Wattle Home is a house for living in, connecting to, and respecting its surroundings. The goal was a sustainable, all-electric, energy efficient house that doesn't compromise on aesthetic, facilitates a low-waste lifestyle and connects with nature.
Our home was a challenging build on a tree'd rural sloping block with a BAL29 rating, and we learnt a lot along the way. Throughout, materiality was a focus, with a desire for local, ethical, recycled content and quality materials, and consideration of circularity at end of life .
We have efficient heat pump hot water, reverse-cycle air conditioning, induction cooking, solar, battery and EV, DC ceiling fans and water tanks for toilet flushing and irrigation. Our timber is FSC/PEFC certified or reclaimed, and internal finishes are low-VOC. Construction offcuts were used to build the ventilated roof canopy with vapour permeable barrier that will insure our well-insulated house breathes.
Whilst we haven't installed HRV initially, we have supplied power to future HRV locations and will install these if needed based on humidity and CO2 monitoring data.
Our western wall contains no windows and is a 140mm double stud with R5.4 insulation to protect from hot western suns. Our large north facing windows are shaded by eaves in summer, but allow winter sun to shine onto the tiled northern side of our living room to warm our home.
All windows are BINQ UPVC double-glazed. Whilst we haven't been in our home for long, we'd love to share our experience during design and construction and the final result.
Now, we are regenerating our 5400sqm block to support biodiversity and building our productive garden from salvaged items.
There are always trade offs, seldom is there a 'right' answer. We'd love to share what worked for us, and what we'd do differently with others considering renovating or building, so they can know what we wish we'd known. By sharing our experience we hope to inspire others to think deeply and realise their ambitions.
