Firstly, I must apologise for the infrequency of my recent posting.
I’ve been away in France for a little ‘R and R’ staying in a barn conversion in Normandy (can’t stay away from the bloody things).
The place we stay at now has four barns converted for holiday accommodation. We stayed in the first conversion at the farm more or less exactly two years ago and since then three more have followed.
What I find interesting is that whilst there are many similarities in the buildings and the climate between here and South Wales and in essence the conversions are similar in design approach, the building regulations obviously differ greatly. These buildings have nothing like the (expensive) levels of roof & wall insulation or high specification windows and doors that we use. Now I don’t know if there are different standards for temporary holiday accommodation in France or other factors at play here, but anyway it makes you think…
Perhaps we have something to teach the French…? Or is that the other way around…do we over-specify?
Put another way, where should we draw the line between energy efficiency, pragmatism and cost? That line seems to be drawn differently in different countries.
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