Lighting

A lot of energy can be used in the home by lighting. We have designed our home so that very minimal lighting is required as long as the sun is in the sky, so generally speaking, we only turn lights on at night. Even so, it was important to us to have efficient lighting.

There are some very cool (and very expensive) LED lights on the market now that put out great light in large enough volumes to be useful, but our budget didn't allow for them and they didn't really suit the style of fittings that we wanted(if you're interested try LEDA or Hot Beam). Instead we found what we believe is the best product on the market in CFL (Compact Fluorescent Lighting) - EcoBulb.

Ecobulb has a range of CFLs that will pretty well fit any application from downlights to standard globes - so what, don't they all??? Yes, most manufacturers do have a big range, but a couple of unique things about the EcoBulb are their downlights and the extremely high Power Factor (take the time to learn about Power Factor - it makes a big difference to your bills).

Their downlights look exactly like normal downlights - there are no tubes poking down below the bottom of the fitting, they are the same dimensions and the light levels are great. The difference comes in when you see your electricity bill and when you don't end up replacing any for 6,000 to 10,000 hours (that's about 9 times longer than a normal globe and twice as long as a standard CFL)

Note: the worst thing you can possibly do is install halogen downlights!!! They are the most energy inefficient way to light your house, they create enormous amounts of heat (enough to start fires and burn down houses), you need huge numbers of them due to their narrow lighting pattern and they have a very short useful life. Don't install them - they may look pretty, but in my opinion they are the worst form of lighting available - use the Ecobulb product instead!!!

Supplemental Heating and Cooling

Even though we've utilised the best possible passive measure to keep our home naturally cool during summer and warm during winter, we've also installed some pretty cool energy efficient systems to give us a helping hand.

Fresh Air & Cooling
Our house is pretty air tight thanks to the double glazed windows and doors along with the EcoBlock and plaster, so we probably should let in some fresh air to make sure the house is as human friendly as possible, but we didn't want to let in very cold or very hot air (that's the whole reason we tried to seal everything up).

To do this we found a system called Awadukt. It is proven in Europe and we are one of a couple of trial sites in the Southern Hemisphere. It's theory is pretty simple; in a nut shell, about 2m underground the temperature is pretty stable all year round, and not affected by day to day temperature fluctuations, in fact, it's around 15-17 degrees here in Melbourne. The system works by taking fresh air into a pipe which is 2m below ground then allowing the air to be heated or cooled by the surrounding earth before pumping it into the house.

This is great for providing fresh air that is around the temperature you want it to be inside. It also has the bonus effect of heating your house on a very cold day and cooling it on a very hot day.

Note: another excellent way to keep the air in your house fresh is to have indoor plants. They look good, freshen the place up with their colour and actually filter the nasties out of the air for you. Plant choice is a very personal thing, so I recommend going to a nursery and asking for some help, or do an internet search for indoor plants.

Another way to keep your house cooler during hot weather is to get all of the hot air out of your roof.

If you've ever been in your roof you'll notice that as long as there's sunlight, it's hotter in your roof than outside (and on hot days, hotter than you want it to be in your house). This built up heat slowly transfers through your insulation and heats the house, which is great during winter, but not so great during summer.

To help get the hot air out of the roof when it's unwanted we use a pretty nifty (and very simple) system called a Purg-Air-Lator. In very simple terms, it is a fan in your roof that automatically pumps the hot air out when it gets too hot up there.

Heating
Ok, fresh air and cooling is covered, what about heating? As I said above, your roof is pretty much always warmer than the outside air, how much warmer depends on a number of things, like how well the roof is sealed and what colour it is (dark colours absorb heat, light colours reflect it). It seemed to us like a pretty big waste to have that warm in in the roof and not in the house so we did a bit of asking around and found the HRV System.

It works in a very similar way to the Pur-Air-Lator, except instead of pumping the hot air out of the roof to the great outdoors, it pumps it into your house - almost free heating!


