Basingstoke Good Life: Couple spend just £50 a YEAR on bills

Sat Jul 13 10:40:18 BST 2013

The Good Life: Couple spend just £50 a YEAR on 
bills, collect rain water to flush toilets and 
grow their own food... from their detached bungalow in Basingstoke
Yvonne and Steven Lucas have bee hives for honey and chickens for eggs
Pair installed solar panels in their 40ft garden to generate hot water

  By Anna Edwards
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2360180/The-Good-Life-Couple-spend-just-50-YEAR-bills-collect-rain-water-flush-toilets-grow-food--detached-bungalow-Basingstoke.html

PUBLISHED: 13:19, 11 July 2013  | UPDATED: 18:07, 11 July 2013

They spend barely any money on bills and produce their own honey.

It's certainly the Good Life for Yvonne and 
Steven Lucas, who spend just £4 a month on their 
electricity and heating bill by living The Good Life.

Yvonne, 48, and Steven, 53, from Basingstoke, 
Hampshire, have slashed their energy bills by 
installing solar panels, growing their own fruit 
and vegetables and collecting rainwater to flush their toilets.

The couple have developed their suburban property 
so as to become as self-sufficient as possible

They have ranks of solar panels in back and front 
gardens reducing their bills to £50 a year

The prudent pair model themselves on the 
characters from cult 1970s comedy TV show The 
Good Life, starring Richard Briers and Felicity 
Kendal, by creating a simple and self-sufficient lifestyle.

Since installing a water meter, they have seen 
the bills for their three-bedroom detached 
bungalow drop from £200 a year to under £30 for six months.

They also own six-acre woodland in Surrey as well 
as their own bee hives to produce honey and chickens to lay fresh eggs.

Thrifty Steven brought his first set of solar 
panels in 1992 and has stepped up his cost-saving 
green campaign since being made redundant in 2010.

The former electronics engineer said: 'We visited 
the Centre for Technology in Wales in 1992 and 
brought our first couple of solar panels. From that it has just evolved.

Emacs!

They grow a huge variety of vegetables, harvest 
multiple fruits from their home orchard and keep chickens as well as bees

Steven turns the handle of a Crossley PH1060 
paraffin hopper used for topping up the batteries 
used for storing solar energy in the back garden of the home

'We have always grown organically but we knew we 
wanted to do more for the environment and over 
the years have brought more and more.'

Yvonne and Steven, who have two sons James, 22, 
and Jonathon, 19, installed solar panels in their 
40ft garden to generate hot water, which they use in their home.

Knitting teacher Yvonne added: 'We dont feed our 
solar panels into the national grid as we store 
the energy in a two kilowatt battery system.

'If our neighbours didnt have any power we would 
still be able to turn out lights on, have access 
to the washing machine and everything else.

'Our rain harvesting system also collects around 
collect around 1,000 gallons which we to flush 
our toilets and for day-to-day living.

'All our chutneys, jams, cordial and wine are 
home-made, as well as keeping bees for honey.

Thrifty Steven brought his first set of solar 
panels in 1992 and has stepped up his cost-saving 
green campaign since being made redundant in 2010

'Weve always been interested in gardening and 
recycling and having a more environmentally friendly life style.

'Gradually we did more and more upgrading, 
reusing and recycling items which has saved us a lot of money.'

Vegetarians Yvonne and Steven use three 
allotments, two greenhouses and their garden to 
grow more than 15 fruit trees, a wide variety of 
vegetables and herbs, flowers and several ponds.

Six years ago they also brought the woodland to 
use the timber to fuel their wood burner and 
carry our repairs at their eco-friendly property.

Steven added: 'We only probably spend five hours 
a week working on the land because we try and keep on top of it.

'We also use the woodland to camp down there once 
a month to collect and chop wood and enjoy the bird life.

'We have even managed to see badgers down there 
one evening - until a woodpecker disturbed them.

'Its great being able to enjoy the great outdoors.'

Yvonne said: 'Our friends joke we are like The 
Good Life television show - we just dont have a pig in our garden!

'Everybody can do their bit by recycling more and 
turning things off when they are not in use.

'You cant get away from plastic products but you 
can make sure everything possible gets recycled, 
sometimes we only put our bins out once a month.

'Even composting green waste helps.' 
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