23 May– 6 June

Led by Peter Cow

We are excited to announce the Spring PDC 2026 that will be hosted in Tinos Eco-lodge welcoming again Peter Cow from England and assistant teachers Elena Symeonidou and Nicolas Bedau from Greece.  Peter, Elena and Nico will combine their skills from both Northern and Southern ecosystems and climatic conditions and will put emphasis on Social permaculture as well as Regenerative agriculture, with lots of hands on and practicals during the course. (read course outline here)

This PDC is fully certified by the Permaculture Association (Britain). The course will be taught in English.

The Permaculture Design Certificate

The Permaculture Design Certificate is an 80 hour theoretical course based on Bill Mollison’s Designers Manual, and the 35 years of creativity, research and development in the worldwide Permaculture movement since. It explores  how we can use today’s tools and technology to create a more sustainable world. Permaculture is not only about growing vegetables and animals, it is a whole sustainable lifestyle such as creating community, developing efficient and beautiful homes and growing healthy, happy people. Permaculture ethics are Earth Care, People Care and Return of Surplus and this is taught by showing students to focus on local resources and their local community, and to have well thought out design practices to create abundance sustainably.

Our Course

In this course we added 2 extra days to have more time for practicals and hands on experience. Peter, Elena, and Nikos will share their wide knowledge and experience as well as their creative teaching techniques to guide us through the principles of permaculture, gaining a thorough understanding of how we can use our natural resources for our own sustenance while restoring and taking care of the earth. Theory, group exercises and hands on projects are well combined through this 14 days course. In the end personal projects of the participants or of the site are put into the final designs and are worked out thoroughly by the groups formed.

Nikos from Tinos Ecolodge will share his hands-on experience of building the ecolodge and designing the energy, water and waste treatment systems as well as market garden design. We will have the rare opportunity to discuss and elaborate on Nikos’ and Marilia’s choices on different aspects of their project, reflect on the challenges, opportunities and limitations.

A well run PDC can be a life changing experience. For many people it can be the most intense learning experience of their lives, and great fun to boot. Surrounded by like-minded people, you will learn the framework to thrive in a rapidly changing world. You will also develop the skills to heal damaged landscapes while providing for your own needs. There is no need of previous knowledge of the subject.

Be prepared to have a full day course, starting at 9am and finishing at 7pm with lunch break and coffee breaks and with some presentations and films in the evenings as well. Arrival day is 23 of May. Plan to arrive to the Ecolodge by 5pm on the arrival day, for the getting to know us session and dinner together, no course on that day, also last day the 6th June is departure day. For detail information about the daily schedule please read Participants Spring 2026 Tinos PDC timetable

PDC Teachers

Peter Cow Dip. Perm. Des.

Peter took his PDC in 1998, and gained his Permaculture Diploma in 2007, apprenticing with the wonderful Aranya Gardens and started running his own PDCs in 2012. He has led Permaculture courses in Greece, Sweden, UK, Portugal, Jamaica, Cyprus, Finland and Denmark. Alongside land based design, he has been very involved with People Permaculture: exploring ways to expand the use of Permaculture, using its principles and design to support our relationships, groups, families, organisations and personal growth. He has worked with Looby MacNamara, author of ‘People and Permaculture’ since 2013, leading Facilitator Trainings and Design courses. He co-creates immersive and empowering learning experiences that connect people more deeply to nature, themselves and their community. Peter also works with Jon Young and the ‘8 Shields’ movement internationally, running events and supporting organisations to share nature connection and cultural healing practices and principles to enrich our lives and communities.

Elena Symeonidou

Elena comes from a multidisciplinary background that combines engineering, ecology, and hands-on land-based practice. She studied Electrical and Computer Engineering at the National Technical University of Athens, a training that shaped the way she thinks in terms of systems, problem-solving, and design. Her professional path initially took her into film and science communication, including several years at CERN in Geneva, where she worked on making complex scientific ideas accessible to the public.
Her  relationship with ecology developed through permaculture. Since 2009, she has trained extensively in permaculture design with teachers such as Bill Mollison, Geoff Lawton, Darren Doherty, and Rod Everett, while also engaging deeply with agroecology, regenerative agriculture, soil biology, holistic management, water systems, and natural building. This learning has always been closely tied to practice, through work on farms, ecovillages, and agritourism projects in Australia, Asia, and across Europe.
For fifteen years, she has been designing, managing, and consulting on projects ranging from private gardens to full agricultural systems, as well as teaching permaculture to diverse audiences. In recent years, she completed an MSc at the University of the Aegean, focusing on biodiversity conservation, Natura 2000 protected areas, and climate change mitigation—bringing together practice, systems thinking, and environmental science. Check also her website http://permaculture-greece.org/

