Eco Home Experience 2024

Eco Home Experience

This sustainable, architecturally designed home has been meticulously crafted with natural, non-toxic materials with health and well-being as the core focus.

The goal was to create a retreat-style oasis that would have as little impact on the environment as possible. As such, the house features smart window positioning to maintain a comfortable climate with minimal energy input, a focus on maximising thermal mass to help with heating/cooling efficiency, extensive insulation, a simple design that reduces the rate of heat exchange through a smaller surface area, open plan living for efficient heating and cross ventilation, the use of convection currents to redirect hot & cold air, rainwater collection, and a hybrid solar system that can provide for all of our requirements, while still supplying additional power to the community.

The end result is a home that can still provide the luxuries of comfort such as a hand-crafted sauna, outdoor spa, and even a ducted air conditioning system – and all of these features require minimal to no energy input from the grid because the power that is generated from the solar panels still exceeds the home’s requirements.

All materials were carefully selected to provide the best outcomes for the home, while ensuring minimal impact on the environment. The benefit of this is that natural timbers provide a pleasant and pure environment to live in, and the venetian plaster walls replace standard synthetic paints that are used in normal construction. The added benefit of this kind of approach is that the home is hypoallergenic, mould-resistant, and naturally termite resistant.

Sustainability Features

Years Open
2024
ENERGY AND WATER EFFICIENT FEATURES
    • Energy efficiency:
    • Efficient lighting
      Efficient appliances
      Energy monitoring
      Smart home features

    • Energy efficiency:
    • House and window positioning, central open plan, double glazing plus insulation, thermal mass polished concrete slab
    • Passive heating cooling:
    • Cross ventilation
      Passive solar designed home
      Thermal mass
    • Active heating cooling:
    • Ceiling fans

    • Active heating cooling:
    • Fire place and ducted aircon fully covered by solar energy generated
    • Water heating:
    • Instant gas
    • Water harvesting and saving features:
    • Rainwater storage - Above ground
      Stormwater management
      Low flow shower heads
      Low flow taps
    • Average water consumption per day:
    • Below average
    • Above ground rainwater storage Type:
    • Metal bushfire proof water tanks
    • Above ground rainwater storage Size
    • 11000L
    • Energy Efficient Lighting
    • LED lights throughout
      Natural daylight
      Skylight
      Tubular skylight
    • Window Protection:
    • Eaves
      Pelmets

    • Window Protection:
    • Large eaves, bushfire screens, heavy curtains, pelmet
SUSTAINABLE & RECYCLED MATERIALS
    • Recycled and reused materials:
    • Pallets
      Rocks/stone
      Timber
INSULATION SPECIFICATIONS
    • Insulation Type:
    • Under-roof
      Ceiling
    • Ceiling Type:
    • Insulation batts and MgO board
    • Ceiling Rating:
    • above R7.0 I assume
    • Under Roof Insulation Type:
    • Fire blanket
    • Under Roof Insulation Rating:
    • About 5 I assume
RENEWABLE ENERGY SPECIFICATIONS
    • All-Electric Home?
    • No
    • Renewable energy used:
    • Energy storage/battery
      Solar PV grid connect
    • Size of PV system:
    • 10 KW
    • Average Daily Energy Consumption:
    • Usually is 0.3 - 0.4 kW per hour on Tesla App
COSTS AND COST SAVINGS
    • Estimate of annual savings:
    • Hard to say
HOUSE DESIGN SPECIFICATIONS
    • House Size
    • 200 m2 ground floor and 150m2 attic
    • BAL Rating
    • BAL – 40: Increasing levels of ember attack and ignition of debris with a heat flux of up to 40kW/m2
    • Roof
    • Metal (Colorbond)
    • Wall Materials
    • Timbercrete
    • Window and Door Types
    • Casement
      Double glazing
      Sliding windows/doors
      Sun Tunnel/SolaTube
      Tilt and turn
    • Universal design accessability
    • Adaptive design
    • Universal Design Features
    • 80cm minimum door opening width
      Contrasting colours and material for vision impaired
      Minimum 110cm wide hallways
      Shower head on rail for various heights
      Window openings easily accessible
    • Number of bedrooms
    • 5
    • Number of bathrooms
    • 2
GARDEN AND WASTE REDUCTION
    • Garden / Outdoors
    • Composting
      Edible garden
      Permaculture
      Native plants
      Water wise plants
      Worm farm
    • Waste Reduction Practices:
    • Compost all food scraps
      Make jams/conserves
      Pickle and preserve food
      Recycle
      Repair
      Recycle coffee grounds from nearby cafe's
      Take own containers to the supermarket and for take away food
      Swap with friends and neighbours
      Waste free/reduced construction site
HEALTHY HOME FEATURES
    • Healthy home features
    • Cabinet design to minimise dust collection
      Carpet free - tiles/concrete/timber flooring throughout
      Chemical free cleaning products used
      Cross flow ventilation
      Lime render/wash
      Low VOC paints/sealer/varnish
      Natural fibre furnishings
      Natural light and ventilation
      Natural oil sealer/finishes
      VOC free paints/sealer/varnish
      Wax based sealer/finish

    • Healthy Home
    • Italian lime based Venetian plaster on the walls, polished concrete floor and wood, rocks
Location
Hazelbrook NSW 2779
    • Housing Type:
    • Standalone House
    • Project Type:
    • New Build
    • Builder
    • Owner builder
    • Designer
    • We designed it with architect Fara Madon

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