The HEAT is on … nearly! Building a sustainable future. Part 3

[Music] In French there's a proverb petite a petit l'oiseau fait son nid little by little a bird makes its nest by advancing in small steps with patience  and perseverance we reach our goal nothing rings truer to us here at Purnon  and there's one question that's been on   the forefront of our minds since  arriving over three years ago how do we protect what remains of the chateau's  2000 square meters of precious Interiors? how do we protect her original  rare 18th century wallpapers?  her hand crafted wood paneling and  her custom 18th century paintings?   the cold and humid winter months see the  temperatures inside the Chateau plummet   and humidity builds up on the windows and walls  threatening what remains of her original features the restoration of the leaking roof  is now two years advanced and the   Eastern Pavilion is watertight for the  first time in the last century now the challenge is finding a solution  to bring the Chateau up to a consistent   temperature during the winter months for  the preservation of her precious Interiors [Music] Whilst the biggest and most urgent  challenge here at Purnon is about saving the   Chateau through the restoration of the Chateau  roof and facades we have so many other challenges   that we need to address at the same time and so  one of those huge challenges that Tim and I have   been discussing and trying to find a solution for  for the last three years since arriving here is   how to heat the Chateau and what we have decided  on is a huge investment in Purnon's future our   comfort and the protection and preservation of  the interiors. From a sustainability point of   view we will be able to use the wood from the  Chateau domain exactly as Purnon was built to   be used in the 18th century with the wood from  the domain providing the heating for the domain   this also allows us to use the wood that has  already fallen in the domain and what this also   means is it will allow us to manage the woods of  the Chateau and plant for future regeneration of   the woods but we have a huge amount of work  to do as always to actually prepare this   space to allow the heating system to  be installed and we're working on that   right now because the plan is to have  the heating installed before August so   that come winter this year the Chateau will  have its heating system ready to go so this is the first task we have to do to prepare  the space here which is where Purnon's heating   system will be installed and the wood that you can  see behind me is called charpente or it's really   the wooden frame that would have held up all of  the different slate tile and clay tile roofs that   we have around the domain and these old wooden  pieces here actually quite useful to us they've   lasted for hundreds of years and they've got  hundreds of years of life still left in them   so we want to protect them and preserve them  but we've got to move them out of this space   I mean I moved 50 yesterday [Music] [Music]   Have you  finished hun? almost just a little bit of sweeping left  to do I can't believe how much you've done   it's um how many pieces of charpente did  you move you know I actually lost count   that there were 15 that required the tractor   at the end and I reckon there are probably maybe  a hundred and twenty that had to be moved by hand   [Music] Well the installation of the new heating  system is moving at great pace and today   they are cleaning out the existing radiators  so we have a small number of radiators on   the ground floor in the section of the Chateau  that we live and this is them getting cleaned   out so the water started absolutely black and  they're running new water through it to clean   out the systems and once the water runs clear  then our radiators have been cleaned and are   ready for the new system they've done lots of  canalizations and um and all's looking good   [Music] Our local stone masons are truly  heroes here so it's Saturday morning and   they have arrived to create uh some walls for  the wood chip to be stored to create a stockage   for the wood chip and here just behind me here  in this tunnel is where all the pipes have now   gone in to bring the heated water and cold water  and electricity between the Chateau and the chaï [Music]   so the heating system that we have chosen is a  biomass heating system it will use wood which   is tipped from the Chateau domain as the source  for the heating system today was scheduled to do   a trial run of the system for the wood chip  to be put in the storage and the guys from   Hagasana the supply the supplier of the system  to actually start running the system and test it it rained last night non-stop the grounds  are absolutely saturated the truck was not   able to get in to get close enough to where the  storage for the wood chip has been built and so   we have to empty it here the only place that the  truck would access and then get a local farmer to   come and help us move it this afternoon kind of  not the way today was meant to go unfortunately always challenges yeah things never go as planned [Music] This is Julien he's been responsible for  the installation of the system here and   he's going to explain to us how the system works   and the challenges that they had  here while installing the system well it was a bit of a rough start to the day  and especially after a sleepless night with   the storms and emptying buckets on the western  side of the attic but our local farmer has now   arrived and he's moving all the wood chip from  the pile that was created this morning from the   delivery and by individual loads is delivering  it to the storage in the show where the heating   system is it's not the way we wanted to do it  but sometimes here things just really don't go   as planned unfortunately but and you can see  how wet the ground is he's just digging it up   so that's the reason that the truck couldn't get  in this morning but we're getting there and the   Hagasana guys have actually turned the heating  system on now and I smell warmth which is an   amazing thing so this year come winter half  the Chateau will be watertight and half the   Chateau will also be heated and it's beautiful  and precious Interiors protected and over time   as the restoration continues room by room will be  able to add heating but we've really now got to   turn our attention to the Journées du Patrimoine  which is in four days time and we've got so much   left to do to prepare the grounds for when we open  to the public this is a weekend each year that we   open to the public and so there's a lot to do I've  been getting a lot of questions recently about how   frequently we post here on YouTube we post as much  as possible but we're creating all the content   ourselves so it takes time on Instagram we post a  daily story with an update on the restoration of   the Chateau so if you really want to follow what's  happening on a day-to-day basis over on Instagram   is a great place to do it otherwise if you'd like  a weekly video we do a weekly video exclusive on   Patreon so you can check that out over there  and if you are not sure about committing to it   there's also each video also has a preview so  you can actually go in and preview the content   and see if it interests you thank you all for  your support we'll see you after the Journées du Patrimoine [Music]

Channel: Château de Purnon: Reawakening a French château

Views: 139,102

Keywords: how to heat a chateau, chateau restoration, french chateau, australian chateau owners, mission bern, loto du patrimoine

Id: f4KPhPy8ZRg

Length: 14min 59sec (899 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 04 2023