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This home should be considered the minimum standards for any Superhome.Using a tried and proven method of combining a good thermal envelope, smart daylight design and solar to feed heat to the concrete slab and water cylinder, this setup is being used on most of today’s low energy homes.
Our basic but effective thermal envelope starts with thicker walls, 140mm stud, and a smart cladding system called Neopor which is 50mm of graphite injected EPS to give a total wall thickness of 210mm and R5.1. Thick roof insulation and recessed thermally broken aluminium windows with Low E, Argon filled double glazing completes a robust but affordable envelope.
A modest 3.6kW solar array atop the roof supplies just enough energy on a cloudy day to support the hot water cylinder and to heat the hydronic in-slab. These two ‘batteries’ then expend there heat overnight ready to be recharged the following day. This simple system enables free heat which equates to 80% of your power bill.
The heat is then circulated throughout the house by the ventilation heat exchange system which draws fresh air from the outside through a heat soaked air-to-air radiator and removes the warm stale air which heats the same radiator offering two and a half house air changes a day. The ventilation system keeps the air fresh and clean and also helps with any over heating in summer by bypassing the radiator.
To lessen the homes impact on its surroundings, we catch all the rain water from the roof, this is then used to irrigate the property and in the event of a storm, it will delay storm water discharging to the street. The landscaping is also at least 75% permeable to reduce site run off, and there are raised vegetable gardens, fruit bearing trees and natives to increase native ecology and onsite food production.
With this combination of thoughtful design and proven systems we have produced a very comfortable home, that is easy to live in, cheap to run and affordable to buy.
