Browse Forums Eco Living 1 Jul 05, 2007 1:01 pm The 'parameters' for an efficient home design vary depending on where you are looking to build within Aus. - climate, location etc
The item that interests me, is how important is 'energy efficient' design (suited to your particular location) in the scheme of things when you are looking to build your new home. Everyone is restricted to the amount of money they will spend - either by financial constraints or if they've done their homework by the amount of $ that should be invested in a property to maximise their return on investment. Obvoiusly this will differ depending upon the length of the investment but my basic question ( besides regulatory requirements) is what is a priority for you as a home builder. If you can 'get away' with single glazed windows or 'get away' with R1.5 wall batts against using R2.0 would you opt for a possible reduction in the thermal comfort of the home if it meant being able to spend money in other areas such as luxury items. What are your thoughts ? Peter Clarkson - AusDesign Australia www.ausdesign.com.au This information is intended to provide general information only. It does not purport to be a comprehensive advice. Re: New home design 2Jul 05, 2007 1:19 pm We are going to the max of our budget for anything that cannot be upgraded at a later date - e.g. wall insulation, windows, tiles. But going with "good enough" stuff for areas like carpets and soft furnishings. Re: New home design 3Jul 05, 2007 1:28 pm This was quite important to us, and we had our plan done according to orientation of our land. We went for double glazed windows, but aluminium unfortunately (I was all for uPVC but too expensive), walls insulation R1.3 reflective foil and R1.5 compressed polyester batts, roof R3.5 wool fibre (I don't really understand insulation but was told this was OK). Also went for hydronic heating, solar hot water and water tank. We don't plan to move in the next 20 years. Re: New home design 4Jul 05, 2007 2:16 pm And that would be I assume Stonecutter is for an extended investment time.
Mek aside from any comfort levels attained did you go through the figures or did your designer or who ever go through wih you for example that R3.5 ceiling batts would cost for example $ 400 more than R3.0 batts and that the payback time in reduced heating or coooling costs to recoup the extra expenditure would be X number of years. As a design firm we generally don't go to such depth with Clients and this comes back to being competitive with our pricing but I'd be interested to know how many people do go to such a depth in planning their home. We all know for example that double glazing will make a home more comfortable but how do we find out how the actual dollar costs stack up against installing say a central heating unit to maintain that same level of comfort. Obviously the pay back time is a major part of the equation & will vary between households. How many have approached their home design from this angle or is it enough having to go through room layouts & placement, ceiling heights etc. Peter Clarkson - AusDesign Australia www.ausdesign.com.au This information is intended to provide general information only. It does not purport to be a comprehensive advice. Re: New home design 5Jul 05, 2007 2:22 pm ausdesign - yep - as we are building the home we will raise our family in - so there for a good few years. plus - it's our dream house - living on a golf course!
both hubby & I are accountants by trade - so when it comes time to upgrade things like windows, insulation, etc then we'll be doing payback schedules and cost-benefit analysis. Re: New home design 6Jul 05, 2007 4:02 pm I'm not building new at present - but yep - I'd go with cost saving extras - over luxeries first up.
I'm an ROI man (Return on Investment) (I do it for my clients in my business to show them the savings they can gain) So yes I do the figures, - power fuel costs etc - plus I add in a few of my - care for environment values and also is it practical technology - at it's peak / hype / overpriced / still improving so I'll wait a bit - then I either include or exclude the item from my design / upgrade. Comfort is also in there as an ultimate objective - ie passive solar heating (thermal mass) enables me to come home to a warm house without putting aircon and waiting for it to get wearm etc - plus the other benefiots it;s gives. Insulataton, double glaze etc is all in the same category. Steve Re: New home design 7Jul 06, 2007 6:28 pm ausdesign, looking back it would have been great to get as much detail as possible regarding various options and cost comparisons, especially with insulation where as I understand it doesn't cost a lot to upgrade. Other things, like hydronic heating and double glazed windows we asked for. I read up as much as I could find on these things, but they were a given from the start (I'm from Europe). We don't have to worry about overcapitalising (done in a big way ) as we will not be going anywhere any time soon. Re: New home design 8Jul 11, 2007 7:26 am Tried to post last time and failed - here we go...
I would love to see a typical home (1S & 2S) design taken to a 5 Star level, then... Bring each parameter back to it's lowest level (wall & ceiling insulation, glazing etc.). Then max the remainder to get back to 5 Star and look at the cost. This way we should see the cost benefit (roughly) of each. Have you ever looked at this Peter? Thanks Ed If I write "I" please read "We"! Be good. Re: New home design 9Jul 11, 2007 10:37 am No I haven't Ed but I'll go through the process during the week.
The Government's told us from the start, when they hoisted 5 Star in vic on the public that "it will cost no more to build a 5 star home". Peter Clarkson - AusDesign Australia www.ausdesign.com.au This information is intended to provide general information only. It does not purport to be a comprehensive advice. Re: New home design 10Jul 11, 2007 5:12 pm Great Peter I look forward to your analysis.
The window industry was surveyed back before 5 star and we gave the government the figures - I think we said 66% more for double glazing (which was correct at the time). Double glazed units were expenisve back then (and still too expensive!). I feel that the government should simply legislate for maximum insulation and double glazing, that would be fair for everyone and would deliver the best outcome for the govenment, and for the consumer - (better than the smoke and mirrors that we have today) - as it would mean we would have some real competition in pricing. Ed If I write "I" please read "We"! Be good. ideal house depends on the site and location as much as internal floor plan....what is the distance from the house to all four boundaries, where is north, describe your… 3 15085 Thank you so much for the effort. We will use it to talk with builder. We also had idea of building duplex instead and seeking suggest ions. viewtopic.php?f=31&t=106744 11 13777 Once you know the basics, the rest is easy. Read my post in the thread linked below. viewtopic.php?p=1919271#p1919271 2 19473 |