Dipl. Ing. Nicolas Bedau

Nico, half Greek half German, has combined his background on Landscape architecture with Ecology in designing and building the Ecolodge. Together with Marilia, they have applied a lot of the permaculture principles and sustainable building techniques that will be showcased during the course. He has been sharing his experience here since 2016 that we run PDCs and is also a design consultant in off grid systems for homes or small communities, as well as water management and waste water treatment systems in other projects around Greece. He has made Tinos Ecolodge part of the HORIZON 2020 project Hydrousa and is also participating in other European research projects that focus on water management and circular economy. His interest in sustainable agriculture and market gardening has led together with Marilia to organise and run a veggie box scheme for residents in Tinos that is expanding also to restaurants during the summer season. All these different aspects of sustainable living will be discussed and analysed during the PDC.

The Location

Tinos Ecolodge was designed from the beginning based on the sustainable use of resources which are permaculture principles as well. At Tinos Ecolodge you will have the opportunity to see stone built houses with local materials, an off-grid system for energy production for the whole lodge which is powered by solar panels, a collection of rain water system, a reedbed filtration sewage system, indoor compost toilets with the Aquatron separation system, outdoor compost toilets, outdoor kitchen and shower filtration systems, an organic vegetable market garden, a 60m2 Greenhouse, an extended herb plantation, a vineyard for homemade raki and wine production, hugelculture beds, compost and vermicompost production, chicken coop for egg production and compost, and a lot more to be built and learned during the seminar. Location info

Accommodation and food

Tinos Ecolodge is situated in a beautiful island setting with great sea views and sunrise from the sea, traditional terraced landscape, with a nearby fresh water stream and lots of old oak trees to camp under. There is also limited space in the 3 lodges which can host up to 12 people, sharing the houses. There are outdoor showers and compost toilets for those who camp. There will be a communal outdoor kitchen where we will eat all together 3 meals per day, prepared by our local cook an expert on delicious Greek vegetarian recipes.  Max number of participants is 20 people.

Booking info

Cost: early bird prices 770 euro/tents and 1070 euro/houses if booked until the 30 of January 2026, after that 870 euro/tents and 1170 euro/houses. There are also sponsored places for people with economic difficulties (especially Greeks) at 500 euro/tent, please contact us to apply for one of these places!
These sponsored places are enabled by people on higher incomes choosing to pay 1270 euro/house or more – this is voluntary so please let us know if you are willing to sponsor a place and help someone on a low income attend the PDC.

The price includes

• 14 days course
• Certified Permaculture Design Certificate from the UK Association
• Accommodation
• 3 Vegetarian meals per day by our local cook from Tinos
• Herbal teas, coffee & Fruits
• A day long field trip including 3 site visits, beach and ending up to a Greek taverna (meal cost is extra)

Please note that the price is kept intentionally low to make it affordable for all.

For booking a place a deposit of €300 must be paid on application, full balance to be paid upon arrival. Please note that in case of needing to cancel the deposit is not refundable because of very low cost seminar and limited places. Please download the application form below, bank details are included and send it to Marilia or email her if you need any further information and details about the course.

Download the application-form-pdc-2026-May

Contact details Marilia Kalouli, info@tinosecolodge.gr

Tel.0030 6974467611

Impressions of previous years courses:

If you want to learn some more about our previous PDCs read the following articles:

http://www.tinosecolodge.gr/news/pdc-2019-by-michelle/

http://www.tinosecolodge.gr/news/permaculture-design-course-what-an-amazing-experience/

http://www.tinosecolodge.gr/news/pdc-experience-2017/

Why do I like teaching permaculture in Tinos Ecolodge since 2019

24 May– 7 June

Led by Peter Cow

We are excited to announce the tenth extended PERMACULTURE DESIGN COURSE (PDC) that will be hosted in Tinos Eco-lodge welcoming for the seventh time Peter Cow from England and assistant teachers  Nicolas Bedau from Greece, and Elena Symeonidou from Greece.  Peter, Elena and Nico will combine their skills from both Northern and Southern ecosystems and climatic conditions and will put emphasis on Social permaculture as well as Regenerative agriculture, with lots of hands on and practicals during the course. (read course outline here)

This PDC is fully certified by the Permaculture Association (Britain). The course will be taught in English.

