Exciting updates: Energy efficiency and going off gas guru Tim Forcey will be on-hand at Coburg Comfort House for the 1pm and 2:30pm tours. Katherine Sampson, Merri-bek’s Energy Transition Project Officer will be available to answer questions for all tours, as will representatives from Thermawood, our suppliers of our retrofit double glazing. Timo from TCK solar, installers of our solar PV and Sanden heat pump hot water system will be available for the 9:30am and 11am tours.
Our home is a typical suburban house built in 1910 and renovated in 2010. Since purchasing in February 2021 we have improved the thermal performance of the house by draughtproofing, replacing all the downlights to IC-4 rated lights, insulating the ceiling and retrofitting double glazing in all windows and doors. We changed both the shower heads to ultra low-flow shower heads and use tank water to water the garden. We have planted a native garden in the front yard.
In 2021 we converted the house to fully electric by adding solar, converting the instant gas to a heat pump hot water service, retrofitted the existing gas stove/electric oven with an induction stovetop, and augmented the ducted RCAC with a split system for the back half of the house.
Before insulating we removed the gas ducted heating system to improve our insulation coverage and hope to reclaim the space where the decomissioned gas fireplace resides soon. Our next big projects will involve depaving the concrete in the back yard and adding honeycomb blinds to improve the thermal performance of our house in winter.
Since going off gas we have net $0 in energy bills. We hope to add an EV soon, ideally one that will allow V2H or V2G, virtually eliminating the need to import energy from the grid as we export most of the energy our solar produces.
Our house shows that it is possible to continually improve older houses to be comfortable with low running costs. By visiting our house you can see how we created a unique retrofit to an induction stovetop while utilising our existing oven, what it looks like to use Thermawood to retrofit double glazing in both new and heritage wood windows, and hear the steps we’ve taken to take our home off-gas.
Representatives from Thermawood will be on-site to answer questions, as will energy efficiency experts from Merri-bek and My Efficient Electric Home.
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