Green living
12:00a.m. 5th September 2008
The Stockland sustainable house at Noosaville. Photo: Geoff Potter/N21552
It looks a million bucks, and that’s exactly what it’s worth in dollar terms.
But the worth of this Noosaville home in environmental terms is much more than that.
This is the Sunshine Coast’s first sustainable demonstration house, complete with only the greenest of bells and whistles.
And as far as Queensland Housing Minister Robert Schwarten is concerned, it’s also the way of the future.
“I think people are getting on board,” the minister said at the launch of the home yesterday.
“This is about convincing industry a sustainable home is possible, practical and a must for the future.”
He said while the cost of the home put it outside the reach of many people, homeowners could adapt certain low-cost features such as louvres in their own designs.
“They have an enormous function in ventilation of a house and ensure you don’t have to rely on air conditioning,” he said.
Other key features of the home include high windows (for natural light and to let hot air escape), Evergreen window tinting, low-pollutant paint, four-star rated appliances throughout and 10,000 litre underground water tanks.
The home was built through a partnership with Stockland, Sunshine Coast Council and the State Government, which contributed $150,000 towards research for the project.
Stockland’s regional manager Nicholas Wellwood said his staff were proud to be involved in the environmentally friendly project.
“Even if customers only take away a couple of things when they’re building a new home or renovating an existing home will be a great first step in the education process,” he said.
The home will be open to the public seven days a week from this weekend.
> Hefty price for Coast carbon reduction scheme
Recent Comments
How does this one compare to that one and can this new house really claim to be the first?
To answer your question jboast, Brahminy House was built for $129,000 and actually looked like a "normal" house, proving that function and beauty CAN be combined.
Check out http://www.ballarat.edu.au/projects/ensu... for full details.
And before that was Terry and Liesel Harper’s house in Eumundi that was sponsored as a display house for several months by Maroochy Council, and opened by then Environment Minister Rod Welford.
While other councils were putting a lot of environmental spin out there, our Maroochy Council was busy actually doing it.
Unlike Noosaplayer, I think it is an attractive house, in the uniquely Sunshine Coast style.
To answer Mr Boast, better does not have to cost more – that is a myth often put around by uninformed people in the building industry. A person planning to build a brick veneer home can easily switch to Hebel panels instead at no cost. And many other initiatives such as grey water reuse, tanks and solar hot water depend on whether you are just looking at up-front costs, or are prepared to also consider operational costs of the next few years.
You can check out other such homes on Sustainable House Day Sunday 14/9 with locations (none on the SSC amazingly) at www.sustainablehouseday.com
You can even see online my new 6+ star house down here in cold Harrison…
Anyway I guess that answers a couple of questions. Firstly Harper House and then Brahminy House were the first of these types of homes. And secondly, yes energy efficient homes can look remarkably "normal" if there is such a thing in house design. Maybe "traditional" is the right word :)
How do i know - i work for the architectural practice that designed the place! And we develop normal, everyday houses by these principles on a regular basis.
Its funny, clients always demand air conditioning and once they move in they rarely have a need to use it!! Think smart, not expensive!
The designer of Brahminy house is also the current president of the sunshine coast UDIA. Many people dont seem to realise this!
To answer your questions about why non chemical treated products are more expensive, its usually because its more labour intensive because more of the work has to be done by hand.
We place emphasis on using everyday traditional building materials in innnovative ways, to keep costs down and environmental performance up.
Typically the filter is place either laminated between two sheets (Pilkinton call this ComfortPlus) or on one of the inside faces of double glazing (so it is protected from scratching.
The filter allows the daylight part of the light spectrum through but resists UV (the short-wave end) and Infrared (the long wave end). Blocking UV is good because if you have a ton of north facing glass you also have a lot of potential for furnitire fading. Blocking IR (heat) is good because in summer it resists heat from outside seeping into the house, and in winter from seeping out.
In hotter climates a colour also filters out some of the visible light to reduce glare. Different colours have different impacts on the view through them, and on the external appearance of the house.
Down south we want clear, for maximum light penetration. The light comes in, warms stuff up and re-radiates as heat.
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