The Barn Gallery

The Barn Gallery mechanical room showcases some innovative technologies, and we use it for teaching and helping others to make informed decisions. The water heater for the Sanden heat pump heats the water for the radiant floors and domestic hot water, for pennies a day, exchanging outside air for hot water.

Setting priorities for a sustainable infrastructure and its implementation takes considerable research if you are on a limited budget. You can always buy the expensive couch or upgrade the kitchen cabinets later, but it’s not so easy to add a radiant heated floor or 12” thick roof later.…

At this point some may notice the absence of any solar discussion….we did not include a solar system, and we are often asked why. This was designed from the outset to be an energy-efficient house; and the costs of a solar installation would have taken >20 years to recover (a bit less perhaps with rebates). However, our goal was a cost-effective sustainable build to a budget, and after professional evaluation and lengthy debate, we selected the best-value technologies for the project. For a number of reasons, not least siting and environmental considerations, solar did not make the cut.