Challenge of Energy Inefficient Housing
My wife and I returned to Australia in 2020 after spending the last decade living off grid on our sailboat in the United States, Mexico and Canada. After several iterations of solar, wind, lead acid, carbon foam and lithium batteries and some emerging new tech for off grid power management we were able to live comfortably off grid. After travelling across the Americas and Europe during our time overseas we had the privilege of spending time in some interesting and energy efficient airbnb and short term rental properties. We’d purchased some land in South Australia back in the mid 2010s and we were keen to design and build an energy efficient and modern architecture.
We initially followed the traditional path starting with an Architect, then a builder, then construction. I was broadly aware of Australian standards and building practices from my consulting work in the 90s; but as we researched further we became increasingly despondent about the resistance in Australia to building something other than an over priced tent clad in colourbond panels which is the typical Australian standards compliant house.
After researching Passive Houses in Australia we did find a Passive House certified Architect; but his solution to everything was SIP panels which we didn’t want to use in a multistorey commercial build. In fact the Australian Passive House association, which has 16 board members but seemingly none who had built any passive houses and our ‘single threaded’ architect we’re not going to be of assistance.
We did use a Passive House aware building designer, who we met through an architect, for initial concepts and local government development approval. However, our desire to use high thermal mass commercial building methods (concrete tiltup and steel structure) were not familiar to this designer.
Finally we decided to sub contract all work from detailed design through to build ourselves. My wife and I are no stranger to complex project delivery. This post describes the evolution of the 3D CAD model to align with commercial building practices using concrete and steel to develop a design that would exceed Passive House design criteria and operate off grid including powering of an advanced engineering workshop that includes machining, welding and compressed air functionality. Future posts will dive deep on Passive House energy modelling, solar irradiation modelling and off grid energy and water and waste modelling.
Passive House CAD Model
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