Piano House 2020

House Notes – Piano House

The brief was to create a home for a professional couple with 3 bedrooms and two family areas on a small site while still retaining generous outdoor space. The home needed to be adaptable; a work environment during the day and a relaxing, spacious home where the couple could enjoy their music and art, relax and entertain in a modern contemporary environment, one that required minimal amount of mechanical heating and cooling.

TS4 Living’s approach was unique for the site that faces 45° west of north. We created living areas that are warmed with northern winter sun and cooled with natural ventilation for almost 300 days of the year without any need for heating or cooling. While the home has no shading to any windows the use of advanced glass in some of the windows has significantly reduced solar gains during the summer months. The design elements and attention to detail during construction has resulted in a blower door test result of 5.1ACH@50pa or less than one third the air changes for typical Australian residential construction.

The high quality 6.4kW solar panel array creates free hot water even in the middle of winter while still exporting energy to the grid; essentially the home generates more energy than it consumes making it carbon positive. Combined with quality LED lighting and the latest in energy efficient appliances they overall energy consumption for the home is significantly less than our clients have been used to in their past home.

The final result is a home filled with light that is warm during the winter months and cool in the summer with practicable and functional spaces that adapt to both professional and personal life.

Built by Aria Homes

This house achieved a NatHERS rating of 8.1 stars using NatHERS accredited software.

Find out how the star ratings work on the Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme (NatHERS) website.