Engineer Omar Suárez builds the world's most efficient house

Omar Suárez, an industrial engineer from the University of Oviedo and founder of Sunthalpy, built a house in Asturias, Spain, that has been off the power grid for 6 years without burning anything. The system is based on low enthalpy, heat pumps and a superconductive microconcrete that heats and cools from the ceiling.

There is a house in Asturias that pays no electricity bill. No gas bill either. It has been like that for **6 years**, disconnected from the power grid, and it burns absolutely nothing to keep warm. Behind it is **Omar Suárez**, an industrial engineer from the University of Oviedo, inventor and founder of **Sunthalpy**, who after **22 years** working in automotive and refractory materials decided to apply what he knew about thermal conduction to housing.

## Low enthalpy: the temperature gap that changes everything

The key lies in a concept that sounds technical but is easy to grasp: enthalpy measures the energy carried by a fluid. The greater the temperature gap between what heats and what is being heated, the more energy is wasted. Low enthalpy seeks the opposite: moving heat with small differences, where heat pumps work far more comfortably.

Suárez has developed a **superconductive microconcrete** that conducts heat almost like iron. This material allows heat or cold to be carried across large surfaces at low temperature, without the spikes that drive up consumption. The house works as a thermal battery: the entire building stores and distributes heat, instead of relying on a boiler in bursts.

## From radiator to ceiling: why your head hurts in winter

A traditional radiator, Suárez says, is actually a convector: it heats the air, the air rises, accumulates at the top and dries out the environment. That explains that heavy-headed feeling in winter. True radiation heats surfaces and people, not the air.

His proposal is to heat and cool from the ceiling, as if you had the sun inside your home, with panels integrated into the plasterboard and ceiling. The **Sunthaldress** system hides the radiator within the construction. There is also a version for renovating existing homes without major works. And the photovoltaic panels are cooled, so they produce electricity and heat at the same time.

## The numbers: from €3,500 to €100 a year

The company's figures point to a **COP of 5 to 12**, meaning that for every unit of electricity consumed, 5 to 12 units of heat are moved. In an old house, the annual cost drops from around **€3,500** to around **€100**. The pipes come with a **50-year** warranty. Over a 25-year comparison against gas and aerothermal systems is where the invention claims to win by a landslide.

Sunthalpy holds **two patents valued at more than 50 million**. Patenting such an invention is neither cheap nor fast, and the founder himself describes it as part of the journey. His deeper reflection is uncomfortable: a company that sells energy has no interest in you saving it.

Caution: any decision to invest in energy efficiency should be checked with a qualified installer and with the specific figures for each home.