{"id":25307,"date":"2023-02-23T10:04:09","date_gmt":"2023-02-23T08:04:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.victronenergy.com\/blog\/?p=25307"},"modified":"2025-03-24T14:01:05","modified_gmt":"2025-03-24T12:01:05","slug":"sunshine-powers-portuguese-yoga-retreat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.victronenergy.com\/blog\/2023\/02\/23\/sunshine-powers-portuguese-yoga-retreat\/","title":{"rendered":"Sunshine powers Portuguese Yoga retreat"},"content":{"rendered":"

Van life couple Tom and Alison didn’t expect to stop long at her farmhouse in Portugal. After all it was in ruins.<\/p>\n

Tom says: She’d been trying to sell it for years but no-one was crazy enough to take on such a big renovation project.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

In March 2020 on a six-week camper van trip around europe, they dropped-by to check on the property for a few days, but with the introduction of Covid travel restrictions just then, they weren’t allowed to leave.<\/p>\n

Initially installing a water pipe to serve their camper van (the buildings were not habitable) they gradually fell in love with Quinta do Areal<\/a>\u00a0and began the ambitious restoration project themselves.<\/p>\n

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Tom wrote to tell us the story: We were lucky to have included solar panels and batteries in our campervan conversion so we didn\u2019t need power. We spent our time working remotely (amusingly, ending up somehow in National Geographic Traveller magazine as \u201cdigital nomads\u201d) and doing little jobs around the property. As time went on, our ambition to start renovating the farm properly grew as well and we were lucky enough to find good people to help us. But we spent another 6 months living in our campervan before we could move into any part of the house.<\/em><\/p>\n

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When my partner found it, it was a complete ruin. Ten years ago, structural work was undertaken to make the walls of the main building solid again and put a roof on it. Other than that, it remained like a glorified cave for ten years. No windows or doors. No electricity or water or sanitation. Most of the outbuildings were collapsing and the land was being grazed by goats, horses and cows that kept the grass down but were damaging the outbuildings and walls around the property. In the two and a half years that we\u2019ve now been living here, and with help from some great people, we\u2019ve fully renovated the house and some of the outbuildings, we\u2019ve re-roofed all of the of the outbuildings to protect them. We\u2019ve installed solar thermal heating and a large woodburning stove and a large PV array and battery storage so we can run \u201coff-grid\u201d for much of the year.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Solar Energy provides 15kVA<\/h4>\n

Tom and Alison’s solar installation comprises:<\/p>\n