“As I sit here looking out the windows I feel as though I’m in the garden, all while being warm and dry … and with no mosquitos!” Elaine Gifford smiled.
The house Elaine is referring to is the sustainable home in Harrison she shares with her husband John Gifford, where they’ve lived happily since 2006.
Their ‘millennium’ house is a standard sustainable house design from the 2000’s era, accentuated by the iconic curved roof, which controls the internal circulation of heat through its natural convection.
“When we were starting to design our home, we went to a series of display houses put on by the Passive Solar Society in the middle of winter, and that was very impressive to us,” John said.
“We learnt the main thing that makes a home sustainable is the orientation.”
They ended up designing a simple rectangular house comprised of three living areas and two bedrooms, with the entire northern wall completely made of glass, and surrounded by a wonderous garden.
“It’s so simple, but the glass side faces north with the sun shining through. The air heats and naturally rises, and the curve of the roof makes it stay quite warm,” John said.
“We have hardly any heating, just one gas heater which is supposedly of enough capacity to heat one large living room, dependent on the sun, so we only use it during grey days,” Elaine said.
The house is built out of precast concrete which was installed in one day with a huge crane and two semi-trailers.
The concrete walls capture and retain the heat in winter, while the design creates good air circulation in summer.
“Shade in summer is important, so along the north side we have triple-layer roman blinds which we let down during hot days, and we also have a full-length pergola where we trained ornamental grape vines to provide dense shade in summer, so we actually don’t need to pull them down as much anymore,” Elaine said.
“We also have ceiling fans, but we haven’t used them.”
According to John, the four key elements to designing a sustainable home are orientation, thermal mass to hold the heat, circulation to keep the air flowing, and insulation.
“The insulation around the slab goes down 80cm. To put it so low allowed the temperature inside to be the same as it is at that depth, which doesn’t change much throughout the year,” John said.
“Someone measured the floor once actually, and it was 18 degrees Celsius all year round.”
When it comes to utility bills, John and Elaine couldn’t be happier with their low-cost lifestyle.
“In the last 12 months, during all four seasons, it was $1000 for electricity and $750 for gas, which included heating water since we don’t have solar water heaters,” John said.
“We know they’re good [solar water heaters], and so are the PV solar panels, but we felt we’re a bit old and wouldn’t get our money back.”
Elaine and John have three daughters, nine grandchildren and one great grandchild, and said everyone in the family can fit comfortably in the home, and not feel on top of one another.
“This home is very suitable for retirement, except for when I went to the physio and they wanted me to do exercise on a step, we couldn’t find one because it’s all one level,” John smiled.
“We read when we were building the home that retired couples need to get away from each other at times, which we verify, and this place has good space for that.”
When asked what their favourite part of the home is, both John and Elaine had very similar answers.
“My favourite part is the space and the brightness,” Elaine smiled.
“Mine is having some private time for reading in my very comfortable chair in the bedroom, which on a winter’s day is very nice,” John said.
The advice they would give to anyone looking at building their own sustainable home is that investing in yourself, and your life, is important.
“It might cost more than some others to build but give it a few years and you’ll have that money back and more. Oh, and it’s good for your health,” Elaine said.