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Out of the ground (Slab and underground works) The structure (Walls, windows and roof) Fit out (Plumbing, electrical, tiles, plaster & paint) The Environment Bits & Pieces
		Lighting A lot of energy can be used in the home by lighting. We have designed our home so that very minimal lighting is required as long as the sun is in the sky, so generally speaking, we only turn lights on at night. Even so, it was important to us to have efficient lighting. There are some very cool (and very expensive) LED lights on the market now that put out great light in large enough volumes to be useful, but our budget didn't allow for them and they didn't really suit the style of fittings that we wanted(if you're interested try LEDA or Hot Beam). Instead we found what we believe is the best product on the market in CFL (Compact Fluorescent Lighting) - EcoBulb. Ecobulb has a range of CFLs that will pretty well fit any application from downlights to standard globes - so what, don't they all??? Yes, most manufacturers do have a big range, but a couple of unique things about the EcoBulb are their downlights and the extremely high Power Factor (take the time to learn about Power Factor - it makes a big difference to your bills). Their downlights look exactly like normal downlights - there are no tubes poking down below the bottom of the fitting, they are the same dimensions and the light levels are great. The difference comes in when you see your electricity bill and when you don't end up replacing any for 6,000 to 10,000 hours (that's about 9 times longer than a normal globe and twice as long as a standard CFL) Note: the worst thing you can possibly do is install halogen downlights!!! They are the most energy inefficient way to light your house, they create enormous amounts of heat (enough to start fires and burn down houses), you need huge numbers of them due to their narrow lighting pattern and they have a very short useful life. Don't install them - they may look pretty, but in my opinion they are the worst form of lighting available - use the Ecobulb product instead!!! Supplemental Heating and Cooling Even though we've utilised the best possible passive measure to keep our home naturally cool during summer and warm during winter, we've also installed some pretty cool energy efficient systems to give us a helping hand. Fresh Air & Cooling Our house is pretty air tight thanks to the double glazed windows and doors along with the EcoBlock and plaster, so we probably should let in some fresh air to make sure the house is as human friendly as possible, but we didn't want to let in very cold or very hot air (that's the whole reason we tried to seal everything up). To do this we found a system called Awadukt. It is proven in Europe and we are one of a couple of trial sites in the Southern Hemisphere. It's theory is pretty simple; in a nut shell, about 2m underground the temperature is pretty stable all year round, and not affected by day to day temperature fluctuations, in fact, it's around 15-17 degrees here in Melbourne. The system works by taking fresh air into a pipe which is 2m below ground then allowing the air to be heated or cooled by the surrounding earth before pumping it into the house. This is great for providing fresh air that is around the temperature you want it to be inside. It also has the bonus effect of heating your house on a very cold day and cooling it on a very hot day. Note: another excellent way to keep the air in your house fresh is to have indoor plants. They look good, freshen the place up with their colour and actually filter the nasties out of the air for you. Plant choice is a very personal thing, so I recommend going to a nursery and asking for some help, or do an internet search for indoor plants. Another way to keep your house cooler during hot weather is to get all of the hot air out of your roof. If you've ever been in your roof you'll notice that as long as there's sunlight, it's hotter in your roof than outside (and on hot days, hotter than you want it to be in your house). This built up heat slowly transfers through your insulation and heats the house, which is great during winter, but not so great during summer. To help get the hot air out of the roof when it's unwanted we use a pretty nifty (and very simple) system called a Purg-Air-Lator. In very simple terms, it is a fan in your roof that automatically pumps the hot air out when it gets too hot up there. *Heating* Ok, fresh air and cooling is covered, what about heating? As I said above, your roof is pretty much always warmer than the outside air, how much warmer depends on a number of things, like how well the roof is sealed and what colour it is (dark colours absorb heat, light colours reflect it). It seemed to us like a pretty big waste to have that warm in in the roof and not in the house so we did a bit of asking around and found the HRV System. It works in a very similar way to the Pur-Air-Lator, except instead of pumping the hot air out of the roof to the great outdoors, it pumps it into your house - almost free heating!