Eric & Flo, beauty at 1250 meter height
The Eric & Flo is one of our showroom models. We built this house in 2012 in The Lozère at a height of 1250 meters. In winter it gets seriously cold here, temperatures of -15 degrees Celcius are the norm. Last time we visited this client was in February 2019 en then they had half a meter of snow.
The simplicity of the design is striking. A simple tilted roof and a wooden planks bardage on the outside with modern corners, and no stick-through miters. In some countries these corners are called “city corners” because they are preferred in urban environments, but we like them in The Lozère just as well. This is house is proof: traditional log construction with dowels, and at the same time a modern design, almost minimalistic. It is possible.
This is a log house: 16 cm massive laminated wooden logs, on the outside we have added 20 cm insulation, and then finally a larch bardage. This construction will last for ages. If the owner replaces the larch bardage say every 60 years, this house will still be here in 300 years from now.
The house had double glass (not triple layer glass) en no floor heating. The house has a wooden floor in most rooms, and 20 cm insulation below the floor. Our customer wrote us how he heats the house:
Our heating system is mainly based on our Jotul F363 wood burner. It’s a 6Kw wood burner and it’s enough 90% of the time. We also have 2 Acova 1000W electric heaters. We use them when weather becomes really tough (negative temperatures) in order for the house to remain warm during the night and/or to minimize our efforts to bring more wood. All together, for the last three months (mid december to mid march), we had a minimum temperature of 18.7 °C (usually in the morning before we start a new fire) and a maximum temperature of 26°C (usually around 19h00). I suspect that the same house constructed at sea level would require much less efforts to keep it warm and would probably never require the Acovas to be turned on.
The Jotul wood burner is in the living room. With some convection tubes and a ventilator in the ceiling, warm air is transported to all rooms. Simple and very effective.
The Eric & Flo has a nett surface of 132 m2 (SHON), total surface of 155 m2 (SHOB).
