geoff-gibson-homes

WINDOWS TO YOUR WORLD

Mon, 24 Jul 2023 01:57:58 GMT

Over the last few months in these Style magazine articles I have explored the importance of orientating your home to take advantage of the energy efficiency benefits of the natural environment; that is, positioning it to optimize the sun’s free warmth in winter and cooling breezes in summer. Then we have discussed the benefits of insulating the entire envelope of your home to improve its livable comfort and sustainability even further.

These two simple techniques can improve a basic 4.5 Star home — requiring over 110 MJ of heating and cooling energy per m2 over a twelve-month period — to a potential 8 Star home only requiring 40 MJ of energy per m2 over the same period for heating and cooling.

The next obvious cost-efficiency topic to consider are the windows and doors and how we can get a better energy outcome without putting too much pressure on the overall construction budget. Up to 40% of a home’s heat can be lost in winter through the glass and frames of the windows, the external doors, and skylights. In summer this is even more dramatic with up to 87% of the home’s internal heat gained through these external openings.

So, here’s some insight and tips on how to choose the best glazing options for your home, unit, or office. The properties of glass, for windows, are described in three distinct values.

1. Solar Heat Gain (SHGC). This measures the rate that energy from direct sunlight passes through the glass and frame of your external opening. The smaller the SHGC number the lower amount of solar heat is transferred into the building through that opening.

2. Conduction U Value (Uw). This gauges the resistance to heat flow that the entire door or window casement produces. Again, the smaller the number the better the product is at resisting heat flow into the building in summer or out of the same building in winter.

3. Visible light Transmittance (VLT). A low VLT number indicates a low heat gain through the window glass in summer (what you want), but too low a number is not good either, for it means the glass will also resist light in winter, making for a gloomy and cold home.

Using these properties as a guide we can determine the best glass to use for your building based on budget, how much natural light the orientation of your home allows for, and what other insulating factors are in place. The glass generally specified in most build quotes is clear float glass. I normally

suggest an upgrade to a low emissivity glass (low E) with a pyrolytic coating at the very least. This change alone will greatly improve your building’s thermal performance. Also, the glass can be configured in single, double or triple glazing and the frames themselves have a multitude of alternatives.

to choose from. We also always keep in mind the cost benefit ratio — spending thousands of dollars extra for only a small benefit is obviously not worth the expense.

Now that you have decided on the best glass and frames for your building, there are several other design adaptions that will enhance this selection.

Strategic placement of shading over the external openings can maximize thermal comfort by allowing in lower angled winter sunlight when you want warmth, but blocking the higher angled summer sun when you don’t want it. Placement and size of openings in the external envelope also enhance your building’s performance — smaller openings to the west and south, larger to the north. Importantly, more effective sealing around the external openings will reduce air infiltration and thus improve the performance of your home’s thermal properties.

The right glazing fitted correctly will make a significant difference to the comfort and energy performance of your home, unit, or office for the life of the building —and they are all ‘budget-conscious’ one-off expenses.

If you would like to know more, simply arrange a time to visit me at my Design Centre at 20 Stradbroke Street Toowoomba.

— Geoff Gibson

Insulating your home

Fri, 09 Jun 2023 00:34:18 GMT

“Do it once, do it right!”

Last month in Style magazine we discussed the reasoning behind — and the benefits off — orienting your home, unit, or commercial building to suit the climate.

Now, to further improve the environmental outcome and the comfort of your living spaces, these buildings need to be fully insulated to a standard that reflects local climate conditions.

What is insulation

Insulation is a material that resists or blocks the flow of heat energy. Insulation is used to reduce heat inside the home from escaping in winter, and to reduce heat outside the home from entering in summer.

These insulating materials are therefore strategically placed in the entire envelope of the building. Directly under rooves, above the ceilings, inside external walls, wrapped over the external walls, and inside internal walls separating garages from the living areas.

Why is Insulation Important?

Insulation acts as a barrier to heat flow and is essential for keeping your home warm in winter and cool in summer. A well-insulated and well-designed building not only provides year-round living comfort, but significantly cuts your cooling and heating bills, and reduces greenhouse gas emissions.

For insulation to be effective, it should work in conjunction with good passive design as we have previously investigated. Winter heat losses in an uninsulated building can be up to 35% through the ceilings and 25% through the walls. Summer heat gains in the same uninsulated building can be very similar.

There are a wide range of insulation products available.

Bulk Insulation uses air pockets trapped within its structure to resist the transfer of conducted and convected heat. Its thermal resistance is essentially the same regardless of the direction of the heat flow through it. Bulk insulation products come with an R value for a given thickness, and include materials such as:

• Batts of glass wool, natural wool, polyester, and others.

