Sustainability scorecard summary for our design

Sustainability scorecard results

Designing a sustainable home from first principles means combining lots of ideas into something that is so much different to a standard design.  Does the overall design make sense?  Is ...

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Planning permit application submitted

Planning permit application

Submitting the planning permit application was a significant milestone in our project development. Now we await feedback comments from the various Council reviewers.

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Aiming for a green home with an 8 star plus rating

8 star plus energy rating

Envelope please.  And tonight’s winning number is 8.1!  We’d just opened an email from David to discover our house designs had scored an 8 star plus energy rating. What does 8 ...

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Wireless sensor tag for monitoring temperature

Wireless sensor tags arrive

I couldn’t wait to open the package that recently arrived on our doorstep.  I’d been tracking its progress in the mail system for a few days.  My Wireless Sensor Tags ...

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Choosing the right insulation to reduce heat loss

Insulation choices

After sorting out the cladding options for our homes, we started to think about insulation.  What material should we choose to do the hard yakka of reducing heat flow through the ...

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Cladding defines the home's exterior

Cladding choices

Selecting suitable claddings for the finished homes is an important step. We will be using a combination of four materials chosen for their looks and sustainability.

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Heating the home with air conditioning

Goldilocks heating method

The more we investigated heating options, the more the experience reminded me of Goldilocks choosing a bowl of porridge.  Which method might be too hot? Which might be too cold?  Which ...

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Landscaping about to start near the back fence

Landscaping begins

Since the land near the back fence won't be disturbed too much during the house construction, we took the opportunity to start on the landscaping of this area. Putting in a variety of trees & shrubs gives them a head start on the rest of the garden.

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Using sustainability assessment tools to rate house performance

Sustainability assessment

As the planning permit documentation comes together, our thoughts turned to how best to share the sustainable design features with the Council personnel who will review the paperwork.  Not really ...

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Livable Housing Design guidelines

Livable housing design

Designing a sustainable home isn’t limited to ideas like passive heating from the sun, water conservation and reduced  energy use.  Being sustainable also means a dwelling that ages gracefully.  A home ...

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