Sanctuary: Modern green homes

Island Allure

This is an excerpt from an article in Sanctuary magazine issue 17.

An expansive, sheltered deck more than doubles the living area of this tiny Finnish summer retreat, and makes the most of rugged coastal views.

Words Sasha Shtargot
Photography Marko Huttunen

Walking along the northern cape of Mustaluoto Island,  in the Velkua archipelago off the coast of Finland, you could be forgiven for mistaking Villa Mecklin for just another rocky protrusion in the barren landscape. In colour, angular design and positioning, few homes could be said to have a more intimate relationship with the land around them.

Designed by architects Risto Huttunen, Santeri Lipasti and Pekka Pakkanen and built largely by owners Mika and Katja Mecklin, it’s a compact holiday home informed by sustainability and the beauty of its stark and dramatic island environment.

The 73 square metre wooden house is on a rocky site of 1.5 hectares. Back in 2004 when the architects first inspected the site, they decided the best position for the home was in a dip in the terrain. The back would be sheltered by trees and a slope, and the front would make the most of sweeping sea views.

Santeri explains: “The site is fabulous – it’s very rocky and sloping. We wanted to hide the building behind the trees so that it wouldn’t be so visible from the sea. It was also a kind of leftover place that wasn’t the nicest part of the site. We didn’t want to sacrifice any of the best areas to the building, so it’s peeking from behind the trees to catch the sea views and connecting to the nice rocky surroundings.” Nearby, close to the water’s edge, is a small sauna building (de rigueur in Finland) with a guest bedroom.

If you’d like to read the rest of this article you can buy this issue here.

Modern Vernacular

This is an excerpt from an article in Sanctuary magazine issue 17.

Off the grid and reworking the simple aesthetic of the rural sheds of the region, this central Victorian weekender works so well that the family’s moved in full-time.

Words Fiona Negrin
Photography Derek Swalwell

Melbourne architect Jerry Wolveridge began building a weekend retreat for his partner and himself in the small central Victorian town of Metcalfe three years ago. This year, with their two young children, the Wolveridges moved there permanently. Although he couldn’t have predicted this tree change when he started building the place, Jerry is already planning an extension. “It’s fantastic,” he says. “The kids want to be outside every minute they can. Compared to staying in our dog-box flat in Fitzroy, this was a no-brainer.”

As owner builder, Jerry gave himself free rein to explore the interweaving of sustainability concepts and aesthetic features at Metcalfe. “There’s a sense that environmentally sustainable design can be cumbersome and not aesthetically-minded. I wanted to show you can have both.” The building’s simple structure – a steep-pitched roof above a long rectangular living space – is a deliberate homage to traditional agricultural buildings of the region. “When I first came up this way I saw an old, Victorian-era farm shed,” says Jerry. He was drawn to its “full-height panels and the windows arranged in a slightly random way” and translated these features into his new build, where the exterior panels are full height from floor to roof line, and apparently random openings are book-ended by windows of different sizes. “The effect is that it’s logically ordered but looks slightly asymmetrical.”

If you’d like to read the rest of this article you can buy this issue here.

Independent lifestyle

This is an excerpt from an article in Sanctuary magazine issue 18.

Building an off-grid house was far from straightforward for these tree-changers, but the end result has been more than worth the effort.

Words Rachael Bernstone
Photograhy David Tooby

When Aaron Cuneo and Geoff Ross decided to relocate from Sydney to Hannam Vale, in the hinterland of New South Wales near Port Macquarie, they wanted their new home to be totally self-reliant.

“To connect to powerlines we’d have to cut down a track of bush one kilometre long and 10 metres wide, which would have been unsightly as well as expensive –quotes came in at $40,000, or $80,000 if we opted for an underground connection – so that was just not an option,” Aaron says. “Solar was the less expensive alternative, and more in line with what we wanted to do: build a passively designed and energy efficient home.”

After an initial quote by Sydney-based architect friends was beyond their reach, Aaron and Geoff spotted a house they liked at nearby North Haven. Seeking out the local architect, Ian Bailey, it quickly became apparent they were on the
same wavelength.