The Permaculture Design Certificate

The Permaculture Design Certificate is an 80 hour theoretical course based on Bill Mollison’s Designers Manual, and the 35 years of creativity, research and development in the worldwide Permaculture movement since. It explores  how we can use today’s tools and technology to create a more sustainable world. Permaculture is not only about growing vegetables and animals, it is a whole sustainable lifestyle such as creating community, developing efficient and beautiful homes and growing healthy, happy people. Permaculture ethics are Earth Care, People Care and Return of Surplus and this is taught by showing students to focus on local resources and their local community, and to have well thought out design practices to create abundance sustainably.

Our Course

In this course we added 2 extra days to have more time for practicals and hands on experience. Peter, Elena, and Nikos will share their wide knowledge and experience as well as their creative teaching techniques to guide us through the principles of permaculture, gaining a thorough understanding of how we can use our natural resources for our own sustenance while restoring and taking care of the earth. Theory, group exercises and hands on projects are well combined through this 14 days course. In the end personal projects of the participants or of the site are put into the final designs and are worked out thoroughly by the groups formed.

Nikos from Tinos Ecolodge will share his hands-on experience of building the ecolodge and designing the energy, water and waste treatment systems as well as market garden design. We will have the rare opportunity to discuss and elaborate on Nikos’ and Marilia’s choices on different aspects of their project, reflect on the challenges, opportunities and limitations.

A well run PDC can be a life changing experience. For many people it can be the most intense learning experience of their lives, and great fun to boot. Surrounded by like-minded people, you will learn the framework to thrive in a rapidly changing world. You will also develop the skills to heal damaged landscapes while providing for your own needs. There is no need of previous knowledge of the subject.

Be prepared to have a full day course, starting at 9am and finishing at 7pm with lunch break and coffee breaks and with some presentations and films in the evenings as well. Arrival day is 24 of May. Plan to arrive to the Ecolodge by 5pm on the arrival day, for the getting to know us session and dinner together, no course on that day, also last day the 7th June is departure day. For detail information about the daily schedule please read: May_June 25 Tinos PDC timetable

For those who want to stay longer there is an extended practical possibility until the end of June. During this period you will be able to put into practice the everyday market garden work, planting, harvesting and selling to the local restaurants, irrigation systems and water storage and supply, as well as other operational tasks on an agrotourism off grid farm.  Please let us know if you are interested for the longer practical stay.

PDC Teachers

Peter Cow Dip. Perm. Des.

Peter took his PDC in 1998, and gained his Permaculture Diploma in 2007, apprenticing with the wonderful Aranya Gardens and started running his own PDCs in 2012. He has led Permaculture courses in Greece, Sweden, UK, Portugal, Jamaica, Cyprus, Finland and Denmark. Alongside land based design, he has been very involved with People Permaculture: exploring ways to expand the use of Permaculture, using its principles and design to support our relationships, groups, families, organisations and personal growth. He has worked with Looby MacNamara, author of ‘People and Permaculture’ since 2013, leading Facilitator Trainings and Design courses. He co-creates immersive and empowering learning experiences that connect people more deeply to nature, themselves and their community. Peter also works with Jon Young and the ‘8 Shields’ movement internationally, running events and supporting organisations to share nature connection and cultural healing practices and principles to enrich our lives and communities.

Elena Symeonidou

With a background of computing engineering and cinematography, Elena got in touch with Permaculture in Bali, Indonesia, in 2008 and has not looked back since. For 15 years she has been broadening and deepening her knowledge in sustainability and regenerative agriculture both in theory and in practice in three continents. She has been certified by the Permaculture Research Institute of Australia taken PDC courses with the one and only Bill Mollison, Geoff Laughton, Rod Everett and Mill Millington, and last but not least Darren Doherty, whom she considers her mentor and whose courses in Greece she facilitated.  She had practical experience in Australia, Asia and Europe in private and community projects. She is currently running a small farm on Paros an island not far from Tinos and is the curator of an urban permaculture project in Eleusis, Cultural Capital of Europe 2021. She has been training and consulting people in regenerative practices with an emphasis in the Mediterranean climate. Check also her website http://permaculture-greece.org/

