Browse Forums Building A New House 1 May 30, 2010 9:17 pm Our house is almost completed (around a week away) and the last few times we've visited the house at night (around 10 degrees or less outside temp), the house is warm or close to. How many people, if any don't have heating in their house? We have double glazed windows, the house orientation is spot on and we have insulation in the roof and walls (brick veneer). We planned to arrange our own heating and cooling after handover. Has anyone kept it like this? Greg Our house thread: https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=18335 Re: No heating or cooling but the house is comfortable? 2May 30, 2010 9:21 pm Our house has been designed for solar passivity - we shouldn't have to heat or cool it. We also notice when visiting that the temp already stays absolutely ideal no matter what the temp outside. It is wonderful!! How it stands up when we're living in it is yet to be determined. Given the right design there should really be no ned for heating or cooling. Depending on the climate, also. We've installed evaporative aircon just in case for those hot adelaide summers when you get a week or more of >40 degrees. Anything short of that and we shouldn't need to use it. We have NO heating in the house Re: No heating or cooling but the house is comfortable? 3May 30, 2010 10:24 pm I think it would be fantastic to have a house like that, just imagine how much money you would save on energy costs! Personally, I would move in and live there for a while before installing heating or cooling and then decide what your needs are Blog: http://bluemistkids.blogspot.com "Never be afraid to try something new. Remember, amateurs built the ark, and professionals built the Titanic." Re: No heating or cooling but the house is comfortable? 4May 30, 2010 10:59 pm GSK Our house is almost completed (around a week away) and the last few times we've visited the house at night (around 10 degrees or less outside temp), the house is warm or close to. How many people, if any don't have heating in their house? We have double glazed windows, the house orientation is spot on and we have insulation in the roof and walls (brick veneer). We planned to arrange our own heating and cooling after handover. Has anyone kept it like this? Greg Can I ask if you also Double or Triple Glazed the Front Door or the Rear Laundry door (if they have glass in them)???? I ask because we also Double glazed every window in the house (even the window in my garage ) and also have R2.0 batts in all external and also interenal walls, and R4.0 batts in the roof including over the garage. We have asked for a Bonaire 5 star heater but do not have air con yet (doing after handover) Im curious to whether i will lose any heat out of the front door and laundry door ? Make me wonder whether i needed the heater yet ??? We're building The Albany 330E with Casa Design & Construction via National Builders Group See how we are going here: https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=32694 Re: No heating or cooling but the house is comfortable? 5May 31, 2010 12:18 am We don't have any heating yet. We decided to go through one winter first before deciding what type/extent of heating we will need. The last week has been between 7 - 12 degrees over night and its only in the rooms at the front of the house (south side) that it really feels cold. At our old place I would have turned the heater on without a second thought, but here I just put on an extra thick jumper and some woolley socks and I am fine. Which makes me think I have been using the heater a lot in the past out of convenience rather than need... Re: No heating or cooling but the house is comfortable? 6May 31, 2010 12:33 am shell83 at least you have realized and will modify if you stay committed. Where you are coming from is where you are going to... Re: No heating or cooling but the house is comfortable? 7May 31, 2010 10:31 am Hels Personally, I would move in and live there for a while before installing heating or cooling and then decide what your needs are That's the plan now. We always thought/and were told that we would need a large heater and cooling unit. We removed these from the contract due to the markup from the builder (and my dad is now licensed to install). I'm glad that we did this. Could save alot of money! Our house thread: https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=18335 Re: No heating or cooling but the house is comfortable? 8May 31, 2010 12:49 pm We're doing this as well. I think living in the home (we have a gas fireplace) without heating/cooling allows you to truly see how your home will feel. No point in spending over $10k on heating/cooling if you don't need it (or could get away with a smaller unit). Stefan Building the M3tr!con Liberty 42 at Stonecutters Ridge. The New Build Blog - "Life, In Progress." Stonecutters Ridge Community Website | My photos Re: No heating or cooling but the house is comfortable? 9May 31, 2010 1:52 pm We are putting air conditioning in our house during building, we want ducted and being in Queensland we will definetly get good use out of it. That being said, we got the builder to give us an allocation in our contract and for the price they quoted us for a dakin we can get one of the top of line Actron units if we organise it ourselves (which we are going to do), so it just goes to show the mark up builders do put on heating and cooling. I feel the cold really badly (even in Queensland) and we are thinking about putting in a wood burning fireplace, but we are going to live in the house for a while and see how we go. Painting finished, time to tile! HANDOVER - THURSDAY 3RD MARCH 2011 Re: No heating or cooling but the house is comfortable? 10Jun 21, 2010 2:35 am somewoman <<Our house has been designed for solar passivity - we shouldn't have to heat or cool it. We also notice when visiting that the temp already stays absolutely ideal no matter what the temp outside. It is wonderful!! How it stands up when we're living in it is yet to be determined. >> i'm doing same thing with my build. dining, family & alfresco faces north east to north west. no corridors in house, true open plan to allow even heat distribution. builder uses R3 in roof insulation. hoping heating & cooling will be minimal. Re: No heating or cooling but the house is comfortable? 