Aaron says Ian was perfect for what they wanted to achieve in terms of sustainability and he is local to the area, living in nearby Kendall. “When I showed Ian some pictures of what I had in mind, it was obvious to him that we were clients
who shared his ideas,” says Aaron.

If you’d like to read the rest of this article you can buy this issue here.

Know your panel

This is an excerpt from an article in Sanctuary magazine issue 3.

Until a decade or so ago, amorphous solar panels were lumbering giants, dwarfing their crystalline counterparts. They had an efficiency of around four per cent, so were large for their energy output. (Lower efficiency just means that a panel of a particular capacity is larger, not that it produces less energy than a higher efficiency panel of the same capcity.) Then Uni-Solar pushed the efficiency to around eight or nine per cent, making for smaller panels. Other brands like Kaneka and Schott Solar followed suit.

The main advantage of amorphous panels is that they use about one per cent of the silicon that crystalline panels do, so their embodied energy is a lot less. They also perform better in hot conditions, partial shade and overcast conditions.

Many manufacturers are focusing on amorphous (otherwise known as “thin film”) panels now due to the lower cost and simpler methods of manufacturing.

Solar hot water

This is an excerpt from an article in Sanctuary magazine issue 3.

In the average Australian household, hot water accounts for 30% of energy use. Water heating is second only to transport as a households largest cause of greenhouse gas emissions. However a solar water heater can reduce your emissions by as much as four tonnes of CO₂ or more per year—the equivalent of taking a car off the road! By using the energy from the sun to heat water at zero costs.

Depending on where you live and your climate a solar hot water system can provide between 50 and 90 per cent of your hot water needs. The initial purchase price will probably be higher than a similarly sized non-solar water heater but the savings made in energy bills will generally pay for this difference in less than 10 years—in as few as four years in some cases. A solar system generally has a longer lifespan than a conventional unit, so financial returns can be considerable over the life of the system.

This benefit has been recognised by the federal and some state governments and is encouraged in the form of renewable energy certificates (RECs) and rebates. Rebates vary from state to state, but can save you a great deal on the cost of a solar water heater, making them more economically viable.

Flat-panel and evacuated tube collectors

Most solar hot water systems use solar collectors (in the form of panels or tubes) to absorb energy from the sun. Water is heated by the sun as it passes through the collectors. It then flows into an insulated storage tank for later use.

The most common form of solar collector is the flat-plate panel. They consist of a dark coloured, metallic absorbing plate to which a network of pipes is bonded. This arrangement is then placed in an air-tight metal box with a glass cover on the top and insulation on the back and sides to reduce heat loss. As the sun shines on the collector panel the water in the pipes becomes hot due to conduction from the collector plate

In the last few years another type of collector has started to appear on the Australian market. These are known as evacuated tube collectors. They consist of two glass tubes (one inside the other) that are bonded to each other at each end to form a sealed space between them. The surface of the inner tube is coated with a heat-absorbing coating. The space between the two tubes has most of the gas removed from it (hence they are evacuated), which provides a high level of insulation. As solar radiation passes through the outer glass tube and heats the inner tube, it is trapped by the lack of gas, which would otherwise allow heat loss. As a result, the efficiency of these collectors is higher than flat plate collectors, and evacuated tube collectors are suited to colder climates as they even perform well on cloudy days.

Solar saviour

This is an excerpt from an article in Sanctuary magazine issue 3.

Solar power systems are made from a series of photovoltaic (PV) panels that directly convert energy in the form of light from the sun into electrical energy. Solar power can be used in all parts of Australia as long as you have a suitable site with a north-facing roof, or ground space that is not shaded during the day.

Until recently, the main reason that people chose a solar system was that they lacked access to the mains power grid. In rural areas it was cheaper to install a Remote Area Power Supply (RAPS) system than for connection to the grid. With a RAPS system the solar panels charge batteries, supplying the home with power when needed.

