The tour of the house begins outside, where the electrical panel should be. It is, but with a clear symbolic gesture, the wires were unplugged. It is not connected to the network. A family lives indoors without fear of the electricity bill, as the home squeezes out every ray of sunlight and makes the most of it thanks to a technology now taking the form of a company marketed by Sunthalpy Engineering. The master of ceremonies on this excursion through Villamejil chalet (on the outskirts of Naranco) – the off-grid house – is Baudilio Alonso, the company’s commercial director, and the itinerary continues from the first floor once inside. There are bedrooms. The family living in the chalet that day is not at home, the company responsible are at home. “This fascinates me. The bathroom itself has a dressing room,” she says. It is true that the image is shocking. “There is no humidity, the atmosphere is more breathable and there are no radiators,” he says. The trick is in underfloor heating, which does not form condensation and ensures that the humidity level is homogeneous no matter what.
We go down to the ground floor. There is a kitchen, a large living room and several rooms with various machines. From the window you can see the Cathedral’s tower, Aramo or the old municipal prison. “This is a great testing lab,” Alonso says. He points to the two doors behind which the machines that keep the house running without outlets stand, and says, “These two rooms are important.” He expands on this explanation a bit: “Assuming it has the most efficient underfloor heating on the market, the water (which feeds that heating system) is at 21 degrees, we can touch it,” he says. And the crouching Baudilio puts his hand on the ground. “Neither cold nor hot, you can always go barefoot,” she says. where is the cheat? “Most of the solar panels surrounding the house (if you look at the photo accompanying this report you will see that the house is full of these panels) are double, with the thermal section behind them. What you get is that the outer layer generates electricity and the inner layer captures the heat that passes through the closed circuit of the house via a hydraulic tube circuit and reaches the heat pump (which opens one of the two doors at the same time) where the machines are slumbering) the system is operating at a low temperature (21 degrees, neither cold nor hot). He explains that he doesn’t have a problem with his body, it’s not like a radiator set to 70 degrees,” he explains.
Now, after verifying that this mechanism is working well and there are no leaks, what the company does is cram the system into a mobile unit that can be placed outside existing homes to provide all heating production and hot water. take out the petrol or diesel,” he says. This is a relief for pockets when the bill is skyrocketing, like now. Alonso, “we are looking for industrialization”.
In the heat of the rise in the electricity bill, demand is rising quite strongly. “We currently have about 25 active projects, these are the first because we’ve made a tremendous effort to industrialize the whole process and moreover with our own resources,” he says. The unit they market is a kind of canopy to be installed outside the house. For single family. They are investigating another system for apartments. “It consists of removing the radiators and placing the radiant walls on the floor, but on the wall, which will be the same technology we have here. The idea is to put it on exterior walls so it will isolate you,” he says. In this way, the natural gas bill will be completely destroyed. “There are houses that already pay 300 or 400 euros for gas,” he says. According to his calculations, 20% of buildings have the potential to dissipate gas. In fact, in order to sell an apartment now, owners are often faced with a previously overlooked question: “How much do you consume?”. Sunthalpy has a patented system – designed by company founder Omar Suárez – and a large part of the team that makes up the company comes from the refractory industry.
The visit ends outside in the pool, which is completely enclosed and always the same temperature. at 27 degrees. And a little sister-in-law question: What happens on low light or dark days in winter? Alonso replies: “There were two days in November last year when there was no photovoltaic production anywhere in Asturias, it was zero, the batteries were thrown out in those days and the only restriction the family adopted was that the children should not play ‘PlayStation’. ‘ is what consumes the most energy’.