Eco house is up for award

Gillian Schifreen drove past a derelict bungalow on Peartree Lane every day.

Having always wanted to build her own home, she tracked down the owner and bought the plot.

She then designed in conjunction with local architect, Michael Hall, and obtained planning permission for a house which might look traditional yet is anything but.

Two years on, Holly House is finished and is a “wonderful” eco-friendly family home.

Despite having no central heating, there’s been no lack of warmth even during some of the coldest weather in years. Holly House was built using a system of Structurally Insulated Panels. In addition, high levels of insulation, triple glazing, and ventilation provided by pipework buried deep in the garden ensured the house maintained a temperature of about 18 degrees centigrade, even when the outside temperature hit minus 11.

The only direct heating is from a woodburning stove in the family room, and this heat is pumped round the house via a mechanical heat recovery system. Energy bills are kept to a minimum with LED lighting and and an induction hob.

Hot water from March through to October is almost entirely provided from 12 square metres of solar panels, fed into a 500 litre thermal store known to all on the project as ‘The Rocket’. The house has so many solar panels that a swimming pool had to be included to provide somewhere to pump excess hot water during summer months.

Gillian, who had never built from scratch before, said: “I had to do about two years of research to put together all the systems which we included in the build. We had hoped to include solar PV to provide electricity, but for various reasons we couldn’t go ahead.

“However we are hoping to have a ground mounted array in the near future.”

The house took about 10 months to build although external landscaping is still ongoing. The house was built with a small team including local carpenter and builder Terry Cosham and carpenter Jack Page.

Gillian did all the buying and project management while husband Robert, an IT specialist, designed central computer systems for the property, which include 24 ethernet sockets to “future proof” the house.

Jonathan Cornell of Rother District Council suggested the house be put forward for a Local Authority Building Award.

Both Gillian and Robert were excited when they found out it has been shortlisted for an award for Best Technical Development in the South East. The award ceremony is being held at the Gatwick Copthorne today (Friday).

Gillian and Terry Cosham will discuss any element of the build at [email protected]