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Honeycomb - our timber frame house
Building a house is no small undertaking, and our plan for Honeycomb was to construct a large house that would serve both as a home for one of the families that form the Unicorn Ecological Foundation, but could be a possible overflow space for visitors to stay. As such, we designed a four-bedroom, two bathroom home that had no carbon footprint, and would cost only around 1 Euro per day to power. We did it too!
The building was completed in April 2007, and is a fine example of how a building can be sustainable, cheap to construct, cheap to run, and built to last.
Sustainable design
Sustainable design was a big part of our plans for Honeycomb, with the obvious element being the use of timber from a sustainable source many of the main upright posts came from a few miles down the road; a beautiful myrtle trunk goes up through the kitchen and the main bedroom and a "spalded" sycamore trunk for the spiral staircase. The top level of the house was clad with boards of western red cedar also from a nearby source and the counter tops and shelves are from timber from Kerry national park .Wood is a natural, beautiful building material that provides a gorgeous finish to a home, and the floors and most of the furniture and fittings in the house are also wooden.
Geothermal pump
To heat the house, we installed a geothermal pump in an area behind Honeycomb. Because space is not an issue for us, this was laid vertically, but there is no reason why these pumps cannot be laid horizontally, deep into the earth, if space is an issue. The pump works by using the natural warmth of the earth to heat water that lies in pipes underground. When needed, this warm water is pumped through the pipes and into the house, giving us underfloor heating when it is needed, for a fraction of the cost. Upstairs, where it is not possible to lay the pipes under the floor, they are located within the cavity walls, so our walls act as radiators.
The windows in the glass is Pilkington K glass, that magnifies the heat gained from the sun and keeps it in the house, so warmth is not a problem at all - and we applied a little bit of ingenuity to the roof by using recycled tyres for roof tiles - they keep the warmth in, are cheap, and won't smash to bits in a storm.
Not a sustainable house - a sustainable home
Honeycomb is a house designed for three generations of family; and they love it - a cheap, comfortable, sustainable family homeThose who have stayed in the "Honeypot" are also fans, with many surprised at just how comfortable their sustainable surroundings can be.
To find out more about timber frame housing, please contact us with any questions you may have - or visit us and see Honeycomb for yourself!