Off-grid workshop

By 1987 Wind & Sun were in need of premises and so bought a ex-military canteen building for £200.00!

Over the course of several weeks Steve and various friends dismantled this and transported it to Watlington in Oxfordshire. A concrete base was made and then a 'barn raising' party was held to re-erect the building.

This then was converted to house our office/shop, a workshop and storage.

To provide power we fitted 12V circuits for lighting and answer phone and a Trace 2.6kW modified sinewave inverter for power for tools, computer and photocopier. These were run from a 12V lead acid battery bank charged by various solar panels and small wind turbines. Heating was provided by a wood stove.

The main workshop was used to fabricate small aluminium PV mounts and mounting poles for wind generators. A second room was used for making up small controllers comprising regulators, meters and fuses.

In 1993 we became distributors for Trace Engineering inverters and then set-up a service centre with test bench and load bank.

We worked from here until 1996 - by which time we had grown to have three employees!