OzKit Homes Newsletter
Orientate Your Kit Home for Energy Efficient Living
Significant benefits can be obtained by customizing your kit home to its local geography and climate. This is a worthy exercise particularly when you are able to choose your house design or even when renovating. To save money and live more comfortably, modify the design to suit the shape and orientation of the site to optimise lifestyle, energy efficiency and protect the quality of the natural environment.
Kit Home buyers are especially fortunate that some suppliers are keen to assist with changes to their standard designs. The house floor plans need to be considered at different spots on the site, they can be rotated around to face a specific direction, mirror reversed to swap all the left side for the right side or rooms added and merged together. Definitely a job to done with care and experience if possible. Some general details can be found at www.yourhome.gov.au
A starting point is to recognise your regional climate and how various weather patterns impact in your area, for example, sea breezes are cool and westerlies can be hot. Remember that plants can be positioned to funnel breezes into and through the building or to moderate or block hot or cold winds.
Even without the luxury of having the patience to sculpture your garden there are many passive cooling designs that take advantage of natural energy flows.
The main strategy is to have the living areas facing north. Wide eaves or a verandah will allow the low winter sun to penetrate to the house walls for warmth during the day but will also stop the higher angled summer sun from cooking the interior. Another aspect of the same principle is to try to build on a north facing slope to reduce shading in winter at the back of the house.
Well designed Kit Homes maximise cooling air movement and exclude sun in summer. In winter, they trap and store heat from the sun and minimise heat loss. Generally, cross ventilation is most effective for air exchange (building cooling) and fans for air movement (people cooling).
Using energy efficiently is the best way to reduce energy bills and environmental impacts while maintaining or even improving comfort levels. Most investments in energy efficiency will pay for themselves through lower energy bills. Use ceiling fans instead of air coolers and if cooling is required, use evaporative systems in low humidity areas.
Choose the most efficient hot water service and the best energy source to meet your needs. Solar, gas and electric heat pump systems produce far fewer greenhouse emissions than conventional electric storage systems. Gas boosted solar is the most greenhouse efficient form of water heating.
Locate water heaters close to those areas where hot water is used. Showers usually use the most hot water in a home. Install AAA rated water efficient showerheads and set the thermostat between 60 to 65°C on storage hot water systems and 50°C on instantaneous systems.
When you plan your outdoor areas, don’t forget about privacy with your neighbours, particularly if you intend to cook outside on hot days to avoid heating the house.
* Live to enjoy your climate, don’t fight it. *