive impact the PV installation would have on the environment. The installation is predicted to generate (45 ± 2) MWh of electrical energy in its first year which is (9600 ± 400) kg CO2 equivalent emissions compared with using electricity generated by the National Grid based on data from the UK government, similar to the emissions of an average car driving (57,000 ± 2000) km.30 There is therefore a significant carbon emission saving for a small-scale installation, noting its meaningful impact in its first year of installation alone.

A second consideration would be the social significance of a key landmark, such as Bath Abbey, installing a PV system. The publicity could encourage others to consider installing solar panels and support some of the Church of England's carbon footprint programmes listed in the introduction. Both these factors would be huge benefits in the long-term process of tackling issues related to climate change.

Some may argue that there would be a public backlash to installing the PV systems as it would spoil the aesthetic of the Abbey, a problem tackled by many of the churches that have installed their own PV systems. An important next step (if this project were to proceed) would be to consult residents of the area, the local authority and conservation officer on the issue. Similar concerns were raised at the beginning of the Gloucester Cathedral project, but the public supported the idea. Solar panels were chosen to match the colour of the roof of the cathedral—a similar approach could be adopted by the Abbey. The system would not be visible from the street and could only be seen from the surrounding hills and so would have minimum visual impact.

BATH UNIVERSITY 3 FEBRUARY 2022

Installing solar panels could help historic buildings beat the rising costs of energy, according to a new study by a team of UK researchers led by the University of Bath.

- Feasibility study estimates installing solar panels on Bath Abbey could save around 10 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year – the weight of an African elephant or equivalent to an average car driving almost twice the circumference of the Earth.

- Solar panels could produce enough electricity to cover 35% of the Abbey’s usage.

- Study demonstrates that using solar panels could significantly reduce the carbon footprint of key heritage buildings that are difficult to insulate.

Researchers from the Centre for Doctoral Training in New and Sustainable Photovoltaics – a consortium of seven universities led by the University of Bath that trains doctoral students in different aspects of solar energy technology – looked at the dimensions, tilt and orientation of the Abbey roof, along with historic weather data, and shading of the roof from spires, to model the best configuration for 164 photovoltaic (PV) panels and estimated the amount of electricity that could be generated in a normal year.

They found that the set up could produce around 45 Mega-Watt hours per year, which accounts for roughly 35% of the Abbey’s annual usage. The equivalent amount of carbon dioxide saved, versus buying the electricity from the National Grid, would be around 10 tonnes per year, significantly reducing the carbon footprint of the building.

A cost-benefit analysis showed that the system could pay for itself in 13 years and provide a profit of £139,000 over a lifespan of 25 years. It would also future-proof the Abbey from rising costs of energy bills. The findings show that despite a large initial outlay, the system would be financially feasible for the historic grade I listed building.

They have published their findings in the journal Energy Science & Engineering.

Matthew Smiles, PhD researcher at the University of Liverpool who is first author on the study, said: “It’s very difficult to insulate historic Grade I listed buildings like Bath Abbey, so installing solar panels is a good way to reduce the carbon footprint of these buildings.

“Most of the Abbey’s electricity is used during the day, when the solar panels would be generating energy from sunlight, making it an ideal building to implement them.

“With increasing energy prices, installing solar panels could result in large cost savings.”

In the model, the panels were sited such that they couldn’t be seen from the street, only from a distance from the Bath Skyline, so would have minimal visual impact on the historic building.

Professor Alison Walker, Director of the Centre for Doctoral Training in New and Sustainable Photovoltaics at the University of Bath’s Department of Physics, has collaborated with Bath Abbey for several years on the project.

She said: “This paper is an amazing collaboration between the PhD students and the Bath Abbey Footprint Project who first invited us to look into solar for the Abbey and arranged for the students to visit the Abbey roof to see how solar could work.

“It’s great for the students, whose research projects are all on solar power, to see a practical application of the training they have done in universities across the UK”.

PhD student Adam Urwick, who performed the abbey modelling, module design and shadings analysis from the University of Sheffield, said: “The proposed installation would generate 45MWh and save about 10 tonnes of CO2 emissions in its first year of generation. This is equivalent to the emissions of an average vehicle driving 80,000km – almost twice the circumference of the Earth.