Dipl. Ing. Nicolas Bedau

Nico, half Greek half German, has combined his background on Landscape architecture with Ecology in designing and building the Ecolodge. Together with Marilia, they have applied a lot of the permaculture principles and sustainable building techniques that will be showcased during the course. He has been sharing his experience here since 2016 that we run PDCs and is also a design consultant in off grid systems for homes or small communities, as well as water management and waste water treatment systems in other projects around Greece. He has made Tinos Ecolodge part of the HORIZON 2020 project Hydrousa and is also participating in other European research projects that focus on water management and circular economy. His interest in sustainable agriculture and market gardening has led together with Marilia to organise and run a veggie box scheme for residents in Tinos that is expanding also to restaurants during the summer season. All these different aspects of sustainable living will be discussed and analysed during the PDC.

The Location

Tinos Ecolodge was designed from the beginning based on the sustainable use of resources which are permaculture principles as well. At Tinos Ecolodge you will have the opportunity to see stone built houses with local materials, an off-grid system for energy production for the whole lodge which is powered by solar panels, a collection of rain water system, a reedbed filtration sewage system, indoor compost toilets with the Aquatron separation system, outdoor compost toilets, outdoor kitchen and shower filtration systems, an organic vegetable market garden, a 60m2 Greenhouse, an extended herb plantation, a vineyard for homemade raki and wine production, hugelculture beds, compost and vermicompost production, chicken coop for egg production and compost, and a lot more to be built and learned during the seminar. Location info

Accommodation and food

Tinos Ecolodge is situated in a beautiful island setting with great sea views and sunrise from the sea, traditional terraced landscape, with a nearby fresh water stream and lots of old oak trees to camp under. There is also limited space in the 3 lodges which can host up to 12 people, sharing the houses. There are outdoor showers and compost toilets for those who camp. There will be a communal outdoor kitchen where we will eat all together 3 meals per day, prepared by our local cook an expert on delicious Greek vegetarian recipes.  Max number of participants is 20 people.

Booking info

Cost: early bird prices 770 euro/tents and 950 euro/houses if booked until the 31 of January 2025, after that 870 euro/tents and 1070 euro/houses. There are also sponsored places for people with economic difficulties (especially Greeks) at 450 euro/tent, please contact us to apply for one of these places!
These sponsored places are enabled by people on higher incomes choosing to pay 1250 euro/house – this is voluntary so please let us know if you are willing to sponsor a place and help someone on a low income attend the PDC.

The price includes

• 14 days course
• Certified Permaculture Design Certificate from the UK Association
• Accommodation
• 3 Vegetarian meals per day by our local cook from Tinos
• Herbal teas, coffee & Fruits
• A day long field trip including 3 site visits, beach and ending up to a Greek taverna (meal cost is extra)

Please note that the price is kept intentionally low to make it affordable for all.

For booking a place a deposit of €200 must be paid on application, full balance to be paid upon arrival. Please note that in case of needing to cancel the deposit is not refundable because of very low cost seminar and limited places. Please download the application form below, bank details are included and send it to Marilia or email her if you need any further information and details about the course.

Download the application-form-pdc-2025-May

Contact details Marilia Kalouli, info@tinosecolodge.gr

Tel.0030 6974467611

Impressions of previous years courses:

If you want to learn some more about our previous PDCs read the following articles:

http://www.tinosecolodge.gr/news/pdc-2019-by-michelle/

http://www.tinosecolodge.gr/news/permaculture-design-course-what-an-amazing-experience/

and http://www.tinosecolodge.gr/news/pdc-experience-2017/

Within the Hydrousa Project ELT has transformed an old stone stable into a new lodge which can host two to a maximum of three customers. This leads to an additional overall water demand. The Waterloop 1 focuses on two aspects around the new lodge:

1. avoidance: maximal reduction of water consumption through NBS (Natural Based Solutions)
   
2. reuse: reclaiming the unavoidably consumed water through NBS (Natural Based Solutions)
   

On the avoidance side ELT singled out the biggest water consumer within the touristic facility which is the water flushing toilet. The ELT team focused on a design that renders the use of a water driven sanitation system unnecessary while maintaining customer satisfaction. With the scope of achieving an immediate water utilization reduction of around 25%.

The unavoidable water consumption is treated with a NBS Constructed Wetland, reclaimed and disinfected for unrestricted irrigation. The NBS for reclaiming water through the sewage treatment process, play a key role in providing nutrient rich utility water, during the dry summer period.

