On Saturday 14th September 2024 we held our inaugural Salomon Buttermere Skyline race in the Lake District. Set up started on the Friday afternoon when the 88 strong event team arrived. We have hired generators from Falcon Power Generation for a few years, and whilst this was a relatively small event, a 20kVA generator was needed to power the site and the field kitchen used to feed the event team.

In keeping with our green ethos with the use of new technology, we worked with Falcon to use this opportunity to hire a 5/15 Hussh Pod battery unit to reduce our carbon footprint and be able to have a quiet site overnight for people camping. Both units were transported on the same trailer meaning no additional transport cost were needed. 

 The generator at our events normally run from the moment we arrive to the moment we leave site, including overnight. There are several times throughout this period when the generator is under little or no load and has a tick over capacity to charge the auxiliary battery system. This battery can then be used to power the site overnight, reducing our fuel consumption dramatically on our expedition events.

At the Salomon Buttermere Skyline event, the first thing the battery unit was used for was to cook all the pasties ready for the safety team’s packed lunches for the next day. It ran a Lincat electric oven for over an hour without the need to recharge it using a power draw of 2700W. 

Overnight it was used to power the fridge trailer and some of the festoon lights in the marquees. The generator was turned off at 11pm at the battery was at 93%. It was turned back on at 5am and it had only dropped to 73% which proved more could be powered overnight. During the next day, it was used solely to power the oven at times mixed in with being recharged.

This was our first attempt at using a hybrid system to power one of our events and it was a great success. We will look to use this type of system in the future where we typically use multiple fridge and freezer trailers and food preparation in the field kitchen can start as early as 3am. Reducing both the noise and the fuel consumption of the generator and we believe removing the need to tow a fuel bowser too, all resulting in a reduced carbon footprint for our events.

Interested to read more on Sustainability at Ourea Events? Click the link below.