Recently we were interviewed by Brett Munckton, the Environment Officer from Cardinia Council and have now been included in a feature article in this month’s Connect magazine put out by Cardinia Council.  This article features sustainability and is designed to help educate people about the benefits of sustainable living.

One of the important features mentioned in the article is the importance of good insulation in maintaining a stable household temperature all year round. In fact the temperature inside the house has never been outside the range of 11 – 28 degrees, irregardless of the temperature outside.

One of the other keys to achieving this stable ambient living temperature is the north facing  placement of the house on the block, with all living areas being on the northern sideof the house.

The eaves are designed to allow maximum internal heat gain in the winter while allowing minimum amounts of heat inside the house in the hotter summer months. Also the windows are placed to allow maximum cross flow of air. This means the house needs no air conditioning and requires far less heating in winter than a traditionally designed house that has not taken into account sustainable housing design features.

Another feature that is often overlooked in building is the importance of light covered roofs to keep the temperature of the house more stable. It is sad to see new housing estates with house after house with dark colored roofs. It doesn’t matter to the builders as they aren’t the ones living in the houses, so, it is up to the people that employ the builders to insist on light coloured roofs and walls so that the houses become much more liveable in the summer and the need for air conditioners is minimised. If this feature was used more there would be less pressure put on the energy consumption on hot summer days and less need for polluting coal companies to insist their power stations need to be upgraded.

In fact here is an article called “The White Roof Project” from http://yef.org.au/m/projects/id/2e3b-white-roof-project which discusses this idea.

The article covers areas of collecting rainwater for household use as well as the garden as well as the benefits in growing your own fruit and vegetables to aid in food sustainability.

 For more sustainable building features visit our article http://wheeloflifeblog.com/environment/tips-to-building-an-energy-efficient-house-2/

John and Linda Ballis

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Tags: benefits of sustainable living, Cardinia Council, Connect magazine, design of eaves, importance of good insulation, importance of light covered roofs, John and Linda Ballis, north facing placement of the house on the block, sustainability, sustainable housing, sustainable living, The Solar Man, The Wheel of Life's 8 Keys to Success book