Dave and Phil’s Place 2017

House Notes – Dave and Phil’s Place

Seven years ago we undertook a renovation of our 1969-built suburban home, to extend and to reduce our carbon footprint. Come and have a look around, and see how things are going now – the impact on our utility bills, the actual reduction in resource use, and the pros and cons of the choices we’ve made.

Financially, it’s a mixed bag and we’re happy to explore some of that with visitors – some alterations are great for the earth but don’t impact the hip pocket particularly (e.g. reducing bore watering), some come at a cost we think worthwhile (grey water) and others save money as well (Solar PV on the earliest tariff contract).

Features include:

– Grey-water recycling system, which recycles water from laundry and showers to a sub-soil irrigation system under the back lawn. This system has undergone a couple of iterations.
– We have a wide corner block and have removed all the lawn at the front of the block, replacing it with a large native garden and veggie patch with compost bins.
– 4kw solar PV system with 19 roof panels. We have data on display of power use and bills since we installed this.
– 5,000L rainwater tank, which feeds our laundry and toilets.
– Back deck with tilted roof which faces North and provides shade to the previously exposed North wall of our house.

– Bee Hive through Postcode Honey

We are keen to share with others our experience of retro-fitting sustainable improvements to a suburban home.

Join Switch your thinking and Transition Town Gosnells on a free guided bus tour exploring local environmentally progressive homes including this house. To book a spot on this tour click here.

Sustainability Features

Years Open
2015
2016
2017
ENERGY AND WATER EFFICIENT FEATURES
    • Energy efficiency:
    • Efficient lighting
    • Passive heating cooling:
    • Shading
    • Active heating cooling:
    • Ceiling fans
    • Water heating:
    • Solar hot water (flat panel)
    • Water harvesting and saving features:
    • Above ground storage
      Greywater system
      Low flow shower heads
      Drip irrigation
    • Above ground rainwater storage Type:
    • Rainwater Tank
    • Above ground rainwater storage Size
    • 5000L
RENEWABLE ENERGY SPECIFICATIONS
    • Energy star rating:
    • Unknown
    • Renewable energy used:
    • Solar PV grid connect
COSTS AND COST SAVINGS
    • Cost estimate of sustainable home/features:
    • $40,000
    • Estimate of annual savings:
    • Unknown
HOUSE DESIGN SPECIFICATIONS
    • House Size
    • 180 m2 approx (not actually known)
    • Number of bedrooms
    • 4
    • Number of bathrooms
    • 2
GARDEN AND WASTE REDUCTION
    • Garden / Outdoors
    • Bee Hive
    • Garden / Outdoors
    • Drip irrigation
      Water wise plants
      Edible garden
      Organic
      Composting
      Native plants
      Bee keeping

Location
Bull Creek WA 6149
    • Housing Type:
    • Standalone House
    • Project Type:
    • Renovation
      Retrofit
    • Builder
    • Not applicable

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