Within the Project the agricultural activities of ELT are upscaled in cultivated area size, diversity and intensity contributing to the hyper local food production within the facility and the local market.

These small buildings that can be found all over the island dating back to the 19^th century, were the farmers shelter, where they kept their animals, their crops and one room usually for them to sleep in. The fields being far away from the villages, people had to walk for hours to reach them, so at the time of harvest they stayed on their fields, for the whole period. Their architecture is unique, built totally out of stone and earth, with huge stones placed on the roof and an oval structural shape inside. These buildings are a cultural and historical heritage of the island.

In respect to the beauty of the cultural anthropogenic landscape the design approach was to integrate the sewage treatment and collection system into the terraced landscape as it would be part of it. This is way the perimeter walls are created out of stone work so the structure can blend into the surrounding stone walls (see figure 1.10).

The design is guided by the underlying concept of stacking functions which means that a targeted intervention like a sewage treatment facility can simultaneously create many other beneficial side effects which interact with the broader overall design of ELT as an off grid agro-eco-seminar facility.

As already mentioned above for ELT it was important to design not only a technical NBS sewage treatment unit but also to create an attractive water feature that combines a place of interest for relaxation and observation with the benefits of a reed biotope for the local wildlife. The holistic approach of the Hydrousa project makes it vital to consider also broader aspects to every intervention. In the dry summer months, typical to the Cycladic islands wetland habitats become scarce but essential for Bees, Dragonflies, Birds, Frogs etc. On the other hand these animals are essential to an agricultural site due to their ecosystem services like pollination, pest predation and an overall intact habitat with its complex interdependencies. Also the close proximity to the lodge created the need for an attractive integrative design which people can actually use and are drawn to due to its natural beauty.

The second consideration arose from the decision of creating a separate new treatment system that should be as small as possible in order to save space and keep the costs as low as possible. The NBS for sewage treatment need a certain surface area according to the BOD and COD load contained in the waste water stream. In order to minimize the surface area the load has to be minimized accordingly. This lead to the biggest single alteration in the design approach of the new system: the separation-dry-composting sanitation system of the new lodge. ELT had considered this sanitation concept at the initial design of Ecolodge Tinos but depraved it due to concerns of the social acceptance on the client’s side. At a later stage ELT designed and built two composting toilets for the seminar participants staying in tents. This four year experience with the dry sanitation approach and a lot of positive feedback from the users, lead to a reconsideration of this facility. Besides the social aspect, this low tech solution is overall superior to all other solutions known to us.

The separation-dry-composting sanitation system designed for the new lodge is a very low tech NBS. The key benefit concerning the waste water treatment is the complete separation of feces and urine from the wastewater stream, leaving only dark gray water for processing. This lead to a space and material reduction of around 50% concerning the CW-vf. Also it reduces the total water demand by 20-30% due to the fact that the demand created by the toilet flush system becomes obsolete. Considering the nutrient loop with in the holistic approach of the Hydrousa project the separation-compost toilet keeps the urine stream pure for easier further processing into fertilizer and the dry feces stream can be composted directly in changeable barrels.

UV-Disinfection

In order to reach the required sanitation level of the effluent, a UV-disinfection unit purifies the water at the point of demand, which is the irrigation of the herb plantation.

From the treated water tank, the water is pumped by a pressure switch-controlled pump through the UV-unit and injected into the according irrigation zones.

The UV disinfection technology is the most suitable for the ELT case due to its simplicity. The issue arising within the off-grid situation is the electricity demand created by the unit. The commonly used low pressure mercury vapor lamp (HPLC) emitting the UV radiation has the disadvantage inherit to the lamp characteristics that it degrades by switching it on and off. So, the commercial units operate in a normally on configuration. The lamp power needed to effectively treat the effluent in this case is around 17W. This would generate a daily power consumption of 0.408 kWh and would mean a 10^th of the total power consumption of the existing ELT unit. Covering this kind of power consumption day and night by an off-grid photo-voltaic system becomes disproportional costly. This led to the investigation of alternatives solutions.

Fairly new on the market are UV-C light emitting diodes (LED) that have reached a development point where the first market available units are deployed for small scale application. The biggest benefit of this unit in this context is the possibility of cycling the operational state (on/off) without effecting the lifespan. This leads to an enormous reduction of electric power consumption, if configured in an on-demand setup. In this way the unit can be triggered by the pressure switch controlling the pump and the UV-unit when water is demanded.

