Tag Archives: passive solar design

Passive Solar Homes Design Creates 300,000 New Jobs

Designs of passive solar homes, incorporating advances in recycling building materials from demolition, water and waste water design should be the focus of progress in our search for answers to reduce our domestic energy consumption. New advances in solar water heating, grid connected photovoltaic systems and the integration of other renewable energy systems should be incorporated into the built environment.

Passive Solar Homes to Create Opportunities

Solar Passive House Image - solar Umbrella

Passive Solar Homes with Solar Umbrella

Passive solar homes, adapted to become energy and water efficient such as this house shown with a solar umbrella, could create 300,000 new jobs in the building industry – this growth would take place over 20 years and be in key industry areas.

The growth in new jobs will only take place if we are serious about reducing greenhouse gas emissions and introducing policies and practices to ensure we only construct and reconstruct energy and water efficient homes.

Australia’s built environment constitutes 33 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions and this figure increases to 40 per cent when infrastructure and embodied energy are taken into account.

These amounts could be reduced if energy consumed in existing homes is reduced by between 30 and 50 per cent and by 80 per cent in all new homes. This is why passive solar homes are the only realistic solution to our residential built environment energy problems. However not all designers and architects specialise in energy efficient design and a ‘near enough is good enough’ attitude will not bring the best results in reducing energy consumption. Contact passive solar homes specialists for the best advice and outcome and ask them for proof of their expertise before you enter any contracts.

Retro-Fitting Existing Homes

Of the 7.5 million houses in Australia we know most need to be retrofitted to become more energy and water efficient. Many of these will eventually need to be replaced with new state-of-the-art passive solar homes because it will be too costly to retrofit them.

Homes to be demolished will have to be carefully recycled and this will entail the introduction of procedures and policies to ensure wastage is kept to a minimum.

Building Codes Needed For Recycling Existing Homes

National building codes and other relevant legislation in Australia do not require home owners and builders to comply with energy and water efficiency principles when demolishing, retrofitting or renovating homes.
Legislation is lagging and up until now lay people and industry groups have led the way in the instigation of innovative and necessary change.

The idea of adapting a home to become more energy and water efficient is normally decided by home owners, who place pressure on designers and builders to trial new methods.

Once these techniques have been found to be effective, builders adopt them into mainstream practice and political parties follow by introducing them into legislation.

This means the general public and industry professionals will continue to lead the way in the push for important change, but this may not be enough if we are to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions to mitigate the impact of climate change.

Demand For Passive Solar Homes

Many people in Australia want to live in passive solar homes and work in buildings that have been designed and built to comply with energy efficient and climate sensible principles.

While it’s good news people that people want to live in energy efficient homes, there are barriers to these lifestyle changes which include money, industry know-how and legislative amendments. This is because the cost to retrofit a property may initially be outside a home owner’s budget despite the investment eventually being offset in energy savings while also reducing each of the occupants’ carbon footprints.

Legislation Lags Consumer Demands

Industry know-how and current legislation are also not at the level desired by consumers. In the interim, young people, tradespeople, homes designers and architects could extend their skills’ levels by enrolling in sustainability courses and placing pressure on landlords and employers to implement climate sensible and energy efficient principles in the rental market and the workplace.

However retrofitting and building new passive solar homes by home owners is probably the most likely and definitely the most effective response to our domestic over-consumption of energy.

Image: Courtesy Wikipedia

Solar Energy and the Built Environment

Solar energy passive design considerations have not yet become mainstream building industry practice in Australia, despite its many positive advances in the built environment.

In my opinion, conservative forces in the building industry are still going out of their way to stifle progress by lobbying government for negligible changes to the building code compliance system and even pushing to water down the debate, so that the long established building industry approach to land subdivision and the building of packaged ‘project’ homes remains largely unchanged.

Built Environment Solar Passive Design Saves 80-90% Energy

The Built Environment solar passive house South Beach Image

Built Environment South Beach House

Image: 2010 Residence located at South Beach, Western Australia Designed by Ecotect-Architects

This design is passive solar with solar water heating, photovoltaic and water conservation technologies which will save 80 – 90% energy and up to 60% water usage, when compared to the average luxury home or “Mac-Mansion”! A 2005 award-winning solar passive house also designed by Ecotect-Architects is featured in the Swanbourne Centre blog.

The image shows the western façade with the north solar collection façade running down the block to create maximum privacy. (Note: for buildings in the northern hemisphere the aspect would be to the south rather than north.)

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Top Architect Says Building Practices Must Change to Cope with Changing Weather Patterns & Disasters

2 November 2009

Jacinta Goerke
Journalist

ONE of Australia’s leading environmental architects today said rapid change was required in the way we build and renovate properties and prepare for disasters.

The director of Wise Earth Pty Ltd and Order of Australia recipient Mr Garry Baverstock said the increase in reported property damage due to bad weather reaffirms the need to change the way we build structures and prepare for catastrophes.

Damage from 2009 tsunami in Pago Pago, American Samoa

“The west coast of Australia has been hit by ongoing severe storms this winter while fires, droughts, floods and dust storms have affected central and eastern Australia not to mention the tsunami that devastated some Pacific Island nations recently,” said Mr Baverstock.

“Most houses and buildings in Australia will not withstand ongoing storms, extreme cyclones, heavy rain, hail, fires, floods, earthquakes, tsunamis and tornados.

“With climate change now in action we need to implement adaptive practices which means changing the way we live and fast!” said Mr Baverstock.

Mr Baverstock said many new houses and commercial buildings did not comply with sustainability principles and people should feel short-changed if problems occurred in their homes within ten years.

“The tie-down on roofing needs to be more solid, windows need to be stronger and homes should be designed to complement the surrounding environment,” he said.

“Houses should be built to last at least three generations and the integration of climate sensible principles, passive solar design, natural vegetation and waterways is vital,” he said.

He said investing extra money up front to construct a durable home or other building is cheaper to maintain in the long run and won’t fly away in a storm.

Mr Baverstock said the federal government had introduced a uniform building code for all states and territories but it failed to include comprehensive sustainable best practice benchmarks.

“The legislation that guides building practices in this country needs to be reviewed and amended to comply with the impact of changing weather patterns and sustainability principles,” he said.

“I’m aghast that developers can still carve up land without taking into account the northern orientation of each lot, rising sea levels and necessary waterway and vegetation corridors.

“While the government has made initial changes we have a long way to go before our homes and buildings will be able to sustain battering caused by harsh weather,” he said.

Mr Baverstock said people keen to live in durable homes should tell their architects, drafts people, builders and local councils to adopt sustainable building policies and designs.

He said at least 80 per cent of people in Australia lived along coastal strips and this made them more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.

“If enough people place pressure on builders and local councils then building codes will change,” said Mr Baverstock.

Image-
Name: Tsunami 2009 Pago Pago
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Tsunami_2009_Pago_Pago.jpg
Author: Lorn Cramer
Licensing: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic

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