We are living in a time where most folks are contemplating ways of how they can help to reduce their carbon emissions to preserve the planet now and for future generations.
We get this, and our team love to make suggestions to our clients to assist them in making their lovely new home more liveable and comfortable in all seasons. And, as a bonus, these same suggestions will assist you in decreasing your greenhouse emissions.
And if we are looking at reducing emissions, then the single best way to do this is to reduce your power usage. So, we have curated a list of four suggestions below which will help in this regard.
- Thicker external walls to allow for an increase in wall insulation.
- Install solar glaze glass or double-glazed windows.
- Install ceiling fans in all living areas, bedrooms, and outdoor living areas.
- Install whirlybirds on the roof.
THICKER EXTERNAL WALLS TO ALLOW FOR AN INCREASE IN WALL INSULATION.
The standard construction of many homes in Eastern Australia incorporates the use of 70mm wall thickness on the external wall, including our own Westbuilt homes. Now, if you consider the extremes in weather, hot and cold, walls of this thickness are not the most efficient way that to insulate your home against the elements. We recommend you consider upgrading your external wall thickness to 90mm.
By doing this, we can increase the insulation rating of your external walls by installing R2.5 or R3.0 insulation batts, resulting in a home that is easier to heat or cool – meaning a more comfortable home and less power used!
INSTALL SOLAR GLAZE GLASS OR DOUBLE-GLAZED WINDOWS.
When considering energy-efficient design, our designers put in much effort into orientating your home just right to minimise exposure to the sun in the summer and maximise exposure to the sun in the winter.
However, we give little thought to the thickness of the glass used throughout the home. Anyone living in a region which endures hot and cold weather will have experienced sitting beside a window on a hot day and getting roasted by the heat being generated from the window. Likewise, in cold weather, the cold air made by the glass will fall and drag warmer are over the glass, thereby setting up a convection air current beside the window.
In short, the standard conventional glass will act as a heater in a cold room and an air-cooler in a warm place.
We suggest using either solar glaze windows, which use a much thicker treated glass than conventional windows or double glazed windows. Either
of these window types will help rectify this issue and make the home more
efficient to heat and cool.
INSTALL CEILING FANS IN ALL LIVING AREAS, BEDROOMS, AND OUTDOOR LIVING AREAS.
Installation of ceiling fans is a great advantage to assist in the reduction in the cost of cooling your home.
You may say, how does that reduce costs? “I thought that ceiling fans use electricity”, and of course, you are right. However, if you have a ceiling fan in a room, you will use that before you turn on an air conditioner and once the heat of the day rises to such a point where you need the air-conditioning, the fans will help spread the fresh air. You can then always set your air conditioning to a higher temperature, thereby using less power! Helpful for the back pocket as well!
Install whirlybirds on the roof.
Have you ever been in a ceiling on a hot day? Most likely as little as possible because the experience is always so unpleasant. Some ceiling cavities will reach temperatures many 10’s of degrees warmer than the actual outside air temperatures – which is terrible for the energy efficiency of your home.
Apart from additional insulation, we recommend you consider a “whirlybird” or roof ventilator. These whirlybirds are designed to extract the hot air trapped in the ceiling. And this results in your ceiling cavity being fresher and cleaner and means that your ceiling insulation will work far more effectively.
And as a bonus, warmer is wind-driven and do not require any power to supplement their operation.
CONCLUSION
We trust this will assist you in your considerations. As always, our endeavour at Westbuilt is not just to build modular homes, but to provide genuine assistance for our clients so that ultimately, they reach their design objectives to live in as comfortable conditions as possible.
Find out more info on how to design a more energy-efficient home!