“Not only does it make financial sense, but the installation of solar panels on Bath Abbey could inspire reinvigoration of solar PV deployment in the UK which has stagnated over the past 5 years.”

The research was performed as part of a feasibility study for the Abbey’s Footprint programme, as part of the Church of England’s campaign, Shrinking the Footprint, which aims to reduce the carbon footprint of its historic buildings.

The Bath Abbey Footprint programme has already reduced its carbon footprint by using the geothermal hot springs of the local area to provide underfloor heating and installing LED light bulbs to illuminate the interior.

Although environmental and planning rules must also be considered carefully, installing solar panels is another potential way the Abbey could reduce its footprint further.

Nathan Ward, Footprint Project Director at Bath Abbey, said: “It’s been fantastic working with the University of Bath and the other universities on this project. The students and staff have shown a high level of commitment, knowledge and enthusiasm and have provided us with well-considered and invaluable research that we would like to use practically in the future."

“The research will help us greatly in exploring the use of solar panels on the Bath Abbey roof. The Abbey is highly committed in the outstanding care of both our built and natural environment and to reduce our carbon footprint."

“This has been achieved in part thanks to our Footprint project which saw the installation of new LED lighting and eco-friendly underfloor heating that uses energy from Bath’s natural hot water, but the use of solar panels would enable us to reduce our carbon footprint further.”

The Centre for Doctoral Training in New and Sustainable Photovoltaics is a consortium of seven universities and 12 industrial partners led by the University of Bath and funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). The universities include: The Universities of Bath, Cambridge, Liverpool, Loughborough, Oxford, Sheffield and Southampton.

STUDY ABSTRACT - Reduction of the carbon footprint of historic buildings is urgent, given their exceptionally large energy demand. In this study, the performance and cost of a roof mounted photovoltaic system has been simulated for Bath Abbey, a grade I listed building, to test the financial viability of installing such a system. The electrical output of the panels was generated by the software package PVsyst with inputs such as the known dimensions of the Abbey, historical weather data, the orientation of the Abbey's roof, module azimuthal and tilt angles and shading by the spire and roof features. An important result is that even though the roof is not shadowed by other buildings, shading causes a 19% loss of peak power. This model was used to determine a recommended configuration comprising 164 solar panels, separated into two subsystems located on two parts of the roof, each with an inverter. Its predicted electrical output, 45 ± 2 MWh generated in the first year of operation, formed the basis of a cost–benefit analysis. This system will become profitable after 13.3 ± 0.6 years and provide a profit of £139,000 ± £12,000 over its 25-year lifetime. Financial stress tests were performed for key assumptions to ensure that this result was true in all likely scenarios. This result shows that it is likely to make financial sense to install a photovoltaic system on a historic grade I listed building.

The most important parameter determining the output of silicon PV modules is the angle of tilt (angle between the panels and horizontal) and the azimuth angle (angles between the panels and south) which are the two key angles when finding the optimal orientation. The optimal orientation will depend on the latitude and longitude of the roof. The ideal orientation, generated from PVsyst for our case study, is 0° and 40° for the tilt and azimuth angle, respectively. The Abbey's roof has a 20° tilt and the south-facing roof has a 6° azimuth angle, within 95% of the maximum possible irradiation energy incident on the panels throughout the year.

These results show that fitting a tilt adjustment mechanism would improve performance. However, there are already difficulties associated with preserving the integrity of the Abbey's roof. Gloucester Cathedral faced similar concerns and so is a useful example of the logistics to solve this, and the potential costs that may occur when doing so. After a survey, they created a rail fitting to go onto the roof without piercing the covering. The rail was secured to the central ridge of the roof and rested on soft pads in the eaves. To ensure updrafts did not disturb the structure, concrete ballasts were secured under the solar panels. However, it is worth noting that Gloucester Cathedral has a roof constructed of steel and timber, while the Abbey's roof is predominantly timber, which may give rise to further complications. As a result of these considerations, it was decided for the model that the system should cover the south-facing roof, on both the east and west side of the spire, without any adjustments to account for the ideal tilt or azimuth angle.