11Jun 21, 2010 7:47 am GSK Our house is almost completed (around a week away) and the last few times we've visited the house at night (around 10 degrees or less outside temp), the house is warm or close to. How many people, if any don't have heating in their house? We have double glazed windows, the house orientation is spot on and we have insulation in the roof and walls (brick veneer). We planned to arrange our own heating and cooling after handover. Has anyone kept it like this? Greg Keep us posted on how it works out. You'd certainly save a small fortune if you can avoid heating - our winter gas bills are a bit frightening - although less so than in our old house. No heating.... in Melbourne? *runs and hides under the blankets* Re: No heating or cooling but the house is comfortable? 12Jun 21, 2010 8:51 am We aren't quite in the house as yet but I'm not liking our chances of no heating with nights like last night. Our house thread: https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=18335 Re: No heating or cooling but the house is comfortable? 13Jun 21, 2010 9:15 am this is a very interesting topic. Trouble is no matter how good your house is sealed you are always going to have to initially heat or cool the house. However you can always think about solar panels etc to offset some of this. Re: No heating or cooling but the house is comfortable? 14Jun 21, 2010 10:50 am borg this is a very interesting topic. Trouble is no matter how good your house is sealed you are always going to have to initially heat or cool the house. However you can always think about solar panels etc to offset some of this. For heating, thats what the sun is for - why use electricity generated by solar panels to heat your house when you can just use the sun directly? Re: No heating or cooling but the house is comfortable? 15Jun 21, 2010 11:09 am Pipe borg this is a very interesting topic. Trouble is no matter how good your house is sealed you are always going to have to initially heat or cool the house. However you can always think about solar panels etc to offset some of this. For heating, thats what the sun is for - why use electricity generated by solar panels to heat your house when you can just use the sun directly? because sometimes it is simply not enough. Re: No heating or cooling but the house is comfortable? 16Jun 21, 2010 12:29 pm borg Pipe For heating, thats what the sun is for - why use electricity generated by solar panels to heat your house when you can just use the sun directly? because sometimes it is simply not enough. Oh yes fine, as a backup - but with good design it should be rarely required in most climates (for heating anyway). Certainly not needed "always". Re: No heating or cooling but the house is comfortable? 17Jun 21, 2010 12:49 pm My house is designed (by myself, so no guarantees) to remain between 20 to 26 degress Celcius all year round. This starts with a full brick house and double glazing throughout. There are a few "bolt on" passive solar features to help. Demolition August 2009, Construction Started September 2009, Completed December 2010 Re: No heating or cooling but the house is comfortable? 18Jun 21, 2010 12:53 pm Casa2 My house is designed (by myself, so no guarantees) to remain between 20 to 26 degress Celcius all year round. This starts with a full brick house and double glazing throughout. There are a few "bolt on" passive solar features to help. casa is this what you would be trying to achieve during daylight hours only?? ie are you hoping to be able to maintain inside temp to 20degrees even if it is 2 degrees outside and 3am in the morning?? Re: No heating or cooling but the house is comfortable? 19Jun 21, 2010 8:46 pm borg Casa2 My house is designed (by myself, so no guarantees) to remain between 20 to 26 degress Celcius all year round. This starts with a full brick house and double glazing throughout. There are a few "bolt on" passive solar features to help. casa is this what you would be trying to achieve during daylight hours only?? ie are you hoping to be able to maintain inside temp to 20degrees even if it is 2 degrees outside and 3am in the morning?? This is the point that interests me... when it's zero outside overnight, and the inside temp gets down to (let's be generous) say 10 degrees, and then you have a series of grey, cold and miserable days, how is the house ever going to warm up to an acceptable temperature without heating? On a sunny winter day, we benefit from the lovely northern aspect of our living rooms, and the heating doesn't come on much at all in the middle part of the day. But no direct sun on miserable grey days makes a big difference. We don't have double glazing, but I'm interested in how much difference it makes in winter conditions in southern parts. Five degrees? More? Less? Re: No heating or cooling but the house is comfortable? 20Jun 21, 2010 9:30 pm I agree with Kek about the cold and non-sunny days in thinking this would have an effect. I saw an interesting way of helping a house keep cool. The house had a relatively consistent breeze (not very strong). So they put a huge sandstone boulder in the path of the breeze, built a pond around it and then connected a small fountain that sprayed out a bit on top of the rock. The rock itself remained cool no matter the temp or sunlight and as the water bounced off the rock, it chilled the breeze right down. They also had the pump hooked up to a little solar panel in the garden so system was self sufficient (except for occasional topping up of water in the pond). This chilled breeze is all they use to keep the living areas cool. Kind of like a reverse evaporative cooler Building tip No. 3: A raft slab will not get you down a river. A waffle pod slab does not go with maple syrup. My building thread https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=53000 Joe, it depends on your certifier but we are noticing the ones we deal with are really cracking down. So i would recommend you follow your approved landscaping plans to… 4 10974 Hi Simeon, Thank you for laying it down for us. Makes sense. Appreciate it very much. Have a nice day. Cheers 2 9014 1) I had requested R6 ceiling insualtion batts, however I noticed that on some areas there are huge gaps which will allow hot air to sweep in, and also noticed black/grey… 0 3597 |