Magic Sun Room 2015

House Notes – Magic Sun Room

The Magic Sun Room is built on the north side of our house. With sliding doors between the living and sun room and the curtains, we control the temperature in the living area. Windows throughout the house are double glazed. The external walls are called “Ozwall”, consisting of some fibrous/gypsum panels filled with concrete. On the outside the walls are battened out with 35 mm timber and 45 mm, rendered foam.

This system is called “Reversed Brick Veneer”, thermal mass is on the inside and insulation on the outside.

Internal walls are a “Durra” product, made of compact straw with an air cap and covered with Gyprock. It is an excellent sound and temperature insulator.

There are no windows on the west and east side of the house for two reasons:

– there will be another house close on either side (every single building lot and house in our village is orientated towards the sun).

– the west side can get extremely hot at the end of the day (this is the reason for having the carport on that side). West and east is also where the cold weather comes from, this is also the reason for fewer windows on the south.

Roof insulation is air cell under corrugated iron and R3.5 bats in the ceiling. On the roof we have 2.5Kw PV panels and a solar hot water system.

We have two rainwater tanks with a total capacity of 30,000 litres and an emergency back-up of mains water. The garden requires minimal watering. Grapevines on pergolas shade the summer sun and let the winter sun in.