Upgrade Rhiannon's renewable electrical system

Project aim

Raise funds for Rhiannon Community to buy deep cycle batteries and wire their new multipurpose hall.

About the project

We are an Intentional Community situated in the Andes mountains, Ecuador.  Rhiannon Community was founded by two British women, Nicola Rothon and Helen Bicknell in 2008.  We are a vegetarian/ vegan community, organic farm and education centre who has opened it's doors to people from all over the world.  We are on average 25 people living and working together.  We operate on the principles of Permaculture and sustainable living and offer courses in Permaculture, Reiki, massage and different types of yoga.

We began in 2008 and immediately set up a solar panel system so that we would have basic lighting and be able to charge cell phones etc.  We have grown hugely since then and have already had to buy new solar panels over the years to meet our current needs.  However, our existing car batteries no longer hold charge and we have no lighting again after 7.30 pm.   We would like to upgrade to more efficient sustainable deep cycle batteries which are more compatible with a solar panel system.  As a community we do not currently make profit and any projects we work on are funded by permanent community members personal savings.  We currently are finishing a multipurpose hall which will allow us to run more beautiful courses, and open our doors to both the local and international community.  The new building needs to be wired from scratch and will hugely increase our electricity needs.  We would like to buy enough batteries and panels to operate to our maximum and not need to worry about over use of electricity anymore.