Othona Community, Burton Bradstock

Othona is a “a  beautiful seaside spiritual retreat combining the experience of community life with the arts, nature, contemplation & relaxation and, as we say, "the natural place to be real together".

In 2021 the Four Seasons Studio was opened as a multipurpose space for groups and individuals and is available for hire . 

Highly insulated, the building is clad in recycled wood/plastic cladding which gives it resilience to the wind, rain and salty air which it will experience.  The building is air-tight and benefitting from Mechanical Ventilation and Heat Recovery (MVHR) in which the vented stale air heats up the incoming fresh air.

The large windows facing South allow passive solar heating, while the large eaves prevent overheating during in summer. The building is heated by an 7kW Air Source Heat Pump with underfloor heating.

 Extensive solar PV panels on East, South and West roofs are rated at a total of 12.1kw PV  (5.1kW facing W; 5.7kW  facing E and 1.3kW facing S). This supplements PV panels on the other buildings:

·         The Chapel has 6.48kW installed in Sep 2011.  Since then these have generated 74,152 kwh.

·         The Lodge has 3.75kw PV installed in summer 2012 which has since generated 38,255 kwh.

Othona received a Low Carbon Dorset grant for part of the installation costs in the Four Seasons Studio of PV, ASHP and MVHR.  They calculated our CO2 savings as:

The estimate of annual electricity generation by the PV is 9413 kWh. This equates to 4.8 tonnes CO2e p.a. using the 2016 govt carbon intensity figures. 

The combined effect of the ASHP and the MVHR is an energy saving of 19,506 kWh in electricity which equates to 10.1 tonnes CO2e. The power rating of the ASHP is 7 kWp.

The total annual Carbon saving is therefore 14.9 tonnes CO2e.