The house design

This is the layout of our house.

Our design objective was to build a comfortable warm energy efficient home.
Some of the design initiatives include

• Insulated concrete floor slab
• Hydronic heating pipes in the floor
  
• No down light penetrations through ceilings
• Low energy lights, compact fluro, fluro, or leds
• Solar water heating panels
• Passive ventilation: high level roof window
• Reflection sewerage treatment
• Double glazing
• Honeycomb blinds or heavy thermal drapes
  
• Short hot water pipe runs
• Log fire with wet back
• Tiled floor by northerly facing windows
• House orientation due east - west
  
• Large north facing windows
• Wall and roof insulation higher than code.
  
• Low VOC paints
• Isolator switches to reduce standby power consumption.
• Passive shading: window orientation, eaves and pergola structures
  

The Property

The property is Lot 8 on the map below and is about 15 acres. It is located on the eastern side of the Hararimata range, runs roughly east west and is about 600m long. The property is basically a valley with a small stream that flows the length of the property. Only about one acre is clear flat land, the remainder is steeply sloping and bush covered.