With energy costs rising and consumers becoming increasingly environmentally conscious, builders and renovators are looking for ways to save costs and ensure their own build is green.
Ask an Architect, the online building design, inspection and advice service, offers owners, builders and renovators some helpful advice that could not only save money but hopefully help save the planet. Here are their tips:
1. Quality based building inspections. One of the biggest trends in new homes and renovations is the introduction of quality based building inspections, which are aimed at ensuring homes with a six or more green star design will actually perform as expected. The six star building code rating only applies to the building fabric (floor/walls/roof) – how the owner lives in the home can bring the performance down substantially.
2. Site orientation. The first step in orientation is maximising the northern aspect, where exposure to the sun is best controlled. Eaves and pergolas can be precisely designed to block the summer sun, and still allow the desirable winter sunshine to penetrate. It is important to prioritise rooms based on access to views and solar penetration orientation. An open-plan kitchen and living area, for example, should have top position, while bedrooms or bathrooms require less daylight, as they are largely used for short periods of time, or at night.
3. Zoning. By zoning the home, unused areas can be closed off, and cooling and heating appliances can be designed for maximum efficiency and minimum use.
4. Additionally, Ask an Architect recommends the following:
- Insulate the ceiling
- Weather seal windows and doors
- Fit blinds, curtains or drapes
- Buy high star-rated appliances
- Install solar panels
- Replace single flush toilet cisterns with dual flush cisterns
- Upgrade your heating system to a more efficient design
- Put in a rain water tank
- Upgrade your hot water service
- Fit a grey-water diversion system
- Upgrade your windows using double glazing or other high-tech glass
Comments
Hi Olivia
In point 1 you refer to a “6 or more green star design”.
I’m afraid you have mixed up your terminology here. There is a national star rating system for homes. It is used in every state apart from NSW where the Basix system is used.
Green Star, on the other hand, is a rating used for communities, commercial buildings and apartment buildings – but not for individual dwellings. It is operated by the Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA) and is a voluntary rating system that has now certified 11 million sqm of built environment in Australia and is now working with 40 communities around the country. I am the Director Market Development for the GBCA and happy to answer any questions if you need to know more.
Hi Trudy. Thanks for your comment. I have asked Ask an Architect about it and they’ll get back to you shortly. Thanks, Olivia
Trudy,
Thanks for your pickup on the use of the term ‘green star’.
When writing I was using green star in a colloquial sense, noting that many people without a technical background will understand green star to have a positive environmental meaning.
However you are quite correct to note the possible confusion with the Green Star system in place for commercial/apartment buildings.
I’ll work with Olivia to amend the article.