Help On Sustainable Renovation Advice In Sydney?

March 26th, 2009

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I’m hoping ‘someone out there’ can point this family in the right direction?

“Myself and young family live in Ryde in Sydney suburbia. We are doing renovations to our home. We are considering recycled/cob/mudbrick in our renovation, use of solar water heating and solar electricity, pond with silver perch and addition of small chicken run etc. Also the use of recycled and low embodied energy materials etc.

We want to make informed and affordable choices and are finding in some cases a lack of local expertise and inconsistent views. For example it seems mudbricks are $2.90 a pop from Nowra which is 6 times more expensive than a normal brick and only 60% more area.

I can not find a local builder who can make mudbricks on site. In any case not sure who to contact regards feasibility of mudbrick or for soil testing for suitablity.

Also it is interesting to find that for solar heating one company is saying the evacuated tubes is more efficient and another says it has less REC’s 28 instead of 30 for flat panel and so is not as effective.

I do not have the time at present to learn everything myself and do all myself so if anyone can point me to local experts I would be very grateful.

Cheers
Andrew, Fiona, Amelia and Josh”

Alexander Kohl Says:
March 26th, 2009 at 8:32 am
Regarding the mudbricks, you might find information in the Green Directory run by the Sustainable Living Foundation (http://www.slf.org.au/directory/index.php?page=greenpages).

Just one consideration with that is the insulation value of mudbrick. It is much better than ordinary bricks, so by the time you are adding insulation, plasterboard, etc. the cost difference might not be too different.

There is a clay render available from Rockcote (http://www.rockcote.com.au), an Australian company that produces sustainable render and paints.

Regarding solar hot water flat panel or tubes. The REC’s are a good basic efficiency rating. However, it is done under some generic conditions and does not take into account your specific circumstances.

A general rule of thumb: in colder climates tubes are better, in warmer climates without frost, the flat panels might be more beneficial.

One of the drawbacks of tubes is that they might produce too much hot water in summer which leads to the pressure valves opening and dumping water. Open flat panel systems prevent that by shutting off the heating when the water in the tank reaches about 70 degrees.

Good luck in your project, sounds very exciting.
Alexander
Laura Venuto Says:
March 27th, 2009 at 8:30 am
Get on to the website Happy Earth: http://www.happyearth.com.au – they are a young couple who sustainably renovated/retrofitted their 1950s ex-commission house in suburbia (Wollongong). They have a chicken run, a food forest, solar heating, water tanks, solar panels etc. There is a story about them in the April edition of Notebook: magazine. But their website is designed to help other people make sustainable changes to their homes, so you should find lots of useful info there. It basically takes you through their whole process from start to finish with some great before and after photos. Hope this helps and good luck! Laura.
Helen Says:
March 27th, 2009 at 8:41 am
Hey there……

Your project sounds fantastic, and I wish you the best of (sustainable)luck. I would recommend checking out this site:
http://www.greenmakeover.com.au/

Heaps of handy info on retro-fitting an established home for sustainability.

Hope this helps,

Helen
Jel Says:
March 27th, 2009 at 3:29 pm
We asked an experienced solar guy who said flat panels for Sydney, tubes for colder areas. Also tubes more vulnerable in hail.

We also found it’s hard to get expert advice or experienced tradies to do sust Reno work. You can waste a lot of time so it pays to focus on highest impacts n not sweat the small stuff.