Redefining The Word Comfort in “Comfortable Home”

I used to think a comfortable home meant one with lots of cushions and carpets. Having a comfortable home was a bit like having a comfortable bed. Well, let me tell you my eyes have been opened. Over the last several years since we have been developing our techniques and researching materials in low energy housing this word now has a completely different meaning to me.

A Comfortable Home is a Healthy Home

First of all it means healthy. A comfortable home is a healthy home. I used to think a healthy home was a home with healthy people in it. Now I think of it as one in which the air is fresh and continuously replaced. I wouldn’t dream of building a home now without a mechanical system of extracting stale dirty air from kitchen and bathroom areas and replacing it with fresh clean air filtered of dust and pollen gently propelled into the bedrooms and living areas.

A mechanical heat recovery and ventilation system also allows you to have the perfect humidity too by controlling the rate of replacement. However hot or muggy it is outside, inside you are comfortable. What a bonus!

Healthy means Lots of Natural Light Too

Healthy means lots of natural light too. Studies have proved that salesmen perform better if they are working in natural light rather than artificial light. Natural light is healthy. A comfortable home therefore incorporates lots of large windows and maybe skylights or light chimneys in hidden corners. Windows used to be considered the inevitable weak point in insulating your home. But with significant changes in window technology over the last twenty years which allow light to pass through but not heat (or sound) this is no longer the case. In fact these days you really can have it all.

Guilt Free Air Conditioning

Here’s the thing about standard air conditioning units. They use fossil fuels, which heat up the environment, to cool your home: a vicious cycle. Not clever. And have you ever stood next to the extractor fan unit located outside the space which is being cooled? It’s hot isn’t it? And noisy!

What would you say to an air conditioning system that uses solar power, is not electric, is silent, and cools the whole house not just the air i.e. the floors, the walls and all the surfaces? Well it now exists. How great is that for a hot Mediterranean climate? The hotter it is outside the cooler it can be inside. All the rooms in your home are always at the right temperature regardless of weather or season. If you go on holiday leave it on. It’s free to run. Now that’s what I call comfort.

By the way the same system heats the house in the winter and provides domestic hot water.

Living In Peace

I like to be able to sit in any room in my house in peace and read a book or just watch my thoughts. That peace and quiet is priceless. I do not wish to hear the loo flush upstairs. My ideal comfortable home has superb sound insulation inside and out.

And you know whatever your views on climate change wouldn’t it feel comfortable to know that you are living in balance with your environment? You are generating most of the energy you use, recycling your water and your waste material, using simple low maintenance systems.

I also like to know that maintaining this level of comfort doesn’t costs me much on a monthly basis. That helps me to feel peaceful.

So that’s what a comfortable home means to me. What does it mean to you? Why not get in touch?

This article was written by John Wolfendale a director of Eco Vida.