Powis Cottage

Powis Cottage

Powis Cottage, a 3-bedroom house overlooking the 7-mile beach of  Pendine sands in South Wales, is owner designed for maximum efficiency for low cost performance.  It is also a working base for two businesses run by owners Jon and Kaye Williams.

The house is designed for maximum solar gain being south facing and having a high thermal mass with very high levels of insulation it is built into a south facing hill side.  It uses an air source heat pump for hot water and underfloor heating which comes on from 12.00noon to 3.30pm daily to be working at its most efficient as it uses the warmest air of the day.  This combined with solar PV on sunny days make the hot water and heating low carbon and reduces our cost.

AMHVR system ensures a healthy atmosphere within the house and helps to distribute the heat from the in-built wood burning stove which is centrally situated for those colder evenings. The timbers for the stove come from thinning and fallen trees within the 6 acre property.

The house is currently performing technically well above estimations as the power use is only 45 kW per day which includes the two businesses and is the actual usage from 1st November 2011 to 31st January 2012.