GreenSmart Professional
What is Green Smart?
It is a common sense approach to designing and building your new home with an emphasis on making it as comfortable and as energy efficient to live in as possible.
Important things to take into consideration are:-
Orientation
Orientation refers to the correct placement of the building on the block to allow sun to penetrate in winter and to minimise this in summer.
The efficient design of eaves on the northern side lets the sun into the home in winter, warming it naturally and reducing heating bills. It also prevents the hotter summer sun - which is at a higher angle - from entering the home, reducing the need to artificially cool the home in summer.
Ventilation
Ventilation is the movement of air through and around the home. Ventilation can be achieved using both mechanical & natural methods. Mechanical methods include ceiling fans & externally ducted exhaust fans. Natural methods include the location and orientation of openings (doors & windows) to allow the flow of air across rooms, and roof-mounted systems to extract hot air from the roof cavity. It is also important to minimise draughts throughout the home by sealing gaps in doors & windows.
Insulation
Insulation should be seen as the first line of defence against the external elements after incorporating passive solar design as it reduces heat loss and heat gain through walls, roofs and floors and flooring systems.
Thermal Mass
Thermal mass refers to the ability of a material to absorb heat energy. High density materials such as concrete bricks & tiles have a high thermal mass which allows them to absorb a lot of heat, unlike timber which has alow thermal mass.
In winter, the correct positioning and treatment of thermal mass has the ability to absorb free heat from the sun during the day and re-radiate the heat through the house at night. In summer, the thermal mass absorbs any heat that entered the house during the day and cools it at night, which can help reduce internal temperature fluctuations between day & night.
Come and visit our Display Home at 94 Spring Street Toowoomba to discuss what a GreenSmart Professional can do for your new home.