Back in the 80s, Amish farmers raised their family at a farm in Mount Joy, Pennsylvania. Kids were born in the house. A stone’s throw away, out in the barn, calves were born to the dairy herd. In 2016, Chris and Michelle Simon bought the barn — all that remains of the old homestead — to turn it into a home. The 1871 post-and-beam barn was enormous: 60 by 100 feet, with ceilings as high as 25 feet. And of course, it was built for animals, not people.
It was an atypical HVAC situation. Simons chose Vince Youndt, president of Stevens, Pennsylvania-based Vertex Mechanical, to provide HVAC solutions. Youndt and his team devised a plan to provide hydronic radiant heating and geothermal cooling for most of the lower floor, plus the 4,900 square feet of living space above it. Vertex pros installed ½-inch Watts RadiantPEX+ tubing, in 300-foot loops, to the upstairs subfloor. A subcontractor drilled four 300-foot vertical boreholes to meet the need for 8 tons of geothermal cooling.