Super house saves energy

ASHMOUNT, Ballyfouloo, in Monkstown, Co Cork is no ordinary house. While it looks fresh and new on the outside, it also has an interesting interior fit.

Originally built in the Seventies, this house has been used as an office for a number of years by Jim Tangney of Low Energy Solutions, a company specialising, as the name suggests, in energy efficiency. Now that the company have opened offices in Cork, Limerick and Dublin, the Monkstown base is no longer needed. The residential property has been given a major re-build, using the companies latest technology and is now on the market with Malcolm Tyrrell of Cohalan Downing for offers in the region of €750,000.

Ashmount is now a large, five-bedroomed property with 3,500 square feet of space that has been wrapped around an original, smaller structure. Two new gables and a porch were added to the front and the house stretches back into its large site, with a sunny back garden. This back garden also provides the heating for the property as it’s layered with piping for the geothermal system, which Mr Tangney’s company has developed.

The subsoil temperature of 9 degrees is used to heat water which is pumped through a heat exchanger in the utility room, (a wall mounted unit around the same size as a gas boiler) turning up the temperature to around 50-55 degrees.

Apart from the initial cost, (which purchasers here can forego), the system runs on very little energy and is augmented by solar panels which cover 70% of the total hot water needs annually.

Each room is heated by a Solo intelligent heating terminal which is the Star Trek equivalent of a radiator. Costing three times the price, but paying for itself over time, these little cabinets are cool to the touch and have a maximum output of 50 degrees. Grafted onto a normal system, they will save up to 40% of the present energy output, says Mr Tangney, and use just 0.2 litres of water compared to 15 litres in a standard radiator. In Ashmount, each unit is digitally controlled and can be turned on and off from the kitchen, or even a mobile phone.

Used with existing systems, a switch does the job with the temperature automatically calibrated to the ambient room temperature.

The rest of the house is highly insulated with dry lining and cavity insulation which should make fuel bills negligible.

This is no small thing when you consider the size of the house, its three ensuite rooms and two bathrooms, as well as a range of ground floor living rooms, including an impressive, conservatory which soaks up passive solar heat. The house, which is just nearing completion, has a fitted kitchen and all bathrooms are fully fitted.