Retrofit 1980’s ‘Treehouse’ 2025

Retrofit 1980’s ‘Treehouse’

Our home in Northern NSW was built in 1986 in beautiful surrounds but without consideration for sustainability, including few build / design features to promote thermal and energy performance. When we moved in in 2006 the house was incredibly hot in summer, cold in winter, and energy bills were high. We’ve worked to improve the sustainability features of the home since, especially when I changed careers to become an accredited Home Energy Advisor and Residential Scorecard Assessor. You could say I “cut my teeth” on this house, learning as I went on each deep dive into ways to improve a home’s thermal performance and energy efficiency.

The home is now quite transformed, with a substantial mix of low cost DIY improvements to the building shell (eg external shading devices, ventilation, window coverings and insulation), and the more high-tech upgrades to renewable energy generation, efficient heat pump technology and battery storage. The home is now considerably more comfortable to live in and its energy costs have dropped considerably, effectively ‘paying back’ the initial capital costs of the more costly technological features.

Annual savings in the home’s running costs are estimated at $3200 per year, and the house has improved from an initial 2.8 star energy rating (Scorecard) to now being rated at 10 Stars, with a net carbon footprint of minus 3.9 tonnes of CO2e.