On the other hand, a house with low energy consumption is already the present. This time we are going to Genval in Walloon Brabant. Céleste Coupez runs a B&B in the middle of the fields, which she opened two years ago. Initially, it was a completely renovated winegrower’s house from the 1940s.
A quick overview already allows us to see that the southern slope of its roof is entirely covered with photovoltaic panels. Back home, Celeste recharges her electric car: “The car serves as a battery for the house because our photovoltaic panels produce more than what we consume. One way not to lose this energy produced by our panels is to store it in the car battery.“
If the architecture of the house does not stand out from the other houses in the neighborhood, it still has an asset well hidden inside its walls, confides celeste Coupez : “We mainly put insulation in the walls and in the roofs. For the walls, we have 30 centimeters of graphite polystyrene and for the roof, we have a wood wool that really serves to insulate the roof over 40 centimeters of thickness.“
When she returns home, Céleste has already started her pellet stove from her smartphone. She insists : “We heat ourselves exclusively with the pellet stove all year round. There is no gas or oil heating. Our annual consumption is approximately: 400 to 500 euros of pellets per year.“
This AA + rated house must still have a suitable ventilation system that allows the air to be renewed and the house to be properly ventilated. Last little asset. Each guest room has an electrically heated floor in the morning to increase the feeling of comfort.
One thing is certain, the house of the future will have to save us energy, improve our comfort, our security and, ultimately, make our lives easier.
