The Smart Eco Queenslander 2021

House Notes – The Smart Eco Queenslander

The project demonstrates the ability to renovate a house from the 1920’s, to being a modern 8-star energy efficient home relevant to 2020’s.

From the outset, we engaged a multi-award winning architect, Gareth Cole who has over 40 years experience in the design and construction of passive solar homes. The brief was to modernise an old timber Queensland workers cottage life into an energy efficient passively designed, net zero family home.

Techniques and materials were selected to ensure this house considered low footprint in all stages from the building materials chosen and the construction techniques – to how it will perform as a low impact home  for its occupants.

The design of this renovation leveraged on the east west facing roof to maximise the solar PV generation potential of the site, and we installed 16.2kWp of Solar PV, and connected it to our sonnenBatterie, which includes 7.5kWh, and can be expandable to 15kWh.
This coupled with a Reclaim Heat Pump; Solar Analytics, and a range of smart intergrateable devices such as BigAss Fans ensures all appliances are low-energy and connected.

Sustainability Features

Years Open
2020
2021
ENERGY AND WATER EFFICIENT FEATURES
    • Energy efficiency:
    • Draught proofing
      Efficient lighting
      Energy monitoring
      Smart home features
    • Passive heating cooling:
    • Passive solar designed home
      Shading
    • Active heating cooling:
    • Ceiling fans
    • Water heating:
    • Hot water heat pump
    • Water harvesting and saving features:
    • Rainwater storage - Underground
      Low flow shower heads
      Low flow taps
    • Average water consumption per day:
    • 20
    • Underground rainwater storage type:
    • EcoSac
    • Underground rainwater storage Size:
    • 4000
    • Energy Efficient Lighting
    • LED lights throughout
    • Window Protection:
    • Awnings (external)
SUSTAINABLE & RECYCLED MATERIALS
    • Sustainable materials:
    • The front half of the house, was an existing 1920's workers cottage. We reused all of the hardwood frames, floor joists and trusses
INSULATION SPECIFICATIONS
    • Insulation Type:
    • Under-roof
      Ceiling
      Internal walls
      External walls
      Floor
    • Ceiling Type:
    • Bulk – glass wool
    • Ceiling Rating:
    • R2
    • Floor Type:
    • Hebel with added glasswool insulation
    • Floor Rating:
    • R2
    • Under Roof Insulation Type:
    • Insulated panels
    • Under Roof Insulation Rating:
    • R6
    • Internal Walls Insulation Type:
    • Bulk – glass wool
    • Internal Walls Insulation Rating:
    • R2
    • External Walls Rating:
    • R4
    • External Walls Type:
    • Wall detail achieves a R4.02 with double wall wrap and glasswool
RENEWABLE ENERGY SPECIFICATIONS
    • All-Electric Home?
    • No
    • Energy star rating:
    • tbc
    • Renewable energy used:
    • Solar PV grid connect
    • Size of PV system:
    • 12
    • Average Daily Energy Consumption:
    • 15
COSTS AND COST SAVINGS
    • Total cost of home when constructed:
    • 500,000
    • Cost estimate of sustainable home/features:
    • 50,000
    • Estimate of annual savings:
    • tba
HOUSE DESIGN SPECIFICATIONS
    • House Size
    • 220
    • BAL Rating
    • No BAL rating requirements at time of construction
    • Roof
    • Metal (Colorbond)
    • Wall Materials
    • Hebel blocks
      Insulated panels or blocks
    • Window and Door Types
    • Awning
      Double hung
      Sliding windows/doors
    • Universal Design Features
    • 80cm minimum door opening width
      Hobless showers
      Lever handles for doors (no knobs)
    • Number of bedrooms
    • 4
    • Number of bathrooms
    • 3
GARDEN AND WASTE REDUCTION
    • Garden / Outdoors
    • Local indigenous plants
HEALTHY HOME FEATURES
    • Healthy home features
    • Airtight house design
      Cross flow ventilation
      Indoor plants for air filtration
      Low VOC paints/sealer/varnish
Location
Albion QLD 4010
    • Housing Type:
    • Standalone House
    • Project Type:
    • Retrofit/addition
    • Builder
    • na
    • Designer
    • The Smart Eco Group

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