Our house is an old Victorian weatherboard house with a separate brick building which was originally a dairy. We have joined the two together in order to convert the dairy into a kitchen and living area. This is now called the foyer, but we still call the kitchen/dining ‘the dairy’. Our home is surrounded by gardens full of fruit, nuts, berries, vegetables and natives.
Our house is still a work in progress. Most of the work is complete, but there are a few more things still to be done, such as a bit more draft-proofing and the installation of all the curtains.
Our home is Victorian, so our choices of sustainability features is limited to some extent. For instance, it would not be suitable to install PVC window frames. Our only building project, the foyer, had to fit in with the house to be approved, so simple weatherboards were the best option.
Our purpose in developing our house into a sustainable home was to do it in a way that could be replicated by anyone. We haven’t spent excessive amounts of money in making our home more sustainable. The solar panels and solar hot water pay for themselves. The only ‘expensive’ item in our home is the Solar Thermal heating system, which will keep our air clean, provide significant heat during winter and make our house bearable on those hot summer days by purging out hot air.
We used as many recycled materials as we could in building our home. Doors, decking, floors, windows, light-fittings and furniture are primarily recycled. Even our insulation is partially made from recycled mattresses and polystyrene boxes.
Design:
We did all the design ourselves and did a significant amount of the work on the house ourselves.
Sustainable Elements of the House:
Garden:
Our garden is a developing food forest. We have planted over 75 fruit trees, including nuts and berries. This includes a hedge made of hazelnuts and feijoias, seven heritage apple trees, pears, stone fruit, citrus and many other trees. We have semi-formal vegetable beds in the back garden. Any garden edging used has been made of recycled materials.
Many of our trees are still young, but we are looking forward to our first significant harvest this summer.
Water harvesting:
We have three tanks, with a total capacity of 7,700 litres. We may increase our capacity when our green loan is approved. Our tanks are fed by a closed system, meaning that every downpipe in the property leads to a tank (where possible – one is not). The water runs from the gutters into the closed system and then finds its own level within the system. The water tanks are at a level lower than the gutters, so that the water then falls into the tank as it rains. The first tank is connected to another closed system into which the water from the sheds is collected and then feeds into the second tank.
At this stage, the tanks are not connected to the house, as our young garden needs all the help it can get over summer.
Most of our plants are watered using drip systems. One small area is fed by mains water, using Netafim pressure compensating drip tubes. The other drip systems used are weeping hoses made of recycled tyres (the most common of these is ‘Aquapore’). These are very suitable for gravity fed systems (drip tubes will not produce an even flow unless there is significant pressure), such as water flowing from a water tank.
Grey water systems:
We have two grey water systems:
1. Shower water is fed into a ‘GreyMate’ grey water system with a submersible pump. Water is pumped into the vegetable beds in the back garden and also into some of the front beds. Unfortunately, the bath and basin water could not be connected to the system.
2. Laundry water is fed into a home made grey water system. The water first goes into a surge tank, which is a recycled sink fitted outside the laundry wall. Then it is fed into a bath filled with scoria and reeds. This cleans the water before it then travels along a 50mm pipe, which leads to a ‘bog garden’ where the water is released through small holes in the pipe. This is basically an underwater stream filled with more scoria. We have put in this area plants which need quite a bit of water and which grow well in laundry wastewater.
Recycled Materials:
We have made extensive use of recycled materials in building our home, including:
• All new doors and windows.
• Lining boards used to line the study and foyer.
• Our kitchen, laundry and bathroom cupboards.
• Recycled timber has been used in the veranda, deck, kitchen doors and kitchen benchtop.
• Almost all our new light-fittings.
• Most of the built-in robes and cupboards.
These recycled goods fit with the character of the home and they are also a sustainable way to source building materials. They are also cheaper, which is nice.
Most of the new external windows and doors are made of laminated glass, which has good thermal properties. We are currently assessing our options in relation to secondary glazing for the windows/doors which do not have thermally-lined curtains.
The Foyer:
The foyer was built to connect the main house with the dairy. It is designed to capture as much sun as possible during the winter and to be well protected in summer. We have installed two double-glazed roof-windows. These windows are openable, allowing us to vent out hot air in summer. They also have blinds, allowing us to block the sun. The front of the foyer is primarily glass. This captures valuable morning sun in winter but is not exposed to the hot afternoon summer sun. We have planted a deciduous fig to protect this area from the sun, however it is taking too long to grow, so we are planning to install a shadecloth before this summer.
