“Clearwind” is an all-electric family home built under a pre-existing hayshed. The huge roof confers advantages in fire protection, rain catchment and it is like living under a giant shady umbrella. The roof has been treated with Thermoshield, an albedo ceramic treatment which keeps the interior of the house at least 10 degrees cooler in summer.
The property is self-sufficient in water with 4 rainfed dams, 2 x 25,000 litre rainwater tanks at the house and 2 x 35,000 litre tanks for fire-fighting water.
The living area has secondary glazed windows and French doors. We have treated the draughts and installed a reversible fan (Big Ass) and pelmets. Blinds and heavily-backed drapes help to retain warm / cool air.
The woodstove is fuelled by fallen wood from the property and heats the water, dries the clothes, warms the airspace in the living areas as well as providing a generous cooktop in winter. In summer a solar system heats the water.
We have 26 solar panels and an 11 kWh battery making us virtually self-sufficient in electricity, including about 95% of the power needed for our 2021 Hyundai all-electric Ioniq. It also makes us impervious to electricity blackouts.
We have a composting toilet that enables all human “waste” to be processed through our 6 square metre worm-farm and returned to the soil in the orchard. Once a year we make hot compost out of the “waste” vegetation from the gardens. So good you could almost eat it!
The timber of the sitting room floor was cut from the property and was laid by Win.
In the Black Saturday bushfire, we lost all our nine sheds. The following winter, with the help of friends and family, we built an 8 x 40 metre rammed earth shed, with the materials for the walls being sourced from the property.
We are largely self-sufficient in vegetables and fruit and produce our own eggs and honey.
For 25 years we have run a business collecting, processing and selling seed of indigenous vegetation for reveg projects.
