Sustainable House Day (SHD)- Sunday March 19

Did you know that you can take part in Sustainable House Day for free, from the comfort of your own home?

Eight free online sessions on March 19th, bring together SHD homeowners and experts to give you insights from lived experience as well as leading industry knowledge. 

It’s all part of the process to transform Australian homes for climate and energy resilience.

All the details are here.

You only need to register once to give you access to all sessions across the entire day. 

10AM Do it yourself: Owner-building

11AM Design for life: Accessibility and ageing in place

12PM Creating sustainable housing: Eco communities and co-housing

1PM Quick and easy? Exploring prefab and modular homes

2PM Running on sun: Using solar energy at home

3PM EVs and the grid: Understanding sustainable transport

4PM Maximum efficiency: Lowering your energy bills

5PM On the cheap: Sustainable design on a budget

Is Your House Sustainable?

Housing is changing rapidly. The cost is prompting many to renovate instead of relocate and new owners are looking to make their mark on their new home.

Both of these options provide an opportunity to build for a more resilient future to adapt and mitigate the effects of our rapidly changing climate on our living space and the broader community.

The Sustainable House Day organisation is offering a series of online courses, Sustainable Design 101, which provides an introduction to the fundamentals of sustainable design, perfect for those who are in the planning stages of a build, curious about improving their existing home, or even just dreaming of a future sustainable home.

Retrofitting for Resilience is the November theme. The sessions are held online from 6:30-8:30pm and are either $10 or free for members of Renew. All the details are at https://sustainablehouseday.com/

• Getting Started - ONLINE, 9th Nov
• Protection from embers and radiant heat ONLINE, 16th Nov
• Water and landscaping ONLINE, 23rd Nov
• Energy setups ONLINE, 30th Nov

Is your House Sustainable?

Housing is changing rapidly. The cost is prompting many to renovate instead of relocate and new owners are looking to make their mark on their new home.

Both of these options provide an opportunity to build for a more resilient future to adapt and mitigate the effects of our rapidly changing climate on our living space and the broader community.

The Sustainable House Day organisation is creating a year-long program, culminating in an open house event on 19 March 2023 and commencing this October with a series of online offerings, Sustainable Design 101. 

This online series is an introduction to the fundamentals of sustainable design, perfect for those who are in the planning stages of a build, curious about improving their existing home, or even just dreaming of a future sustainable home.

The October topics include-

• Where to start? ONLINE, 4th Oct 2022, 7-9pm (AEDT) 
• What is low energy design?  ONLINE, 11th Oct 2022, 7-9pm (AEDT)
• The basics of building materials. ONLINE, 18th Oct 2022, 7-9pm (AEDT)
• Energy systems and efficient design.ONLINE, 25th Oct 2022, 7-9pm (AEDT)

Retrofitting for Resilience is the November theme.

The sessions are held online from 6:30-8:30pm and are either $10 or free for members of Renew. 

All the details are at https://sustainablehouseday.com/

• Getting Started - ONLINE, 9th Nov
• Protection from embers and radiant heat ONLINE, 16th Nov
• Water and landscaping ONLINE, 23rd Nov
• Energy setups ONLINE, 30th Nov

Ideas to live Sustainably

Sustainable House day is Sunday Sept15 and if you’re looking for sustainable ideas and a

drive with a purpose you won’t have to go too far.

Hugh’s Solar Battery House is open again (143 Brighton Ave, Toronto) - As an environmental scientist, Hugh was aware of the need to move away from fossil fuels quickly. Solar panels with micro-inverters, a 10kWh battery and Sanden heat pump hot water system along with a small veggie garden, an electric scooter for heavy shopping trips and a Toyota Prius for longer trips are

some of the features on display.

Green Gullies at Martinsville (17km away) is an off grid architecturally designed modern house that combines a love for country living, self sufficiency and technology.

If you are up for a trip to Narara (45km away), the Narara eco-village has 8 homes on display at 25 Research Rd, Narara.

To get the address details you’ll need to go to the website https://sustainablehouseday.com/find-a-sustainable-house/

Are you thinking about how to keep cool?

