In June we spent a fantastic week in Brittany – Northern France is about as far as I fancy driving at the moment and flying has become such hard-work I frankly can’t be bothered.
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The cottage we stayed in had an air source heat pump that provided domestic hot water and heating. I’d never seen one close up before so was very interested to see this one – and confirm the similarity in appearance between ASHP’s and air conditioning units. I won’t say it was noisy, but I’m sure I could pick up an almost inaudible hum from it. With hindsight it may have just been the underfloor heating pump. I’ve noticed that I’m very aware of ‘compressor-hum’ – when the wind is in the right direction, the compressor in the cooling unit for the diary farm up the road can follow me around outside the barn like an irritating wasp. But it certainly worked well, didn’t rely on the weather (our solar panels have been pretty rubbish in the overcast but muggy weather we’ve had recently) and was completely self contained so I’m probably inclined to view ASHPs more favourably than I was previously.
The holiday cottage also provided a couple of other inspirations…
Once the weather begins its descent into winter and I start work indoors again, one of my first tasks will be the cabin bed in the second bedroom that I’ve been planning for a while. I want to build a ladder to get in and out of it and I liked the simple but effective design of this one that led up to the mezzanine level in the holiday cottage (or the cabin as my son called it).
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I really need a log store (or two) near the barn and this type of simple timber construction would fit the bill. I especially like the use of slate ‘weather-boards’ – the same solution to edging the vertical face down from the roof is used on the gable ends of my barn.
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