Acoustic Suspended Circle Being of Italian extraction, when we get together we can get quite boisterous, and we’ve got a lot less soft furnishings in this room than we used to have. So again, lots of reflected sound. And so that’s why we’ve added another Horizon Circle over the table; a suspended circle. We [...]
Acoustic 3D Wall Tiles Here’s something that we’ve done quite recently to this home. You can see behind me in these red tiles. These are called Quietspace 3D tiles, and we’ve put them up in conjunction with a hanging feature above me. That’s called a “Horizon Circle”. Why have we done this? Well, it’s about [...]
Big Ass Fan What you see above me is the Haiku Big Ass Fan. Now, this is a pretty big room so we thought we’d need a pretty big fan. We did in the past have just a regular fan, and the quality was not very good, so we thought we’d go with this. I [...]
Panel LED, Painted Ceiling & Solarventi Outlet Sometimes things are done for aesthetic reasons and others are done for energy reasons. So above us, we’ve got these LED panels which we use to replace the previous energy-intensive lighting. When these panels came, they were a really harsh daylight colour and there were a lot of [...]
Suspended Drying Rack One of the things that are reasonably challenging here in the Macedon Ranges in the wintertime is how to dry your washing. We don’t like to use the dryer, so here’s something that we really love. A drying rack! Now because we’ve got a really high cathedral ceiling, this is ideal. You [...]
Renshade Roller Blinds The blind that you see behind me is a Renshade chain pull blind. Renshade is this material that you see. It’s reflective on both sides, it’s got little holes in it, and it’s amazing at stopping the heat. In particular, it’s great for western facing windows, where you’ve got the blistering sun. [...]
Installing ecoGlaze Retrofit Double Glazing One of the things that were paramount in improving the overall thermal performance of this home was to do something with the glazing. Because it’s such a big place, it’s got so much glass, and especially here in the living room, it was really where we had to do something. [...]
Stainless Flue Hot Water Heating In the early days here, one of the first things that we did was we decommissioned the two central gas-fired heating systems. Now, because we live in the countryside, it was LPG. It was really expensive to run and not very helpful because the heating simply came out from [...]
Draught Proofing the Living Room The journey really started with draught-proofing. In the living room, it turned out that there were a lot of draughts. We didn’t really think that it was a draughty place, but when you look carefully, there was quite a lot to do. Because this is a cathedral ceiling, there are [...]
Entrance Landing In the entrance down into our living room, there’s a couple of steps. When we first came here, there were a few little steps with really sharp edges, making it a little tricky to navigate. One of the things that we did was to make this entrance landing a bit larger. The platform [...]
Air Lock Draught-proofing a front door is one thing, but when people are coming and going, if this is your main heated area, you’re definitely losing a lot of heat every time the door opens. And of course, if you’ve got kids you can expect the door to be left open. That’s just a fact [...]
Draught Proofing the Front Door This is our front door. Because this is the ecoMaster test house, this door has over the years had lots of different treatments; door perimeter seals and door bottom treatments. We have learned lots about things that don’t work and how to design things that do work. For example, originally [...]
Old heritage homes may be stunning and highly valuable in the housing market, but they offer a different dilemma to their owners: Renovating them is hard work and they are expensive to maintain! Among the most difficult aspects to improve and maintain in almost all heritage homes, whether it be a Victorian, Edwardian, or a [...]
A well-planned home retrofit plan that puts your comfort and financial situation first can improve the quality of your life for years ahead. Here are five good reasons why upgrading your insulation and draught proofing your home is the most sensible thing to do in summer: 1. Retrofitting your home for thermal efficiency helps lower [...]
Are you looking for cost-effective home retrofit solutions that will help you lower your annual energy cost while increasing your thermal efficiency all year round? Firstly, exactly how much can you save? From personal experience, our total bill reduced by 84%. And that was before solar panels were installed! The significance is the size of [...]
Are you looking at upgrading your thermal comfort in summer and winter? You don’t have to look far and wide. The solution you need may be right underneath your floorboards! Installing insulation under your house can give a massive lift in your home’s thermal efficiency. An insulated floor protects your home from unwanted heat gain [...]
Having problems with tenant retention? You might need to carefully assess how your property is performing in terms of thermal comfort. Most tenants are concerned with the level of thermal and energy efficiency they are getting from their rentals. It doesn’t matter how your property sits in a strategic location in the city or suburb. [...]
As temperatures begin to rise in Australia, we are being encouraged to retrofit our homes for thermal efficiency to stay cool amid the heatwave conditions and to lower our energy consumption. This came after the Australian Bureau of Meteorology tweeted on 16 January 2019 that their office had just recorded Australia’s top ten warmest days. [...]
Fireplaces provides warmth and a comforting ambiance during the colder months. But on normal days, other than giving your living room a rustic vibe, unused chimneys are gigantic holes that remove conditioned air from your home and let in the outside air in a very uncontrolled manner. This is why draught-proofing a chimney is imperative [...]
When the colder months set in, many turn to their fireplace for a warm refuge. Indeed, nothing beats a crackling fire in keeping the whole family toasty amid a frigid Aussie winter. However, when not in use, an open chimney can become a thermal nuisance if you’re working hard to maintain your home at comfortable [...]