As solar gains in popularity in urban areas, grid-interactive systems are becoming the norm. With a grid interactive system the energy produced by the solar panels is fed directly into the mains grid via a device called an inverter. Any electricity produced, but not needed by the house at that time, is simply fed into the mains grid. The home can also draw power from the grid when the sun is not shining. This is the simplest system, and requires little or no maintenance, other than the occasional check to ensure it is still operating, and cleaning the solar panels of excessive dirt build up.

Size and costs

How big a system you need and how much it costs is dependent on how much energy your house consumes. Probably the most important part of system design that is often overlooked is the energy efficiency of a home. There is no point spending money on a solar system when the energy it generates is wasted. Spending a few hundred or even a couple of thousand dollars on more efficient appliances and making your home more energy efficient means you could buy a smaller solar power system.

The average home system is around 1.5 kilowatt (1500 Watts) of peak generating capacity. A 1.5 kilowatt system costs around $20,000 before the rebate, although the price depends on the options selected, such as whether the home has a suitable north-facing roof or if extra framing has to be added to the roof. Warranties on the components of solar systems range from one to 25 years, with solar panels usually guaranteed for 20 to 25 years.

Choosing a heater

This is an excerpt from an article in Sanctuary magazine issue 3.

The type of heating you need depends on the size and function of the space to be heated and how often and how many people use the space. When looking for a heater find out how much energy a heater will use, its long term running costs and how much pollution it will create.

Unless you create your own energy from a renewable source or purchase GreenPower, the energy used by your electric heater is sourced by greenhouse gas producing fossil fuels. Efficient gas heaters and reverse cycle airconditioners produce one third the amount of greenhouse emissions of standard electric heaters. They also have energy labels to help you choose the most efficient model. If looking for a space heater choose a 5-6 star natural gas heater or a 4-6 star reverse-cycle airconditioner. For central heating, zoned 4-5 star natural gas ducted heaters and zoned natural gas hydronic systems are the most economical.

Wood can be a good fuel source if the wood is sustainably harvested and sourced locally. However, the smoke from wood fires is a major source of pollution, and open fires lose 90 per cent of their heat up the chimney. If using wood make sure it is sustainably sourced and use a slow combustion heater to the manufacturer’s instructions.

Solar heaters

Almost all of the energy available on the planet today comes or has come from one place—the sun. Yet, very little of it is used directly by people. There are two forms of active solar heating available in Australia; flat plate collectors and solar boosted hydronic heating.

Flat plate collectors consist of a large flat glass covered box used to heat air which is then pumped into the home using a fan. Small (approximately 1 x 2 metres) flat plate heaters can be used to heat individual rooms, while larger (approximately 3 x 4 metre) roof-mounted collectors can heat an entire home, at least when the sun is shining.

You can also use the sun’s heat to provide some (or sometimes all) of the heat to a storage-type hydronic heating system. Indeed, some hydronic systems that use solar evacuated tubes are designed to be primarily heated by solar, with gas or electric boosting as a backup.

Whatever system you choose, remember that the best way to save energy, money and reduce your greenhouse emissions is with good house design. By reducing heat loss you can maintain a comfortable temperature inside, regardless of the temperature outside.

Save energy

This is an excerpt from an article in Sanctuary magazine issue 6.

Get a solar hot water system. A solar water heater can reduce the greenhouse emissions of an average family by as much as four tonnes of carbon dioxide per year – the equivalent of taking a large car off the road.

Buy energy-efficient appliances, particularly big-ticket items such as fridges, washing machines, dishwashers and TVs (choose LCD over plasma). For a comparison of appliances, see www.energyrating.gov.au.

Replace your incandescent lights with compact fluorescent or light-emitting diodes. Shun “low-voltage” halogen downlights – these are major users of electricity and require you to put gaps in the ceiling insulation to let their heat dissipate.

Turn off appliances with standby power (evident from the little lights that shine on them even when they’re “off”) at the plug. The “phantom load” these consume while idle can add up to as much as 10 per cent of your total energy bill.