Sustainable House Day Urraween, QLD

 

The home was built in 1997 by a local builder and purchased by us in February 2004. It had been rather neglected, but we were prepared to make it ‘our house’ by planning sustainable carbon offset renovations over the coming years.   The house back is facing north – south, ideally for planning to use the sun’s energy in many ways.   The house consists of 3 bedrooms, combined kitchen/dining area and 2 lounges, one bathroom, separate toilet and laundry. The toilet is fitted with full and half flush options. One lounge has been renovated, ie from a garage to the existing room. The window is facing west – to make use of the winter sun we do not draw the vertical blinds but let the sun shine through onto the white tiles, warm up the room and heat up the tiles for the cooler time of the day.   The dining room area opens into our outdoor patio area facing east, which has a colour, bond roof built over a wooden frame. Ideal to sit underneath during wintertime with plenty of sunshine. A fold away blind to give shade is available if needed.   Two of our bedroom windows have rubber backed curtains as well as draw-down blinds for the summer time when the sun is coming through at round about 3pm.    The house is brick built and all of the outside walls have been insulated with a reflective lining during construction. The roof has been insulated with Cellulose fibre to meet R2 rating 2 years ago which has the affect that we do not need as much heating in winter and less cooling in summer.   We have a 3KW reverse cycle air conditioner which we use only during the hottest/coldest days during the year.   Converting the garage into a living room meant we built the actual garage in the back garden. The roof of the garage is used to collect the rain water and it is collected in the 500l water tank at the back of the garage. This water is mainly used for watering the vegie garden and replenishing the water of our small fishpond.     The garden was designed: With sustainabilty in mind most plants are water tolerant but still very pleasing to the eye the veggie garden was designed to the east to get the most sun we get all of our salads and other vegies when in season we get a good saving form the garden     The roof of the house is of white colourbond material and has a whirley whirley installed to keep the hot air moving underneath the roof.   In October last year we had a 300L solar hot water system and 1KW solar panels installed and found our electricity bill has now been reduced by two thirds.    To further reduce our electricity consumption we mainly use a bench top oven, which means we can cook a complete meal with one appliance only instead of using the ordinary stove and oven. At the same time it is a healthier way of cooking as fat in meat is dripping to the bottom of the oven.   To conserve water we have a front loader washing machine, which automatically adjusts water consumption to the load of washing. The next project is a large water tank in the garden to recycle the bathroom water on to the garden front and back.   To date we estimate we have a savings of about $1200-$1400 dollars a year this is our contribution for sustainbilty and climate change.