An energy-efficient home uses less energy to heat, cool, and cook. To do this, it can incorporate many of the things a sustainable home does. Some features of an energy-efficient home include:
The cost of an energy efficient home depends on what it is made from and what sustainable features it includes. The costs of building them vary greatly.
Some basic sustainable design features that make a big difference to how much the house costs to heat or cool don’t cost anything—such as north facing in temperate climates, or facing prevailing breezes in tropical climates. Insulation is also included in most new home builds and makes a big difference to a home’s sustainability.
An energy efficient home can be more expensive if you are using labour-intensive building methods such as rammed earth, installing double-glazed or triple-glazed windows , and adding solar panels and/or batteries to generate your own electricity.
Bryan and Jess’s home is being built in stages to fit around their tight budget and available time. They have also cut down on costs by building it themselves.
Typically, a sustainable home will feature designs and technology that reduce energy bills and make the home comfortable to live in all year round without relying on much heating and cooling. Some examples of sustainable home features include:
At the very least a sustainable house should be energy-efficient, that is it shouldn’t heavily rely on gas and electricity from the grid to heat, cool, or cook.
If you live in warmer climates, it should be designed so that it catches natural breezes and allows air to flow and keep it cool. If you live in cooler parts of Australia, it should be well insulated to stop the house from losing a lot of heat in winter and to keep it cooler in summer.
You can check out the homeowners on Lived In to find out the many other features a sustainable home can have.
To design a sustainable house, start with understanding the climate you are building or renovating in. This will determine what you need to include in the design. A design for colder climates, where the main priority is often heating, is very different from a house design in warmer states and territories, where the main priority will be cooling.
Understanding the climate will help you know what type of windows you need and where to put them. If you are building from scratch, the climate will also dictate the house orientation—if you have a block where you can choose. You will want the house to face north in temperate climates and face prevailing breeze in tropical climates. The Your Home website is a great resource to help you with design options that suit your climate and budget. The Queensland Government has some great tips on its energy-efficient page and Sustainability Victoria includes some good design tips on its page.
You could talk to a homeowner on Lived In to find out where they found their designer.
There are also other resources such as the Green Building Council Australia which lists member organisations that incorporate sustainable design.
The Housing Industry Association (HIA) runs the Green Smart Awards which recognise builders and designers who incorporate great sustainability features. Magazines such as Sanctuary and Green Magazine profile and advertise house designers.
You can find them through architects and builders who have an understanding of them.
A great place to start and to understand what makes up a sustainable home design in your climate is the Australian Government’s Your Home website which has free designs that you can take to a builder. Sarah’s home and Richard’s home are based on these free sustainable house designs.
Passive solar design enables a house to adapt to the climate to heat and cool it naturally, relying less on artificial heating and cooling. It is also referred to as solar passive design.
An example of an element of passive solar design is facing a house north in cooler climates so the sun shines into the house and heats the home in winter. Bellingen Permaculture’s page does a great job of showing what a passive solar house design looks like. Some homeowners on Lived In incorporate passive solar design including Richard, Sarah, and Amanda.
Passive house, or passivhaus, is a design that originates in Germany. It shares some similarities with passive solar and energy-efficient homes; however, it goes a step further by being extremely airtight, highly insulated and ventilated. This allows it to regulate its own temperature.
You can read more about their design features on the Passive House Australia website. Homes can be accredited as being a passive house if they meet certain criteria.
Designing energy efficient homes in the sub tropics or tropics is usually simpler, and cheaper, than designing for cold climates. In cold climates, the main concern is heating, whereas in warmer climates it’s about keeping the house cool.
This can often be achieved by making sure the house has plenty of natural ventilation via windows and louvres and ceiling fans for air circulation. Shade is also important. The Darwin based COOLMob is all about energy efficient building designs for tropical climates and has some great resources.
The star rating system is a national standard that indicates a building’s level of energy efficiency. In theory, the higher the stars, the more energy efficient and sustainable a building is and the cheaper it is to run. The highest level is 10. States and territories have minimum star requirements, usually six, for new homes. With conventional builds, adding things like extra insulation, double glazing, and solar panels will increase the star rating.
The star system is based on the Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme (NatHERS), developed by the CSIRO. This Australian Government webpage explains more about home star ratings and how to find someone who can assess a home’s star rating.
Sustainable House Day is an open day for sustainable homes across the country. The event has been going for decades. It is one day a year when homeowners open homes to demonstrate sustainable house designs and sustainability to the public. Local groups around the country often run their own Sustainable House Day events outside of the main event. It features homes that have features that make the houses cheaper to live in, and comfortable in all seasons–such as solar, energy-efficient design, insulation, eco building materials, good window design, and lots more.
Many of the homeowners who feature on Lived In have opened their homes on Sustainable House Day. The Day is organised by Renew in collaboration with local community groups across Australia.
Sustainable House Day 2023 is happening on March 19. You can keep an eye on the Sustainable House Day website which usually lists homes open near you. It's also worth keeping an eye on your local sustainability and permaculture group updates in the case they are running something separately. There are also a lot of online events on topics such as lowering energy bills at home, accessible housing, owner-building, and eco-community living.
When Sustainable House Day isn’t running, come to Lived In to talk to a homeowner who has built or renovated for energy-efficiency and sustainability, we are open all year round and you can talk to homeowners one on one.
The experiences and opinions shared on this site and by homeowners are general in nature. The information is relevant to their situation and available at the time of their build or renovation. Products, situations, and contexts change. Please talk to a qualified architect, builder, or industry professional for advice specific to your circumstances. A small % of booking fees goes to Lived In Eco Homes.
Lived In Eco Homes acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Country we work and build on. The founders live on Bunurong/Boon Wurrung Country.
