Being green

At the beginning of this project we both thought that we would be mildly green in our approach to building, nothing radical we thought. Just sensible sustainable practices. In our innocence we wondered why people continued to build such environmentally rude houses. The answer is simple, builders. And it is not their fault, they have to run a business which means not taking risks and doing anything different is a risk. Much better to follow the pack. To specification is the Builder's cry, never over. To force the pack to move along legislation and government incentives are needed. Unfortunately this is woeful.

Double Glazing
The general consensus is that it is too expensive to be worthwhile, in other words it is cheaper to lose energy heating and cooling than to install anything above the crap standard 3mm thick single glazed windows used in Australia.

Insulation
This is where build to standard comes into play, builders will fight to the end when you ask for better insulation. Its above the standard mate, is what you hear. You have to wonder if they refuse to go above standard in other parts of their lives, like pay rises. There is also a lack of knowledge about how insulation works and how it can be designed.

Alignment
Another no-brainer, not one of the builders we spoke to made any attempt to adjust their plans to suit the alignment of our block. This includes such simple things as window placement and overhangs. No, they only looked at how the windows looked on the plan without reference to the surroundings.

Overhang
Following on from above, everything I have read about house design suggests that some thought is put into the size of the overhangs. In our case we have a long west facing wall, surely it needs a decent overhang to protect it from the harsh west sun? We got the builders specification. Still arguing the toss on this so stay tuned to hear what arguments the builders raise to ignore overhangs.


Roof Colour
This is such a basic and simple concept. Dark roofs are not good in a hot environment, the dark colour absorbs heat significantly more than light coloured ones. Australians understand this when they buy white or light coloured cars over black or dark coloured ones. Why don't they get it when they choose the colour of a roof? There is no difference in price. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Photovoltaic Cells
Now this is getting radical, but surprisingly not difficult. You wait for your house to be built and call the people out and they install the cells. None of them can offer any advice on what to include during construction. And no difference in price between doing it before or after.

Dual Water
Well here we have governments forcing the builders to do something, perhaps. New houses by law must have at least one toilet or laundry connected to rainwater. The tank must be at least 1000L in size. Sounds ok, but we wanted to make a more significant impact. Getting a bigger tank is easy and not expensive. The problem is getting the builders to install piping to both toilets and laundry. Again the specification says.......

Grey water
Now we are really getting out there. For those that haven't heard Australia has a little problem with lack of water. Most states have banned watering of lawns and until the earth's climate changes this is unlikely to change. On average people use 150L per day each. So in our family of 3 we are washing 450l each day down the drain. A big proportion of this is in showers and washing. Imagine if the water from showers and the washing machine could be used to water the garden? We could then have a nice green lawn, that will be a real luxury in a few years. Again this is not in the specification so more discussion with the builders.....we have a plumber who is willing to do this. But of course the sewage pipes are all in the concrete slab. The only time to change them is now, before the concrete goes down. Watch this space.