Sustainability Links

From this thread
viewtopic.php?f=38&t=51148&p=790980#p790980
in the Owner Builder section I have copied a few links for those of you like me who are interested in Sustainable and Universal Design.
From Steves post - Designing and building a sustainable house
http://www.yourhome.gov.au/technical/index.html
An excellent series of downloadable pdfs

Also one I picked up about Universal Design - the long term implications by making a house more adaptable recently linked to an article from the weekend Home supplement in the Telegraph on Saturday.
http://www.landcom.com.au/content/publi ... lines.aspx

A good ( as in simplest ) rainfall calculator for finding out how much water you can collect from your roof in one month ( or year ) in your area.
http://stratco.com.au/products/rainwate ... rtanks.asp
Just type in your roof area , punch in your postcode and voila. Edited 11/02/13
Thanks to Bashworth ( again )

Here is an almost as good calculator to find out which size tank best suits your needs according to your postcode , catchment roof area and daily use.
http://tankulator.ata.org.au/index.php
Added 10/11/12

And if you can't find the plans to your house or can't work out the size of your roof by any other means to use the calculator above, use this handy Google tool
http://www.mapdevelopers.com/area_finder.php
Added 10/11/12

http://www.google.com.au/url?q=http://w ... 59ZoG2mkNQ
An excellent ROI calculator spreadsheet for solar panels
Click the link above to download it. Added 07/10/13

One of the better charts I've come across comparing the old incandescent and halogen with newer ones like CFLs etc with regards to wattage and lumens output.
http://lighting.build.com.au/globe-comparison-guide

I've taken the link in FuManchus signature about the sustainable Mandurah home and plonked it here.
http://www.sustainablemandurah.com.au/

A good article for some of the historical aspects behind passive design with a few good links as well
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passive_house

A good calculator or guide to working out the R-values for wall and roof insulation when you are designing a house to lower your energy costs.
http://www.ecowho.com/tools/r_value_calculator.php

New energy ratings to come into effect sometime this year ( they say May but ... )
http://www.climatechange.gov.au/what-yo ... homes.aspx
http://www.nathers.gov.au/contacts.html added 22/02/2012

From a post by " Tippy Toes " comes a link to an excellent eaves calculator.
http://www.ecowho.com/tools/passive_sol ... ulator.php added 13/08/2012

A good link for determining the partial and total R-values for various wall types - BV, weatherboard clad etc.
http://www.google.com.au/url?q=http://o ... NslLxFHhLQ
added 12/09/2012

An indicator or calculator from the BOM giving you wind direction for your city by month or annually. Very handy if you are trying to work out where to put your windows to catch those cooling summer breezes.
http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/averages/ ... _map.shtml

Pinched from secur_ed's post in the Building a New House forum in this post
House Orientation - Cool house in summer, warm in winter
viewtopic.php?f=31&t=55057&start=280
added 08/10/2012

How remiss of me not to link to Brian Ashworths ( bashworth on these forums ) excellent site for all things building...
Not only does it have excellent eco links like sustainability and solar design etc but a lot more about building in general.
He is a civil engineer by trade who mainly worked in the water industry and knows his stuff as they say.
http://www.anewhouse.com.au/
Added 11/10/2012

Here is a good calculator regarding your lighting energy efficiency as per the BCA in an Excel spreadsheet format. This is so you don't go over the watts per sq m.
How many watts per square metre (W/sqm) under BCA guidelines?
The main thing you need to be aware of is that as of May 2011, you will only be allowed:

5 watts per square metre (5W/sqm) of lighting indoors
4 watts per square metre (4W/sqm) of lighting in outdoor areas (including verandahs)
3 watts per square metre (3W/sqm) of lighting in garages
Download the calculator from here...
http://www.abcb.gov.au/major-initiative ... calculator
This page also has a few other pertinent points on this subject.
http://www.build.com.au/lighting/lighti ... strictions.
Added 21/11/12

A good calculator that gives you the azimuth of the sun for your area at various times of the day.
http://www.sunposition.info/sunposition ... ations.php
Added 10/01/13

A similar calculator that gives good charts for sun position , elevations etc.
http://www.gaisma.com/en/location/sydney-au.html
To find out the info for your city just click on "Australia" in this line
Sydney, Australia - Sunrise, sunset, dawn and dusk times, table which will take you to a list of available towns and cities you can choose from.
Added 12/01/13

