Sunlight coming through the northern windows and hitting the thermal mass.

Winter sunshine benefits

A few cold, but sunny, days allowed our home to show off what it can do with sunlight. Light streaming through the large north facing windows quickly warmed the house in daytime. Solar panels produced more than enough electricity to supply our all-electric home's needs.

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Summer solar means peak production from the north and south arrays

Summer solar lessons

Summer solar means maximum production from the panels. With great power comes great responsibility so there were lessons to be learned in how to best use the electricity generated. The most important lesson I learned was to move power consumption to daylight hours whenever possible.

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Finished backyard landscaping with the fence panel feature

Backyard blitz for number 1

Landscaping the backyard of our first home with a simple, but effective, design turned the area into an inviting space.

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Thermal mass in living room heated by sunlight

Living with thermal mass

Learning how to help the passive solar design features keep us warm in Winter is a useful exercise. Sunlight is all we need on clear, cold days. When it's cloudy, we use the heat pump to stop the concrete slab thermal mass cooling too much.

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Finished landscaping of Unit 1 front garden

Landscaping makes a difference

After the hot weather and other project priorities conspiring against us, it was a pleasure to finally start on landscaping the front garden of Unit 1. There are three main elements to the garden - crazy paving slate steps, a found object sculpture within a ring of railway sleepers and an indigenous bushland theme.

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Good progress on Unit 2 with walls wrapped

Progress on three units

While looking around our worksite recently, I took the opportunity to pause and look at the big picture.  We’ve reached that exciting point where something is happening on all three ...

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Reclaimed timber offcuts are an ideal material for deck screen

Timber offcuts are useful

Building the deck for Unit 1 from sustainable decking materials was a requirement. Creating an artful privacy screen from reclaimed timber offcuts was the icing on the cake. The process highlighted what can be achieved with a commitment to sustainable building practices.

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