Norney Farm · GU8 6AE · Surrey
A 1970s bungalow reimagined as a self-sufficient home
Powered by the sun. Informed by data. Designed with intention. Built to be shared. Norney is not a private renovation project — it is a working demonstration that anyone can learn from and adapt for their own place.
☀️ Off-grid by design
🌐 Connected intelligence
🧠 Living learning environment
🔓 Open Norney
Solar now
—
Battery
—
Weather now
—
Saved · 30 days
—
vs. full grid cost
Norney Farm · GU8 6AE · Surrey
Principle 01
Off-Grid
by Design
by Design
Not solar panels as a cost-saving measure — the home as an energy-generating node.
The battery is the home's independence buffer. The grid is a backup, not a dependency.
Battery-first thinking: a 10–20 kWh LFP bank stores surplus, smooths demand, and enables genuine off-peak intelligence via Octopus Flux.
A seasonal energy rhythm — solar abundance in summer tracks the growing calendar; winter draws on stored energy and selective grid import.
Making the invisible visible: live generation and consumption displayed in the home itself, not buried in an app. Energy literacy as a daily practice.
Future ambition: rainwater harvesting and greywater recycling as natural companions — energy autonomy extended to water.
Principle 02
Connected
Intelligence
Intelligence
The home as a data-sensing environment. Weather, energy, soil, wildlife — each system
produces signal. The farm becomes a live demonstration node where physical and digital
are deliberately woven together.
Local weather station data feeds both this dashboard and external citizen science networks (Met Office WOW, iNaturalist).
A digital-physical interface principle: data from the farm surfaces naturally at home — not locked in a cloud console, but ambient and readable.
Robust rural connectivity (Starlink, mesh WiFi) as infrastructure — not luxury — for a working demonstration site.
Open data contribution: the home participates in shared knowledge, not just consumes it.
Principle 03
Living Learning
Environment
Environment
Every system in the home has a reflective dimension. Energy monitoring teaches
energy literacy. The kitchen garden teaches soil. Each space is mapped to a practice,
and each practice deepens understanding.
Learning nodes by space: the sanctuary corner for music and stillness; the kitchen garden for growing knowledge.
The home as a self-teaching system — decisions tracked, outcomes measured, understanding updated. Not set-and-forget, but evolving.
Data as teacher: the charts on this dashboard are not just reporting — they change behaviour. Winter energy patterns, frost days, wind seasons — all of it feeds back into how the home is run.
The learning-expansion model: skills developed here — growing, building, understanding systems — compound. The home is a platform for that compounding.
Principle 04
Open
Norney
Norney
Norney is not a private project. It is a working demonstration that anyone can
learn from and adapt for their own home, their own land.
Everything documented and shared: the solar install spec, the kitchen garden layout, this dashboard's code — all reproducible.
A version history for the home itself — what decisions were made, why, what the outcomes were. Others can fork the model.
This dashboard runs on a simple Python proxy and a browser. No cloud account required, no vendor lock-in. Minimal dependencies by design.
Norney as proof-of-concept for regenerative rural living — a model that community and land organisations can adapt, not just admire.
Norney is not a finished thing. It is a 1970s bungalow being slowly, deliberately remade —
one system at a time, with data as the guide and openness as the discipline.
If you are doing something similar, or want to, the door is open.