Quite a few people have already thought about it.

The Cooling buyers guide to Active Cooling published in Dec 2018 by Renew magazine looks in detail at the options for active cooling such as fans, reverse-cycle air conditioning, evaporative air conditioners, hydronic cooling and ways to reduce cooling costs and impact on the grid.

The article provides a comprehensive table of air-cooling devices with brands, power ratings, airflow, features and RRP and links to other articles on heating and cooling your home.

Sustainable House Day (SDH)- September 16th

This year you can visit 
Hugh’s Solar Battery House in Toronto anytime between 10am-4pm

The full address will be displayed 2 weeks prior to SHD at https://sustainablehouseday.com

Hugh says:

As an environmental scientist, I was aware of the need to move away from fossil fuels quickly. In addition, my ageing father needed the house to be heated and cooled for long periods each day which was leading to large power bills.

So, beginning in October 2015 I installed a 4.94kW solar system on my garage. Each of the 19 panels has an Enphase micro-inverter so that I maximise the power output despite afternoon shade on some panels. Then in February 2017 I installed a 10kWh battery as part of a Suncrowd bulk buy scheme. Most recently, in August 2017, I installed a Sanden Heat Pump hot water system when the old off-peak tank started leaking. In 2015 I also renovated a granny flat downstairs using a second hand kitchen.

To round out my home’s sustainability, I have a small veggie garden, an electric scooter for heavy shopping trips and a Toyota Prius for longer trips

Sustainable features include:

• 4.94kW PV system incl. 10kWh battery 
• Sanden Heat Pump hot water system 
• EVs
• Veggie garden

Living Greener

Are you looking for ways to reduce your planetary impact, cut your energy costs
or retrofit your house for eco-efficiency but don’t know where to start and how
you’ll finance it?
There is an Australian Government program about at the moment called Green
Loans that can help you to assess your options and fund their implementation.
The three easy steps are 1.apply for a sustainability assessment, 2.get your
report, 3.apply for a Green Loan to fund the action that suit your needs and
budget. The Green loans can be upto $10,000 over four years.
The local Green Loans Sustainability Assessor is Russell Wilcox mob 0488 690
777. Ring for an appointment to start the process.

Feeling inspired to be more sustainable, but not sure where to start looking for
useful tips? The LivingGreener portal (http://livinggreener.gov.au) was
developed to provide a single starting point for Australians to find information
and inspiration on how to live greener. This government site is the perfect
stepping stone to sites detailing energy-saving programs, water and waste
reduction plans and hints on how to choose low-emission transport.
LivingGreener also includes information on the range of assistance and rebate
programs provided by the Government for things like insulation, solar hot water,
and rainwater and greywater tanks.
There are plans to progressively expand the scope of LivingGreener to include
state and territory government rebate information, local government initiatives
and information for schools and businesses.

Sustainable House Day - Sun 13 Sept 09, 10am-4pm

Sustainable House Day started in 2001 as an initiative of the Australia and New Zealand Solar Energy Society (ANZSES). It is an opportunity to visit sustainable houses in your area.
A local sustainable house at Fassifern is an amazing house that will be open on the day 10am-4pm, address details available from 1st September on the Sustainable House website.

Key Features:

• nine year old double split level - four bedrooms, two living areas, two cellars, three decks, kitchen, garage
• passive solar,
• single skin Hebel, high thermal efficiency 
• not connected to grid, water or sewer
• 1 kilowatt photovoltaic array
• 45,000 litre water storage tank
• dry composting toilets
• greywater diversion system
• solar hot water
• food garden
• access to public transport and cycleway
• net zero annual carbon emissions
• NatHERS 5 Star energy rated -owner designed and owner built

The best thing about this event, is the co-operation of sustainable homeowners who throw open their doors to the general public. In past years, the most positive feedback from visitors has been about the willingness of homeowners to share their stories. Talking about the lessons they’ve learnt – sharing the stories that have worked and the things that didn’t go so well – is just as valuable as looking through the house itself. For more information and to find the details of other houses in our region see: