Kristina and Joey in collaboration with their architects at Stallard Meek Flightpath Architects (SMFA), were keen to explore what energy efficiency and sustainability initiatives could be used to enhance their forever home.

With a passion for all things sustainability, especially around food sustainability, Kristina and Joey were keen to push the boundaries of their home while being conscious of the balance between the economics, architectural aesthetics and sustainability of their forever home.

Engagement with ARKATA came early after concept plans had been developed for the home. This is the time in which a project is most flexible and where the possibilities of energy efficiency and sustainability can be explored holistically.

The Mission

Five core outcomes guided our collaboration:

1. Recommend a balanced home specification list that achieves the highest energy efficiency outcomes within the overall budget.

2. Provide a clear and simple way to understand each enhancement, their cost-effectiveness, and their impact on the home’s performance.

3. Provide Kristina and Joey with a full understanding of the energy efficiency of their home and how to implement the recommendations made

4. Provide straightforward building approval

5. Kristina and Joey to understand how to operate their home and to get the most out of the investment into higher energy efficiency outcomes with a Homeowner’s Manual

Starting Point: Energy Baseline

To provide recommendations aligned with the guiding objectives, the first task was to understand the home’s current energy efficiency levels.

Firstly, our interpretations and review of the site highlighted initial challenges that the home had to contend with.

The sites predominant orientation placed a lot of living spaces on the Western side of the site, with north being towards the street and front elevation of the home. With a challenging site came difficult placement of the Garage and Utilities, however, with architectural constraints and challenges came the need for unique solutions.

A courtyard was placed on the Western side of the home that separated the main living spaces with the private quarters and played a critical role in bringing northern sunlight into the main living spaces.

With Kristina and Joey’s desire to bring natural sunlight into the home and be connected with the outdoors (mainly, in Kristina’s words, to be able to look after their cat!), SMFA designed a home that facilitated these needs into a design that has plenty of potential for great energy efficiency and sustainability outcomes.

With modest base specifications to get started, the home began at 3.6 Stars and required more heating throughout the year.

Key Findings & Suggestions

Through an iterative investigation of various aspects of the home’s design and construction, several opportunities were identified for enhancing the home’s energy efficiency.

1. Maximise insulation: Improving the building fabrics ability to separate the outdoor environment from the homeowner’s internal environment was key. By increasing the timber framing to 140mm thick to allow R4.0 insulation, and increasing the ceiling insulation to its maximum had outsized influence on the home’s performance

2. Maximise window performance: By implementing uPVC double glazed windows, Kristina and Joey were able to maintain their window to floor ratios and continue to embrace their desire for outdoor connection while minimizing heat gain and loss throughout the year

3. Insulate and separate the garage: Introducing thermal separation between the garage and the home as well as the garage and outdoors yielded significant improvement in the home’s performance

4. Minimise ceiling penetrations: Through careful consideration of product specifications, minimising ceiling penetrations reduced ceiling insulation loss and thus improved energy efficiency performance

5. Shade windows & skylights externally: Shading windows and skylights externally improved energy efficiency by removing solar heat gain throughout summer, it also provided Kristina and Joey with control over their indoor environment

6. Maximise ventilation: Through the combination of strategic selection of window opening styles and implementation of appropriately sized ceiling fans, Kristina and Joey are able to take advantage of high levels of natural ventilation throughout the site

By incorporating these enhancements, the home’s performance increased to 8.1 Stars and cut both heating and cooling needs in half when compared to 7.0 Stars.