A pretty good summary of what to look for in solar panels and inverters.
http://www.solarmarket.com.au/tips/choosing_components/
Added 05/03/13

Another good link for buying a block of land with the best site orientation and solar access from a post Liliana made in this thread here
viewtopic.php?f=31&t=33594&p=1064562&sid=34ca844d04f218ed9fcd957f656a76ec#p1064562
http://www.kbhomes.com.au/files/pages/P ... he_sun.pdf
Added 22/08/13

A good link if you are interested in working out your gutters and downpipes regarding flow etc. All to the national Plumbing Code too. These are for downpipes, eaves gutters, box gutters and pipe sizes.
http://www.roof-gutter-design.com.au/index.html
Added 01/10/13

Here is a link to a pdf I had a look at recently regarding rainwater tanks and harvesting the water. Quite a comprehensive read and covers a lot of material.
Some excellent data on Australian Cities, their rainfall and a chart regarding roof size and how much water you can collect.
http://www.google.com.au/url?q=http://w ... UWdJ50P1mQ
Added 07/03/14

Another calculator from the excellent ecowho website ( they have a lot more interesting stuff there too ) that I pinched from mwccl's post regarding eaves calculations.
http://www.ecowho.com/tools/passive_sol ... ulator.php
Added 20/03/14

A good calculator that forum member ddaroch has found regarding the best solar orientation for SHW and PV systems.
http://solarelectricityhandbook.com/sol ... iance.html
Added 01/04/15 ( and no, despite the fact this was added on April Fools day it won't make your computer explode if you click on that link ).

Stewie

Good links Stewie.

Steve

I've got a few more hidden away too that I should dig up.
By the way I downloaded all those pdfs from your link and had a good read a couple of weeks ago.
Excellent articles.

Stewie

It is a great manual, I just wish such things were requirements in the BCA rather than leaving it up to peoples discretion to make use of such basic design improvements. Wheels of change may just be too slow for us I think.

Steve

Yes, until they make these features compulsory rather than optional , our resource consumption is going to be reasonably high for a fair while.
I also think that for a growing number of people though, smarter design regarding sustainability is starting to become more mainstream than the exception.
A much higher proportion of my new clients already have a basic understanding about passive solar design and better water usage than only a couple of years ago.
With the increase in the price of gas, electricity and water plus state and government regulations like BASIX , I would say our homes will be a lot more " green" ( for lack of a better word ) in the not too distant future.

Stewie

Then there's the one below in my sig

I missed that one Fu so I clicked on it and had a read.
Excellent article.
Hope you don't mind but I added the link to the list at the top.

Stewie

New energy ratings to come into effect sometime this year ( they say May but ... )
http://www.climatechange.gov.au/what-yo ... homes.aspx
http://www.nathers.gov.au/contacts.html

Stewie

In a similar vein now that the Carbon Tax is upon us and for those that don't know a whole lot about it ( like me ) and it's implications here is a useful link
http://www.carbontax.net.au/

I'm sure there are a lot more.
The big solar gathering array in spain is certainly impressive and similar to what was mooted here in ( South ) Australia a few years ago.
Why we lag behind in this field of research astounds me at times.
I was aware that we had a large consumption of energy and water here per capita but did not realise we had such a huge carbon footprint ( stands to reason though I guess ).
If anyone else has a worthwhile and informative link let me know or post it up here.

Stewie

Would be good to make this topic a 'sticky'. How do we make that happen???

You just need to let one of Forum Support know..

Done BTW.

Thank-you Dee!

All l get is a page for insurance and banking!

You're right ! The cheeky buggers have removed the calculator and the link I posted takes you straight to their corporate home page.
I'll find another and post that up here.

Stewie

Hi Stewie,

I am still only getting a banking & insurance link. I refreshed the page but it is still the same. What do you get?

No, forget that link it will just take you to the same banking page.
Shame because it was the best roof area/rainwater calculator for Australia that I have found.

Stewie

Check out Josh Byrnes latest project.
His credentials are well respected. Now he is out to prove a 10star home can be built as easily as any other regular inefficient home.
http://joshshouse.com.au/about-the-project/josh-byrne/

How about: http://stratco.com.au/products/rainwate ... rtanks.asp

Thanks Brian, I've added your link to the sticky.

Stewie

I get a page "not found" notice.

You only need to go to the BOM or Weatherzone sites to see the average rainfall stats and then multiply the roof area harvested by the average annual figure and then multiply by the anticipated yield %. Note that such calculations are variable for obvious reasons.