Sustainable House Day, Metung, Victoria

This award winning house was built 4 years ago. The house was designed to look like a normal house using off the shelf technology to achieve it’s energy efficiency.

It won a HIA and a Master Builders Award for best sustainable house

Water Harvesting
2 x 22,00 litre and 1 x 4,500 litre above ground tanks
A Rainbank controller feeds water from the tanks. When the level in the tanks falls too low it automatically switches over to mains.
Grey and black water fed into a worm farm. The waste water (which is nearly clear)  from the worm farm is pumped to a 200 square metre sub-surface irrigation area under the orchard

External walls
Weather board with sarking and R2.5 Polyester insulation

Internal walls
Plaster

Roof
Light colourbond, 34 degree pitch, with wrap and R3.5 insulation.
Attic ladder , walkway and lighting fitted

Floor
R3.0 insulated suspended floor with heavy ceramic tiles to provide thermal mass. The exterior decks are made with Modwood, which is recycled plastic and timber shavings extruded into a deck board.
The carpets are pure wool to eliminate the possibility of fumes from artificial fibres

Window treatments
Single glazed timber windows and doors. Euro-track integrated pelmets and curtain tracks support heavy curtains that provide good heat retention in winter.
Eaves and a battened pergola prevent the ingress of summer sun.

Apart from the family room there are no windows on the east or west which minimises heating in summer

Heating & Cooling
Passive cooling is provided by very effective cross-flow ventilation. Ceiling fans provide an extra boost. Large windows and glass doors on the north side provide extremely effective passive solar gains in winter. On a typical sunny winter's day it can be 8 degrees outside and 26 degrees inside with out any heaters on.
Additional heating is provided by a pellet fire which is fed with pellets of compressed sawdust- a by-product of saw mills.
A traditional wood-fire is in the dining room. It is fed by fallen timber harvested from the property
The building is divided into many zones to minimise heating requirements.
South-North cross flow ventilation is a feature throughout the entire house as well as in the individual zones.

Water Heating
Solar hot water with electric boost. It is a Dux  system

Appliances
Dual flush toilets, water saving shower heads, 900 mm cooker with dual oven.  A 300mm oven for small cooking and a rarely used 600mm oven for larger jobs. 4 x 9W CFL down lights provide task lighting for the kitchen

Other
Dry riverbed to channel excess water into a dam.
Hardy natives planted .
Triple compartment under bench bin in the kitchen separates, worm food, recyclables and general waste.
The building is oriented to true solar north to maximise the passive solar qualities.