Our Story

Whilst working as a bat ecologist I was made aware of how many open chimneys there are, and as an environmentalist, I noticed how much heat and energy is being lost up these chimneys. Sheep Wool is mostly used as a waste product, and is a great tool for insulation material. I put the two together and using only kitchen utensils, the Chimney Sheep was born! A sustainable insultation project designed to prevent heat and energy escaping up chimneys, saving people money on their energy bills.

After the initial prototype, I managed to develop it into a marketable product and was launched in 2012. Fast forward to 2020, I’ve sold 160,000 units and have expanded the business to sell a wide range of environmentally friendly products. I’ve also set up a Community Interest Company called Buy Land Plant Trees, which receives 20% of the profits from Chimney Sheep.

So far in our 10 years of trading, we’ve saved over 118,000 tonnes of Co2, £16,551,362 on their heating bills, and won the prestigious Kevin McCloud’s Green Heroes!

The Challenge

I had a huge challenge of working solely on my own and delivering a good product to market. I wasn’t particularly confident in my own ability, but the confidence in the product and the belief in how it could benefit the energy saving industry drove me on. The challenges that came with expanding the business developed my ability to manage the growth, and as well as the help and support I’ve had along the way, a lot of the problems and challenges I managed to overcome myself.

The initial research was monumental. I aimed to look in as many properties as possible to see how many open chimneys there were, and whether there would be sufficient demand for The Sheep Chimney. Research into possible competitors, not only if they had come up with something similar to the Sheep Chimney, but whether they were already fulfilling the need my product aimed to address, was extensive. It’s all part and parcel of a start-up business but it’s still a huge challenge, and one must consider whether they are prepared for the workload.

Marketing the product was another huge challenge. Everyone’s on social media, which presents a challenge of its own, what is so special about The Sheep Chimney that will cut through what everyone else is doing and saying. Eventually I focused on who was the primary market and worked out how I could reach them. Of course finance in the early days was tricky, and I was lucky with the grants on offer to me, but finding creative ways to borrow money saved me in the long run.

Our Solution

The Chimney Sheep is a removable, sustainable, chimney draft excluder made from highly durable and breathable Herdwick Wool. This is then felted to create a perfect plug for a chimney. We knew it was important for people to spend the least amount of time looking up their chimneys as possible, so the Chimney Sheep is designed to be fully removable and easily inserted.

By blocking the majority of the air flow, it prevents the stack effect occurring. The Chimney Sheep stops warm air escaping though an open chimney and prevents cold air being pulled in via other gaps, helping a property retain its heat and feel more comfortable. With it being natural Herdwick Wool, reserving a small gap for ventilation isn’t needed, the breathable material provides a natural ventilation space.

In September 2022 The Sheep Chimney turned 10, from making a draft excluder in a small workshop in Cockermouth, Cumbria, to selling it all over the world has given us even more drive to make the next 10 years even bigger. We want everyone to have the Chimney Sheep, if they did we could save 2,337,511 tonnes of Co2, the equivalent of capturing the same amount of carbon by 5,493,020 acres of trees, as well as £327,704,960 on our annual energy bills!

Want to find out more?

To find out more about The Sheep Chimney, and all of our other products, head to: https://www.chimneysheep.co.uk/