Eco-Fail… £25,000 Classroom Can’t Be Used Because It’s Too Cold

Brrrr… A Eco-classroom in NOrth London had to be shut down because it was too cold.
The solar panels could not keep it warm enough.

Chill factor: The Living Ark classroom may be eco-friendly but it has proved too cold for lessons to be held in it.

The Daily Mail reported:

Eco-campaigners who built a classroom powered by the sun believed they were paving the way for the future.
Instead they have been taught a valuable lesson – there is not enough sun in North London to sufficiently heat their building.
The much feted zero-carbon Living Ark classroom was opened three months ago to great fanfare.

It boasts laudable green credentials and is made from sustainable wood, sheep’s wool and soil. The roof is made of mud and grass and it has its own ‘rain pod’ and solar panels.
But there is snag – its solar panels only provide enough energy to power a few lightbulbs.
As a result the classroom is bitterly cold and uninhabitable for lessons.

Parents have branded it ‘useless’, an ‘expensive piece of wood’ and a ‘great idea for the Caribbean’.

The Living Ark was built at Muswell Hill Primary School, North London, at the cost of £25,000.

Local councillors, at Labour run Haringey council, who were behind the initiative, opened it with great fanfare in December as a beacon of their climate change policy.

But today a local parent at the 419-pupil school said teachers weren’t allowing pupils into the classroom because it was too cold.

‘What is the point of a classroom that can’t be used when it’s a bit cold outside? My kids have been told it’s too cold for them to use as nobody can figure out how to heat it,’ said the parent, who did not want to be named.

Hat Tip Gini

#1 February 24, 2011 at 4:46 pm
jd commented:

…so…many…metaphors….

/passes out
#2 February 24, 2011 at 4:53 pm
kato commented:

Who designed it, a professor from East Anglia?
#3 February 24, 2011 at 4:54 pm
jennifer commented:

What kind of a classroom is that? No desks, no chalkboard, it looks like a liberal touchy-feely classroom with pillows. Ugh. And people wonder why kids can’t read.
#4 February 24, 2011 at 4:58 pm
BurmaShave commented:

I sure hope this waste teaches the Greenies a thing or two. (But I am not counting on it.)
#5 February 24, 2011 at 5:02 pm
Mannie commented:

Put in a stove and send over an electrician to power the place up.
#6 February 24, 2011 at 5:21 pm
Naan commented:

1. Ceramic heater
2. Extension Cord
3. Duh
#7 February 24, 2011 at 5:29 pm
Khan Krum commented:

kato commented:
Who designed it, a professor from East Anglia?

Close. It was the Teletubbies that designed and built it.
#8 February 24, 2011 at 5:33 pm
shibumi commented:

We had a whole house like that in Michigan. Believe they spent six figures on a house, and then the whole thing went bad in the winter- computer program didn’t do what it was supposed to, pipes froze, destroyed the interior, something like that.

Can’t find the link.
#9 February 24, 2011 at 5:38 pm
KR commented:

It looks like a very large sauna. Just bring in a few heaters, rocks, water…
#10 February 24, 2011 at 5:40 pm
avery commented:

All that Green stuff is a rip off.
#11 February 24, 2011 at 5:53 pm
Erik commented:

Well, the important people benefitted form this.
1. The builders got paid £25.000 for something they probably couldn’t sell anywhere else. (I mean, which normal buyer would agree to pay £25.000 for a house with no heat?)
2. The council got to feel great that they did a climatey changy thingy “for the children”.

That’s what’s important, it’s not as if the money matters much, they’ll just get more money from taxes.

Oh, and I would be very surprised if (1) and (2) doesn’t overlap somewhere, since that’s frequently the case in projects like this. Maybe a councilmembers relative is the builder?
#12 February 24, 2011 at 6:12 pm
Jim Rose commented:

Putting up solar panels in London. No one thought to bring up the fact that the city is known for its rain and fog? This didn’t occur to anyone at any time?
#13 February 24, 2011 at 6:41 pm
Rose commented:

Too Funny! The Rubber Hit the Road and when they had to prove themselves on the simplest and most basic level, the Spine of the Dims proved non-existent -

No Spine, No Substance, No Gravitas.
#14 February 24, 2011 at 6:44 pm
Charlie commented:

50 G’s… they got off cheap. Most people who bite the green lure get taken for a whole lot more.
#15 February 24, 2011 at 7:17 pm
befuddled commented:

green, green, greeeen. i am tired of getting harassed by the eco nazis about recycycling, not using styrofoam anything, driving fuel efficient cars, etc.. the same people that can’t believe in God enough to support a church have found a green religion where they can preach all day about sustainability,global warming,recycling, and carbon offsets. apparently.just as in America, these super smart Brits love having their taxes flushed down the toilet. isn’t this the type of crap the protestants tried to escape from?

history isn’t just repeating, it’s in a permanent spin cycle.
#16 February 24, 2011 at 7:55 pm
Ruebacca commented:

barns are not heated. you can heat the thing by staying in it. keep 20 kids in it 24/7 or afew cows.
#17 February 24, 2011 at 8:18 pm
tommy mc donnell commented:

green is the new red in accounting.
#18 February 24, 2011 at 8:52 pm
LibertyAtStake commented:

It does look like we could salvage some decent firewood out of it, though.

d(^_^)b
http://libertyatstake.blogspot.com/
“Because the Only Good Progressive is a Failed Progressive”
#19 February 24, 2011 at 10:02 pm
Cargosquid commented:

If only global warming had turned out to be true! THEN it would have worked! But, NOOOOO…. Europe had to cut carbon emissions….NOW its too cold!

Or some such rot…..
#20 February 24, 2011 at 10:31 pm
Blacque Jacques Shellacque commented:

“…as nobody can figure out how to heat it,”

Judging from its appearance, setting it on fire should produce the desired result.
#22 February 25, 2011 at 1:32 am
AuntieMadder commented:

Not enough sunshine? What? In sunny England? Next you’ll try to tell me that camels can’t walk on ice. Sheesh.
#23 February 25, 2011 at 7:46 am
Andreas K. commented:

I’ve seen aircraft hangars that look more comfortable.
#25 February 25, 2011 at 3:17 pm
trp commented:

I hear that they also designed a humming bird-powered meat refrigeration facility in North Africa.