With the build complete, here’s the final reveal, albeit with landscaping still to come.
2021-02-18
By Richard Keech
OK, here it is. We moved in nearly two weeks ago. It’s every bit as good as we’d hoped. Too early to know much about how the house performs from an energy point of view, but initial indications are promising.
Photo Gallery
Key features
| NatHERS rating | Design rating 8.1. As-built rating 8.4 stars |
| Certification | Passive House plus (pending) |
| Areas | Indoor: 132m2 ; Roof: 235.6m2; Garage: 31.8m2 |
| Configuration | 3 bedrooms, split-level |
| Construction | Timber floor on stumps, 140mm stud-frame. |
| Cladding | Reverse board and batten with radial-sawn timber |
| Glazing | Triple-glazed, timber-framed |
| Hot water | 160L internal tank, CO2 heat-pump, 5L/min shower heads |
| Heating/cooling | Two small split systems |
| PV | Panels: 22x330W Trina Honey = 7.3 kW
Inverter: Fronius Gen24 Plus Symo 6.0 (hybrid, 3-phase) |
| Other | Green roof on garage,
Colorbond, corrugated roof (colour: Surfmist) |
Building energy efficiency
| Ceiling insulation | R6 glasswool batts |
| Wall insulation | R4 glasswool batts. Augmented with 25mm XPS where required to minimize thermal bridges. |
| Floor insulation | R5 glasswool batts enclosed between vapour-permeable layer and floor sheeting. |
| Glazing units | Low-e, argon-filled, triple-glazed with warm-edge spacers. Ug values from 0.58 to 0.67 |
| Window frames / mechanism | Painted, finger-jointed pine frames with powder-coated aluminium face. Mix of 68mm and 88mm frame thickness. Mix of fixed windows, tilt-and-turn, sliding door, hinged doors. |
| Glazing performance | Average window U value (Uw) of 0.79.
Average window solar heat gain of 0.44. |
Passive House features
| Vapour-permeable layer | Solitex Extasana (walls and subfloor) and Solitex Mento Plus (roof), by Proclima |
| Air-tight layer | Intello by Proclima |
| Air-tightness | 0.58 (ACH50) as tested at completion |
| Heat Recovery Ventilation | Stiebel Eltron LWZ170e Plus with FEQ air-quality sensor and additional outside-air filter box.
100-300m3/hour air-flow (13-250W power). |
Design features
| Roof | Novel asymmetric gable with sloping ridge line. North: 34°; South: 17°. Supports excellent solar generation. Eave extensions on east and west provide generous shading. Exterior north wall fully shaded in summer by careful eave configuration. |
| Posts | 200mm Cypress posts hold down the eave extensions and provide a dramatic visual feature. |
| Posture | The floor structure is raised and cantilevered around the perimeter, giving the house a slightly elevated, crouching posture. |
| Glazing config | The glazing across the north side takes the form of a ribbon window, with black panels completing the cladding in the sections between the windows to round out the ribbon effect. |
| Vaulted ceiling | The main living/kitchen area has a vaulted ceiling using ply sheets with expressed joints and subtle whitewash finish. |
| Split-level | The single story is split across three levels to follow the slope of the land. This means the interior sill height for the north glazing changes with each of the three levels, as part of the ribbon window arrangement. |
| Garage recessed | The garage is separate from the home and dug into the slope. This makes its roof low enough to open up sight lines from the elevated east end of the house, over the top of the garage. |
heating and cooling
| Split systems | Two-port 5.2kW inverter multi-split system from Mitsubishi Electric (MXZ-2F52VF-A1), with two 2.5kW internal units (MSZ-AP25VGD) CoP of 3.8 (heating), 3.7 (cooling). |
| Fans – Bed 2,3 | Haiku L, 52”, from Big Ass Fans. Hybrid resin blades. |
| Fans – Bed 1, Living | Haiku H, 60”, from Big Ass Fans. Bamboo blades. |
Appliances and lighting
| Feature downlights | Brightgreen SHX Curve (mix of 550, 900 and 2000 lumen). |
| Cooktop | Miele 80cm induction with downdraught, recirculating extraction and carbon filter.
Model KMDA7774FL. |
Materials & finishes
| Cladding | Radial-sawn silver-top ash from Radial Timber Sales. BAL 29. Class 2 durability. |
| Floor boards | Tasmanian Oak |
| Tiles | Feature tiles: Make: Inax; Style: Yohen Border
Floor tiles: Make: Fiandre: Style: Fjord White |
| Paints / Stains | Internal walls: Low VoC.
Floor boards: Ply ceiling: Posts: Cutek Extreme |
Shading control
| Exterior | Motorised zip blinds fitted into façade over east (sliding door and one window) and west (one window). Zipner units provided by Logikhaus |
| Interior | Cellular blinds by Nordic Blinds on most glazing. Top-up-bottom-down configuration allows flexible control over shading and privacy |
Water-saving features
| Shower heads | Methven Kiri Satinjet ultra-low flow (5L/min) |
| Tank | 10kL underground tank with rainwater harvesting |
Credits
Designer
Luke Middleton – EME Design www.emedesign.com.au
Builder
Dave Martin – Martin Builders www.martinbuilders.com.au
Green roof
John Hassell – Greenly www.greenly.com.au
Glazing
Logikhaus www.logikhaus.com.au
Blinds
Nordic Blinds www.nordicblinds.com.au
Air conditioning
Mitsubishi Electric www.mitsubishielectric.com.au
Heat recovery
Stiebel Eltron www.stiebel.com.au
Hot water
Reclaim Energy www.reclaimenergy.com.au
Solar panels
Trina www.trinasolar.com
Inverter
Fronius www.fronius.com/en