Our place was the typical 1910 draughty, weatherboard, 3 bedroom, inner city Newcastle house. It has been transformed to a well insulated, comfortable dwelling. We have electrified all our appliances and power the house and 2 electric vehicles mostly off solar.
We have used the NatHERs rating tool to model the proposed changes to the dwelling. The changes that had the largest decrease in energy usage (and biggest increase in comfort) for the least cost have been adopted. Using this methodology the NatHers star rating has increased from 1.1 stars to 5.3 stars.
We have largely overcome poor orientation and the building practices of 115 years ago by sealing up gaps, insulating walls, floors and ceilings. The summer heat is kept out by external shading and we fit external clear acrylic window coverings and internal blinds in winter to retain keep the heat in.
The floorplan is typical of the era with all the rooms coming off a central doorway. We are able to use all the doors we have to physically zone the sections of the house we choose to heat or cool.
We use 3 x split system air conditioners and ceiling fans to push the heat and cool around the house.
A 10 kw solar system with 5 kwh battery is enough to power our home for the majority of the year. Any surplus solar is fed into our EVs by a solar aware charger. We generally self consume around 90% of our solar production.
