Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Sep 18, 2016 11:07 pm Hey First time poster Long time reader My fiancee and I just finished building our first home in Gregory hills a bit over 12 months ago. We love the house and the location, however we find the drive into work a nightmare, the suburb is significantly louder than where we both came from before and we felt too cramped in on our block size. I came home a week ago and had the crazy idea of moving to cancers. (I work in the public service so I'm essentially guaranteed a transfer). We broadened our search and found a new development in goulburn. We plan to go down there in 2 weeks time, check out the available blocks and possibly go from there. The plan is to build a larger home in the ranch style on approx 2000m2. The plans are still been drawn up and messed around with until we decide what we are doing. My first question would be in regards to the colder temperatures of goulburn. We are both quiet energy conscious, and understand that wise money spent now means a large saving down the track. I plan on upgrading the insulation on the exterior walls and ceiling cavity. Besides that what else can we do to protect us from the extremes? Does insulation in internal walls make that much of a difference? Are double glazed windows as effective as they are made out to be and what costs would they be for a m2? What should I be asking for in the double glazing? Any other tips or suggestions? Tiles would be minimized to bathrooms and laundry, carpet in bedrooms and lounge rooms and wood or lino planks in the kitchen dining and family room. We love the high ceilings but that increases the volume of air to warm up, is there a good compromise? Also, we are both garden enthusiasts, vegetables and fruits predominantly. With the extremesame in temperature, frost and possible snow; what are our planting options? Once the land is purchased and the plans finalized and the build starts I'll maintain this as my progress build post. Nugg Re: Building in goulburn 2Sep 19, 2016 10:11 pm Climatically, Goulburn is almost identical to Canberra, and there's a fair bit of research and experience with Canberra around which you might want to look at. It's a "heating" climate, which means keeping things warm in winter generally is more of a consideration than keeping them cool in summer. The climate is well suited to passive solar design, which would tie in well with you being energy conscious, and shouldn't be a problem on a 2,000m2 block. That'd be probably the single most effective thing you could do to protect from the southern tablelands' climate extremes. Definitely go for the best ceiling and wall insulation you can. Double glazing is definitely worth it in this area. Avoid the plain aluminium frames; in climates like this region they lose a lot of heat in winter. Much better are (in general order of effectiveness) composite, thermally broken or PVC frames. Cheap double glazing often has a small air gap (<8mm) which is less effective than something in the 8mm-12mm range. If you're really serious about double-glazing you'll be looking at the PVC frame options, which are definitely the most effective, but also the most expensive (but worth the money upfront, in my opinion - that's what we're going with). High ceilings: we're going with them too. They do add a little more volume to warm up, but with a well-designed and well-insulated house this is negligible, and they can help by increasing thermal inertia and internal circulation in winter. For the garden, there is a distinct winter season (as you're aware!), so perennial tropicals are right out! That being said, most vegetables grow well (including all of the the 'basics'), and most deciduous fruits. Apples, pears, quinces, all types of stonefruit and berries are good. Citrus may need some shelter from frost, but otherwise can do well too. Re: Building in goulburn 3Sep 19, 2016 10:43 pm Awesome. Great info. Cheers. I flicked the plans to a few builders this arvo and found out that quiet a few are too busy to take on new work. Suppose it's a good thing they are up front about it rather than drag a build on for ridiculous time frames. I assume, and I could be wrong, that most custom builders would be conscious of the weather and know what products to use and where. However having info on hand is the best option incase they try to pull one over us. The plan we were liking fell apart when we found a site map with a bearing on it. All the blocks we were interested in made the design obsolete. However the size of the house was the main aspect on working out $ figures. Planning on visiting there in the coming weeks working out exactly which block and then going from there with finalizing a design. Thanks again Re: Building in goulburn 4Sep 20, 2016 2:01 pm As algernon says, if you're energy conscious building to "passive solar design" principles is a must. You'll end up with lower energy bills, & you'll have a much more comfortable house. Everyone should try to build like this!
Passive design is all about getting the orientation of your house right. Locating your living areas, & much of your glazing to the north. Do this & the sun will stream through your windows in winter, warming your house. With appropriate eaves these windows will be shaded in summer, keeping the house cool at this time of the year. You want to build a house that is somewhat rectangular, longer on the N & S facing sides (this way you'll be able to face much of your glazing to the north). Lots of information on "passive design" & building an energy efficient house can be found on the Government's YourHome website here, http://www.yourhome.gov.au/passive-design So the first step to building an energy efficient house is choosing an appropriate block. 2,000 sqm should give you a lot to work with, but you still want to get the basics right. As you want much of your glazing facing north, I usually wouldn't choose a block with a northern frontage. In this case a big double garage facing north will rob a lot of northern sunshine from your house. Locating your garage to the W is a good choice, letting winter sun enter the house, while blocking harsh afternoon summer sun. Goulburn still gets quite hot in summer, so you must consider this in your design As Goulburn is inland it has a quite high diurnal temperature range (the difference between daytime highs & nighttime lows). So it's a good idea to have some internal thermal mass in your north facing living areas. This thermal mass will absorb winter sunshine throughout the day, radiating that heat long into the evening. In summer this mass will be cooled at night (when you purge your house of heat), & will slow heat rise during the day. The website I linked above has information about thermal mass. In your climate you'll definitely benefit from high levels of insulation in walls, ceilings, under floor & in windows (which are very poor insulators). So, although expensive, double glazing is a good idea. Also don't forget window coverings, which are very important. Either think insulating curtains with pelmets (which are essential), or cellular (honeycomb) blinds. In a single level house you won't be going overboard with high ceilings, not like some 2 storey places with double height voids. But if you're considering installing fans (which are a very low energy form of cooling), many of these can be run slowly in reverse in winter, to push warm air from up near the ceiling to closer to the floor. Another option for heating large volumes with high ceilings is to have a heated radiant hydronic floor. As the floor if heated, the heat rises, warming your body, it doesn't matter how high the ceilings are. This may be a good option in your climate (I generally wouldn't recommend it near the coast), as it's usually a high thermal mass option. It can be very comfortable, who doesn't like warm feet in winter, & great for allergy sufferers, as there's no forced air being blown about. It's efficiency is somewhat based on the heat source used, so can be quite efficient when using heat pumps & solar, or wood. But it's also very dependent on how well the system is set up, it can be a good option, but there's also horror stories about. It also has high installation costs. Re: Building in goulburn 5Sep 20, 2016 2:28 pm Perfect. A lot of those points I had already found so it's good that you confirmed the research. I spent today go ogling new house plans as to make the house as north facing as possible. Unfortunately that means we lose the ranch style we were wanting. However I will happily sacrifice that for a warmer house. I definitely didn't think about the thermal mass for North facing living rooms. And the boss will be over the moon to hear that! The garage will be facing east facing on the south eastern side of the house. If that's the correct way to describe it. The under floor heating, is that only usable on tiles? Or is it at such a low temperature that carpets, wood and vinyl aren't affected? It sounds like a solid option to heat the major living areas, even if only used for 3 or 4 months. And I'm a huge ceiling fan ....fan. I can survive summers with just a ceiling fan haha I’m curious about how you went with this. We are planning a KDRB and considering Plantation Homes as a builder. I’m aware that after the demolition another soil test… 1 6321 i wouldn't be worried, you'll definitely miss something, no matter how many times you review. we've spent close to 5 months ensuring everything got reflected in the… 5 9441 Thanks for your reply. I will just wait and see I guess. Trying to get some more information from our builder. 9 11723 |