Returning to the HPLC technology it was necessary to reduce electricity demand. After intensive discussions with the manufacturer the possibility of actually switching the lamps was reconsidered. According to the information provided, the lamps degrade per switching cycle one hour of their expected lifespan. Also, the lamp needs a certain time to reach the full emitting spectrum and dosage depending on the lamp manufacturer.

This new possibility lead to a circuit setup where the lamp is triggered, and the pump is switched by a delay timer according to the startup time of the lamp in a time shift mode. In this way the units work in demand mode and the degradation of the lamp is reasonable. HPLC lamps have a life expectancy of around 10,000h or 13.9 months with a daily switching cycle the lifespan will be reduced by 15 days. This extra degradation is proportionally to the reduced power consumption neglectable.

In order to irrigate the herbs from the effluent tank, around 650 L within one hour are needed, so the unit closest to this value was selected, with a capacity of 1m³/h. The pump was configured according to the flow rate of around 650 L/h with a minimum hydraulic head due to the down slope irrigation setup.

According to the projected reclaimed water production of 0.6m³ a week the UV-unit will run one hour per week. In this configuration the electric power consumption is reduced from the initial 0.408 kWh hence 2.8 kWh per week, to around 0.017kWh per week.

Conclusion

Throughout the years ELT has acquired intensive customer feedback on the different water management practices involved. This experience has shown that the average customer has limited knowledge about his water consumption and the quantities needed in order to run basic sanitation systems or agricultural production. When showing the different systems at the welcome tour a common reaction to the water cistern of 100m³ is that it is huge. When explaining further how little water it is compared to his own needs and how it is distributed according to the consumption, most people become skeptical. Down the line it is noticed that most customers are much more flexible and open to new approaches than normally assumed. These discussions throughout the years encouraged the design of Waterloop1.

In the experience of ELT, this contributes greatly to the Metabolic rift between the user and his natural environment. This is addressed more thoroughly within Waterloop1 where the user is taken out of his habitual comfort zone and is actively engaged in a new way of dealing with his excrement’s and the involved material flows.

Water resources at Tinos Ecolodge

The initial design concept of ELT, when it was founded in 2014, was to utilize every available
water resource in order to minimize the demand of high quality fresh water from the water
network. On the conventional side there is the connection to the public water grid that provides all
usages for high quality drinking water such as sinks and showers. On the non conventional side
there is rainwater, river water and treated sewage water. At the ELT we use all four sources of
water, however most of the water needs are covered by non conventional sources. The rainwater is
captured through a broadly designed harvesting system, which is connected to all hard surfaces
like roofs, stairs and verandas throughout the housing area. The old Cistern with a storage capacity
of a 100m3, functions as the central storage from where the water is distributed by pumping
throughout the rainwater network. This utility water network provides all points with water where
the quality can be below drinking water standards. This includes irrigation water, outside tabs for
cleaning, general purposes and also serves the toilette flush system. The sewage water which is
transported through a split grey-black water canalization is treated by a CW-vf unit, where the
effluent is collected in a cistern for utilization as irrigation water for ornamental non edible plants
or can be injected into the toilet flushing network if rainwater reserves run low. The river water is
used to supplement the irrigation water for the agricultural production. The table below shows an
overview of the different water qualities and the according utilization. In an off-the-grid situation
as applying to ELT it is important to be able to react fast to upcoming malfunctions of different sub
systems till the error is solved. This is described in the emergency row where in case of error or
shortage different bypasses can be made in order to keep the overall system running. These
bypasses become crucial in the case of a malfunction e.g. concerning the vegetable production
where 2-3 days without water can lead to a total production loss.

Current water loops at Tinos Ecolodge

The water loop already implemented before the HYDROUSA project is the usage of the treated sewage water
for toilet flushing. This can be described as a full loop where a certain amount of consumed fresh
water is returned to the consumer multiple times (figure 1.6). Due to the evapotranspiration
losses in the CW-vf treatment unit and the piping losses the loop depends on a constant
supplement of fresh water. Through out the time the system is running our experience show a
total loss of around 15-50% depending on the weather conditions throughout the year.

