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🌿 Sustainable Homes Tour – Willunga Hosted by Willunga Environment Centre in collaboration with Sustainable Onkaparinga - a unique behind-the-scenes look at two inspiring sustainable homes.
We’ll start with a short talk at the Willunga Environment Centre, then take a quick walk or drive to visit both properties.
🏡 Footprint Garden Farm
See how “Electrify Everything” works in real life—from an EV and all-electric tools to a fully integrated, low-energy home and urban permaculture garden. This thoughtfully designed small-footprint home showcases passive design, high insulation, and practical ways to live comfortably while reducing energy use and emissions.
🏠 Electrified & Retrofitted 1970s Home
Discover how a typical brick veneer house has been transformed over time into a highly efficient, all-electric home. With upgrades including solar, insulation, double glazing, and battery storage, this is a powerful example of what’s possible through staged retrofitting.
📍 Willunga Environment Centre
🕒 10:30am, 31 May
🚶 Short walk/drive between properties
👉 Learn more about Sustainable House Day: https://www.sustainablehouseday.com
👉 Bookings essential: https://events.humanitix.com/electrify-everything-footprint-garden-farm-and-brick-veneer-electrified-and-retrofitted-home-willunga
Come along and get inspired to take the next step in your sustainability journey!
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MORE ABOUT EACH HOME
Footprint Garden Farm - “Electrify Everything” may be the latest catchphrase, but we can demonstrate that we planned and were able to achieve it with a minimum of fuss; plus using an EV, all-electric garden tools, and now even an excellent electric BBQ which completes the picture!
Following our Eco Home Stirling, SHD openings, this latest (and last?) build – Footprint Garden Farm is the fourth home we’ve built and incorporates all the latest sustainability features that we were able to find and afford.
Our new block is smaller than our previous one, but we’ve finished creating an urban Permaculture ‘garden farm’, which we can show to those interested in a sustainable carbon sequestering lifestyle.
A smaller footprint constraint meant using a ‘loft style’ house plan, minimising waste space. We incorporated higher-than-average insulation with a low-cost self-designed wall, sub-wall and roof system; plus, high thermal mass, including a virtual ‘earth-coupled’ slab.
Our plan for ageing gracefully here includes low-maintenance cladding and top-quality fittings.
We can demonstrate how simple actions like changing the HW heat pump timer and running appliances (including ‘pre-conditioning’) while the sun is shining, help sustainable living.
Though only gaining a medium NatHERS certified rating (7.7 stars) due, we think, to software constraints, our passive design has gone through 8 years using very little summer cooling energy and not much winter heating either. We have graphed our power bills which indicate an actual rating nearer to 9+ stars with the benefit of our PV system. Now running at about $400 debit p.a. due partly to powering our EV, we’re still Carbon positive with power exports abating about 3.8 tCO2e pa!
RIP Susan Greenwood 1/2/1948 – 9/5/2024
Willunga Brick veneer electrified and retrofitted home - This project home, built in the 1970s, was typical of the era with no wall insulation and minimal in the roof. However we did rotate the design so the living areas faced north, and with abundant north glazing and an outdoor living area shaded by a deciduous vine, plus no west facing glass the house was ok. In the 1990s improvements were started, solar hot water, a pale roof repaint and plastic film ‘double glazing’ applied to some south facing windows. The next decade saw PV panels on the roof, blow in insulation installed in walls and roof, rainwater storage and circulation and an air-cond for heating. The 2010s included double glazing the extensive north facing glass, increasing PV to 4KW, painting the dark brick a pale heat reflecting colour. In this decade we have added an EV and upgraded power to 10KW PV and a storage battery. Electric mower, BBQ and bikes continue the story.
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Event Venue
15 High St, Willunga, SA, Australia, South Australia 5172, 15 High St, Willunga SA 5172, Australia, Mclaren Vale
Tickets
Concerts, fests, parties, meetups - all the happenings, one place.
