Design Considerations

During the Sydney Home Show, we met a lot of people who were at the conceptual design stage of their home building or renovation projects and were looking for guidance.

In past editions of the DirectBuild Newsletter, we have had several articles which focused on the design stage including:

These articles, in fact all of the past editions of our Newsletters, can be accessed via our web site under News and scroll down to Newsletters.

There have been a number of recurring themes in these articles namely –

• Understanding your property (eg aspect, certain documents such as Section 149 Certificate, Water Diagram, and Contour Survey etc).

• The importance of incorporating passive design elements.

• The benefits of having a “Look Book” or visual diary to record your likes and dislikes in design, colours, materials etc

These themes are constantly being reinforced in the various designs that cross our desks and in the material we are seeing in our ongoing studies regarding the thermal efficiency of dwellings.

We thought a checklist of what to try to do and what to try to avoid may be a useful way to try to summarise at least some of the lessons we have learnt from passive design elements and the need to optimise your property’s aspect.

AIM TO DO

• Majority of glass north facing, minimise other glazing.

• Orient living areas to the north, bedroom and utilities to the south.

• Consider slab on ground construction with slab edge insulation to add to thermal stability.

• Build sensible eaves, at least 450mm.

• Include adequate thermal mass.

• Install the best glazing that you can afford. If budget is tight, prioritise primary living areas.

• Use good internal window treatments to create a still air layer between window treatment and window (e.g. well fitted block out blinds).

• Incorporate cross-ventilation into your design.

• Try to use Gas as an energy source as it has lower greenhouse emissions.

• If you are planning a two storey house, incorporate a closed stairwell to separate the two floors.

• Seal all leaks, ceiling penetrations, use dampers or self-sealing fans on exhaust fans.

• Plan the garden early, use vegetation to provide shelter and shading.

AIM TO AVOID

• Installing electric Hot Water systems, if gas or solar are an option.

• Installing electric under floor heating; consider hydronic under floor heating as an alternative.

• Using too much reflective paving in front of northern windows. If you do, shade such paving adequately in the summer months.

• Over-glazing your home (small windows in the south, east and west and large in the north).

• Putting holes in your ceiling insulations (e.g. holes for downlights or large uninsulated skylights).

I hope you find this “energy efficiency checklist” helpful.

If you have any questions please contact me on (02) 9713 7428

Brendon Wilkie

DirectBuild Australia