TL;DR: We’re prioritising solar powered roasting for 2027. It will require some small changes to how we operate but service remains the same. Aim is for 100% solar but winter will provide challenges.
Our previous post on the carbon footprint of a delivery mentioned we are working on our 2027 plan and getting an electric car would take up capital from prioritised solar investment. This post explores that some more. Also, you can expect a few more of these blog posts as 2026 enters autumn and winter.
Energy use for roasting
Our roaster is electric, replaced in 2025 and quite efficient. We use approximately 200 to 250 kWh of energy roasting per month. A high session can use 10 kWh over four hours. That means 2.5 kWh of energy is required if we make no changes to how we roast. In reality, we know we will have to change how we roast if we want to be 100% solar powered roasting – more roasting on sunnier days, less on cloudier days. In ideal conditions, one panel should get 400 watts/hr, so to meet 2.5 kWh we need 6.25 panels when ideal. We have room for at least 8 panels, maybe up to 14. More than enough in theory and this is before a battery is installed which should be big enough for more than a day’s energy roasting coffee.
Currently we roast to order as we’ve always done which keeps waste to a minimum while making sure coffee is as fresh as possible. However, roasted coffee stores well, doesn’t spoil and coffee is best brewed within 3 months of roast date. Most of our customers are subscription so we know what’s coming other than the odd pausing, reschedule, or cancellation. The worse case reasonable scenario is no sun for two weeks. Weather forecasting is fairly accurate up to a week so we would get a week’s notice. If we have a week’s worth of coffee pre-roasted, then there’s no sun for two weeks, we would be a week behind, which is something we would communicate to customers or we could use the grid. In short, until we’ve experienced the worse case scenario, we don’t know how bad it could be but we don’t think it will be that bad.
Where we were
Roasting House is a director owned and run husband and wife team. In 2021, just as the pandemic was ending, we had a unit close to our rented home. The landlords of our rented home issued a no-fault-eviction leading to a move to South Yorkshire (where Adam is from). We gave up our Nottingham unit in 2022 (which at the time we didn’t appreciate how excellent it was). Roasting was moved to an unused outdoor area and room in our new home, which is mortgaged and therefore not subject to forces outside our control (such as whims of landlords).
Where we went
In 2024 we took on a unit in the centre of Rotherham but the landlords turned out to be a bit of a nightmare, we knew before month 1 had finished we wouldn’t be there in month 13. We did some due diligence, but not enough in the excitement of finding a new “suitable” unit. We saw out the minimum contract and left in 2025. This meant never using the unit as intended, like opening to the public, using as an event space etc. After a battle, we only got the deposit back from the Rotherham landlords in June 2026, ten months after we left.
Where we are
The above experience confirmed our decision to use the land and annex available to us at our home. It makes solar powered roasting a much easier endeavour because getting permission from landlords or asking them to invest in sustainable energy requires assistance and capital from them, which in our experience isn’t something landlords like to consider. Our decision means we can’t be public facing outside of events we may do but our strength is our online service where Adam is good at the roasting & logistics and Kim is good at the technical side that keeps the website up and subscriptions processing.
Here is our current offering:
- Premium coffee beans
- Small-batch, electric, smokeless (carbon capturing) roasting of coffee
- Plastic-free packaging in Natureflex
- Paper or cardboard mail packaging
- Cycle deliveries when appropriate
- No AI ever
In short, everything is biodegradable with minimum impact on the environment.
Where we’re going
Priority 1: Solar-powered roasting with a battery backup. The energy generated from solar panels, on paper, should meet all our needs. Any excess energy will go into batteries.
Priority 2: Electric car to compliment the solar investment and reduce our carbon footprint even further.
Priority 3: Build a dedicated roastery in our garden.
Priority 4: Build a bike we can serve drinks from.
The main funding for solar panels will come from our Year of Coffee sales, which if you’re are not familiar with, is a year of coffee paid for up front in exchange for a discount. We normally open sales in October and this will be it’s 6th year. If sales exceed expectations, the next priority will be considered, then the next and so on.
Last year we used some of the profits from Year of Coffee for the housing charity Shelter since the product was launched out of the need to raise funds after being given a no-fault-eviction. It makes sense to do “something” with the higher capital that comes in to the company at the end of the year and that is what we’ll do going forward for future years too.
Please consider us for your 2027 coffee needs. Keep in touch by joining our mailing list by going to our homepage, scroll to the bottom and enter your email or follow us on Mastodon.