In the foyer, we have left some soil sections from the ‘outside’ garden (the foyer was once outside). Plants get plenty of sunshine in there and grow quite well. The also help to clean the air.
Curtains:
We have installed thermally-lined curtains over most windows in the house. The curtains vary but those in the master bedroom and living room are made of natural raw linen. All curtains are covered with pelmets or installed close to the ceiling to ensure that they function effectively.
Note – we are still waiting for the linen curtains to be produced, but they should be installed in time for the Sustainable House Day.
Solar Power:
We have a 1.1kw PV system. These are amorphous panels, which do take up more space than the standard panels, but get a significantly better return on cloudy days. We have purchased a larger inverter, with a view to being able to add to the array at a later date.
Solar Hot Water:
Our solar hot water system consists of evacuated tubes connected to a gas booster tank. This system is very effective. It hardly needs boosting and provides very hot water for our family.
Insulation:
When we purchased our house the external walls were not insulated and the roof had fibreglass insulation with a rating of about 2.5. We topped this up with R2 polyester batts (these are made primarily of recycled soft-drink bottles). These polyester batts not only improve the performance of our home, but they also protect the fibreglass batts enabling them to last longer.
We have had to replace most of the weatherboards in our home and when we have done so, we have taken the opportunity to install sisalation and insulation. So now, about 80% of our external walls are well insulated.
Draft-proofing:
We have done considerable work draft-proofing our home. Our new doors are very well sealed and don’t have any need for draught-proofing. We have installed door seals where required and have installed foam draft-proofing on our ‘leaky’ front door.
The front of the house had steel-framed windows, which allowed considerable heat to escape. We replaced these with timber windows which also suit the house much better.
The front dairy door has been turned into a ranch door, with the bottom half of the door fixed to the wall and completely draft-proofed. The top half can be opened to improve air-flow in summer. We have fixed most of the gaps in the brickwork (but still have a bit more to do).
The fireplaces have been covered with timber and foam in order to reduce heat loss via the fireplaces.
Many vents have been blocked up (but there are a couple that are yet to be done).
Floors:
Our original floors are Baltic pine. In order to protect us from under-floor drafts, we have covered all the floors with another ‘layer’ (except where we have concrete floors). The bedrooms are carpeted with pure wool carpet. The bathroom and toilet are tiled. Our living rooms and hallway floors are hand-made timber parquetry panels made of recycled fence palings on a plywood base. These panels are very thick and well sealed, allowing no cool air to rise from underneath.
Solar Thermal Heating System:
Our home has a few ‘conventional’ sources of heat:
1. We do have a central heating system, however it is not used very often (probably a total of 2 hours in a week).
2. We have a small gas heater in the main lounge room.
3. In the study and the dairy, we have installed econo-heaters. These are highly efficient heaters made of simple heating coils embedded in a ceramic panel. They are placed against a wall and can be painted if required. The heaters are 260 and 425 watts respectively. These units are not extremely powerful, but certainly produce more heat per watt than a conventional heater.
We have recently had two solar thermal heating systems installed. These are the Solar Venti units. These units have solar collectors which capture and amplify the heat from the sun and then pump it into the house. The air produced by the Solar Venti is extremely dry, so it acts to dehumidify the air in the house, reducing condensation. The dehumidification of the air helps to remove the chilly feeling in winter and also enables existing heating systems to act more efficiently at night.
The system only works in the day when the sun is shining. However, our house has enough thermal mass (see below) to store a significant amount of this heat, making the house warmer at night.
The Solar Venti also has two cooling functions:
• An extraction fan, which pumps out heat during hot summer days.
• A night-cooling mode, which enables the unit to pump into the house fresh air when the temperature outside is cooler than inside.
Thermal Mass:
Our house has two brick fireplaces, which provide good thermal mass. By enclosing the dairy and making it part of the house, we have added to the internal thermal mass of the dwelling. The concrete floor in the dairy and foyer also adds to the heat-retaining ability of the property.
We have also added extra thermal mass in the form of water (which is the most effective form of solar mass available). We have built bulkheads over cupboards containing water bottles. The return air has also been filled with many water bottles, though not too many as to prevent effective use of the heating system. These are hidden, but are very effective. Under the deck in the foyer is a considerable amount of water bottles, which provide additional thermal mass.
(August 2009) (