ELT tries to market ecological responsible tourism, this includes an information talk with every new
arriving customer about the water scarcity and how everybody can contribute positively, through
conscious behavior. But in the end it is up to every customer how he deals with water
consumption. So for ELT this loop is important because it turns the customer behavior in both
cases into an advantage. If a lot of water is consumed a lot of water is generated for flushing and
irrigation, if little is consumed the problem is addressed even better.
Of course in a broader perspective the evapotranspiration losses are recaptured in the bigger fresh
water circle of the planet as rainfall. This water is recollected through the rainwater catchment
system and reused on site. Following this perspective the irrigation of the non edible plants
contribute vastly to the same effect. Here the ecosystem services come into account. When ELT
started the site was a highly degraded ecosystem in a low productive state, with just a few climax
flora species left. The soil was eroded with a minimal to non existing topsoil layer left that could
nearly feed highly adopted pioneer species of predominantly grass varieties. This condition was
mainly created due to overgrazing from goats and abandoned land management. Through fencing
the site, replanting and enriching the soil functions the habitat is now slowly developing into a
productive maquie to forest ecosystem capable of providing water retention, evapotranspiration,
heat reduction etc. This angle allows in our opinion the broader definition of an overall water loop.

Flow Diagram of the existing and new system

The P&Id below (Figure 1.18) shows all water flows within ELT combining the existing system at the lower part of the graphic and the new systems in the upper part. Also, the sensor integration is indicated with the different flow meters and level sensors giving feedback about consumption’s, storage and water flows.

Projected Data of the existing Water demand

The actual demand of water can only be rendered as a simulation where the values are averages of recorded data or assumptions. In reality, it is not accurately predictable how the user will behave in the system and what kind of user will dominate within the whole user group. The design Team of ELT tried to tackle this problem with a consumption range reaching from 80L per person per day (P/d) to 160L P/d incrementally. This defined an upper maximum water consumption and a lower minimum, while ELT created its own consumption pattern based on the different water saving strategies and the tourist in mind. This pattern considered a consumption of 106.6L P/d as realistic value.
Looking at the breakdown by use and water source it is possible to provide around 52% of the total demand by utilizing rainwater.
Within the whole water stream only 9%, consisting of the water for cooking and irrigation, is lost within the first usage cycle (indicated in orange). The remaining 91% is transported to the sewage treatment for reuse (indicated in black/grey).
For ELT this leads to a total water demand of 115.12m within a six month season with a 100% occupation, consisting out of 55.26 fresh water provided by the network and 59.86 from rainwater.

Projected Data of the existing sewage Water production

Through the existing water loop described above also the reclaimed water from the wastewater treatment process contributes to the total water demand. From the overall of 115m water consumed within the lodges, 95.8m finally end up in the treatment facilities; from which 5% is lost due to pipe leaks and around 30% is evapotranspirated in the CW-vf. These assumptions fluctuate throughout time due to degradation of the piping network and weather conditions affecting the water uptake within the wetland. Throughout the season 65% or 68.8m of reclaimed water are available for non-edible plant irrigation or in case of insufficient rainwater for flushing.

Conclusion

In the case of ELT, an average daily consumption of 80L was adopted as the most realistic value. This low consumption would be achieved by combining a mix of factors like very water conscious customers and better overall efficiency of the water saving strategy within ELT. Furthermore, the occupation rate for a new hotel unit is difficult to predict from year to year but reflects heavily on the actual water consumption and respectively to the reclaimed water production. The lack of precise actual data creates an uncertainty and forces the calculations and sizing of the systems generally higher values in order to ensure the safe operation of the system rather than a precise planning according to actual measured values. In the sizing of the new wastewater treatment system IRIDRA and ELT had to assume a value of 80L dark grey water production per PE and day.With the sensor integration this issue will be addressed and more precise data will be generated in the coming years. These long-term data will help following planning processes of NBS for eco- touristic facilities with a focus on low overall water consumption.

Credits:

Text : Nicolas Bedau  and Marilia Kalouli

Illustration : Nicolas Bedau

This a  live view of the energy system we are using at the Ecolodge. You can follow our electricity production, our real time consumption and the state of charge of our batteries. The little colorfull lines at the bottom of the boxes shows the data of the last two days. The blue moving lines indicate the direction of the electricity flow.

Short summery of the specification of our system:

It is an off-grid system and consists out of two PV – arrays with an 4,6 kWhp production capacity a battery storage capacity of 12,3 kWh and an inverter capacity of 9 kW.