From the module dimensions compared to the roof dimensions, we deduced that two subsystems, one either side of the central spire, would be the most effective way of utilizing the region of the Abbey's roof that is not shaded because this region covered the entire south-facing roof. The first sub-array consists of 100 panels (20 panels in series with five of these rows in parallel with one another), and the second sub-array consists of 64 panels (16 panels in series with four of these rows in parallel with one another).

Solar power has it's place on boats and cars. A solar powered catamaran named Turanor PlanetSolar has already navigated the globe, thanks to the efforts of Raphael Domjan and Immo Stroeher. It was proposed that solar power would be suitable for cleaning plastic from our oceans and seas. And why EVs do not yet have solar panels as their roofs is beyond us. It is an opportunity to reduce transport costs yet further. Perhaps, stymied by investments in fossil fuel powered cars today, and the infernal combustion engine.

SOLAR PIONEERS - Stephane Chopard & Raphaelle Javet (communications) and Raphael Domjan (pilot) on a visit to Herstmonceux Museum in August 2017. Raphael's Turanor PlanetSolar project set the benchmark when it comes to solar powered zero carbon transport.

https://scijournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ese3.1069

https://scijournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ese3.1069

https://www.bathabbey.org/historic-buildings-could-be-protected-from-rising-energy-bills-by-solar-panels/

https://www.bathabbey.org/historic-buildings-could-be-protected-from-rising-energy-bills-by-solar-panels/

There are several innovative vehicles and vessels on permanent display at Herstmonceux Museum, including:

1. Art Gallery - Collection of paintings, pictures, graphics, sculptures, wooden carvings & exotic glassware

2. Archives - Historic documents library, patents, trademarks, copyright, films, catalogued legal papers & letters

3. An Edwardian ice well, throwback to the days before refrigeration

4. A large underground (condensation/cooling) and water storage chamber for ice making

5. The world's smallest water basin, test tank for model boats & ships to 1:20 scale

6. World's smallest wind tunnel, vehicle drag measuring instrument using electronic strain-gauges

7. Three PV boat models, Navigator, SWATH & 2 cats + route map prior to Swiss PlanetSolar

8. Seavax, the ocean cleanup proof of concept prototype from 2016 - Hall of Plastic, ocean waste, marine litter Vs fish 2050

9. AmphiMax, radio controlled (working) beach launching & recovery vehicle for SeaVax

10. Anthony the most dangerous giant Australian bulldog ant, 300 times normal size - Making Ant's Cart

11. EV - FCEV refueling station model in 1:20 scale

12. The only working (fully functional) water well in Herstmonceux village

13. The fountain of youth, Cleopatra inspired statue supplied from natural well water drawn on site

14. Second World War, 'Anderson Inspired,' bomb proof shelter constructed by Major Charles de Roemer

15. City sports FCEV-BEV, hydrogen gull wing proof of concept DC50 electric car

16. Land speed record car: Bluebird-Electric BE1 (original 1st) with battery cartridge exchange

17. Land speed record car: Bluebird-Electric BE2 (original 2nd) with cartridge exchange

18. A complete mummified squirrel, found when re-roofing the Museum June 2017

19. A fully operational, and restored VW Kombi van dating from 1978 (historic vehicle)

20. BMW i3, battery electric vehicle hybrid, with onboard generator range extender

21. Solar panel, and battery energy storage systems facing north-south and east-west

22. A hornet's nest found on site & preserved in 2016 (reported as [Asian] invasive species, to be safe)

23. Three sewing machines, including an antique Singer and a Brother industrial.

24. Adventure climbing frames for children (back to nature) Swiss Family Robinson

25. 'Elizabeth Swann' proof of concept model 1:20 scale hydrogen powered trimaran

26. Holm oaks, planting and growing trees from acorns on site, re-wilding in Sussex

27. Robotics, mechatronics, electronics and animatronics display - the steel frame, head/jaws, & drives of Anthony (coming soon)

28. Dalek - Full size, drivable working model of the famous Doctor Who BBC TV series, and Peter Cushing film