Sustainable Comfort

Sustainability and Comfort are two different words and in many publications often seen as competing concepts. One cannot go with the other… We will prove that they CAN go together.

Last year (2022) we replaced an old gas heating system by 2 heat pumps at our Italian CASA, which was built in 1750 as a monastery. These 2 heat pumps (Nibe F2120 of 16 kw each) deliver the hot water for the house (900 l boiler) and should also provide central heating for the house.

The hot water works very well, but not the central heating as the house only has radiators and no floor heating. The water temperature of 55⁰C is not enough for the current radiators.

Another challenge is the summer period (August and first half of September). It can get warm inside as the construction of the building is old and the roof is not isolated. Every room has its own fan, which helps a little, but not enough.

Only at the end of last summer we found out that our heat pumps are not only good in heating but can also create cool water very well. We did a cold water test which was very successful, unfortunately we had a lot of condensation on all the radiators and metal pipes….

A new project was born. Not only being Carbon neutral but also provide Comfort without impacting the environment and keeping our traditional house style.

We are going to install 6kw additional solar panels incl. 15 kw batteries. Starting with 5 different rooms we will install Fan Coil units (airco’s) for cooling in summer and heating in winter. The units have a fan which makes the heating and cooling of the rooms much more efficient (faster). With the new batteries we will be able to use the solar energy in summer not only for hot water but also for cooling the house.

So sustainable and also comfort…..

For more information https://campoalleserpi.com/?lang=en

Campo in Winter

For the first time we have been at our ‘Casa’ during winter time. Our sustainability project (see blog message) has started and for this reason the travel to Italy was necessary. Our expectation was that the temperature would be around 10°C, but in reality it’s much colder. The nights can go down as deep as -2°C and during the day it will be around 8-12°C (sunshine or not). In our house it’s around 8-9°C (without heating)..

The winter period is great for garden work. Not a lot of leaves and much easier to for trimming the trees

Campo alle Sustainability

We are very exited to start our Italian sustainability project soon as we are going to transform our ‘ancient’ Italian house into a Sustainable ‘hot spot’.

We became owner of our Casa in September 2020. The house was fully renovated in 1998 with new heating system and double glass. In 2011 the owner received a licence to build a covered parking lot for 4 cars including a 4.6kW solar panel system on the roof. The covered parking lot was build, but the solar panel system was never realized (so far).

By Italian law we are now obliged to realize the solar panel system within the next 1.5 year… With this in mind, having 2 x 25 years old liquid gas heating systems and an interesting Italian (eco) bonus option made us decide to start our Sustainability project.

Our sustainability plan includes:

  • 2 Nibe (F2120) air/water heat pumps of 16kW each. These heat pumps have a performance factor of > 5.0 and deliver a supply water temperature of up to 65⁰, enough for hot water production.
  • 840 L boiler for hot water
  • 300 L hot water buffer for the 2 heating systems (radiators) in the house
  • 5.6kW solar panel system (14x Vitovolt 300 M400WE) incl. inverter (Viessmann)

New updated website

We have updated our website with a lot of new content. We added a lot of extra house details per room, incl. pictures per room. We have also added a lot of maps with beaches, restaurants, Tuscany villages and Theme parks.

We hope you will enjoy all this extra information to have a greater experience during you stay!! Let us know what you think!