• Rolls of the same various materials

• Loose fill of natural wool, cellulose, and others.

• Rigid boards of polyisocyanurate, polyurethane, and others.

All these use the same principle of trapped air in still layers within its structure.

Reflective Insulation mainly resists radiant heat flow because of its high reflectivity and low emissivity (ability to re-radiate heat). The thermal resistance of reflective insulation varies with the direction of the heat flow through it. Reflective insulation redirects heat back to its source, and if the reflective insulation is double sided it does not re-radiate heat on the opposite side of the original heat source. Shinny side always faces the heat source.

Composite Insulation is a combination of both bulk insulation and a reflective surface. Examples include foilfaced boards, reflective foil-faced blankets, and foil-backed batts.

All these materials have what is called an R value which is its measure of thermal resistance. The ‘total R value’ is the addition of the R values of the various insulation components; under the roof, on the ceiling, in the walls, and under the floor. Total R values are used when calculating energy ratings to measure thermal performance.

Good insulation that works effectively requires the selection of correct product for your climate. The right insulation fitted correctly will make a significant difference to the comfort and energy performance of your home, unit, or office for the life of the building.

If you would like to know more, simply arrange a time to visit me at my Design Centre at 20 Stradbroke Street Toowoomba.

— Geoff Gibson

HOW TO GET YOUR SHARE OF THE SUN

Fri, 05 May 2023 01:33:39 GMT

“Winter is coming!”

This is very well-known line from Game of Thrones and as we have had our first glimpse

of winter recently, Winter Solstice is also coming. This is the time of year when the earth’s axis reaches its maximum tilt away from the sun — resulting in the shortest day of the year and the longest night of the year. On June 22 it’s the perfect time to see how well our homes have been positioned to maximise the ingress of the winter sun’s warmth.

Look at the house or unit where you are living now, to see how well that building has been positioned. Chances are that orientation — it’s optimal alignment to the winter sun — has not been considered at all in the design process. As a test, over the next few months on a cold day move through your home to find the warmest room. It will be on the north side or northeast corner of your building, and more than likely sitting very comfortably in that room will be your car! So often you will see the garage positioned in that northeast corner. Not always of course, but too often this is the outcome.

Good orientation can be achieved on almost any block, even small blocks, with careful home design. But to make the process easier for yourself, you should choose a site with good orientation in the first place and build to maximise the site’s potential for passive heating and passive cooling. Ideally, you should also research the site to find out more about the local conditions, especially prevailing breezes.

Locally in Climate Zone 5 (Warm temperate) the aim is to balance winter sun and summer shade.

North orientation of living spaces is desirable because the position of the sun in the sky allows full sun access in winter.

You can easily shade northern façades in summer with simple horizontal eaves.

Build closer to the southern boundary of the site to protect solar access and increase sunny north-facing outdoor living areas. The efficiencies of the home can be further improved by positioning laundries, bathrooms, and garages on the west or the south where possible.

Additionally, avoid west-facing bedrooms to maintain sleeping comfort. Use smaller, well-shaded windows to

increase cross-ventilation to the west, south and east.

When deciding the best orientation for your home, bear in mind that the climate is warming. Hotter summers with more extreme heat waves are becoming more frequent. Passive heating is still very desirable in most climate zones, but passive cooling is becoming more important.

Making it even easier... before you buy

I encourage all my clients to talk to me before they even commit to the purchase of a block of land, or even finalise

their home designs. It won’t cost you anything and may well save a whole lot of future heartache. I can visit the proposed building allotment to assess the site to make sure the allotment is able to deliver the outcome you envision, or it may simply require a slight tweak of your plans to accommodate everything you really need.

If you would like to know more, simply arrange a time to visit me at my Design Centre at 20 Stradbroke Street Toowoomba.

— Geoff Gibson

THE WONDER OF THERMAL MASS

Fri, 05 May 2023 01:25:25 GMT

AND HOW WE CAN USE IT TO COOL AND WARM OUR HOMES

Sustainable House Day was a great success with many people exploring the two inspiring homes that were open for the day. It was wonderful to see so many people from different walks of life genuinely interested in building and living sustainably.

One of the key factors in the efficiencies of the home that Geoff Gibson Homes had open on SHD was the integration of strategically placed thermal mass in the design to help achieve an 8.9 Star energy rating.

We are always trying to improve the environmental outcome of all our constructions, whether that be a bespoke urban cottage or a large commercial building. We are designing and building towards the reduction of the embodied energy of the build and reducing the ongoing operational energy of the individual projects.

To that end the placement of additional thermal mass in many different forms works well in both reducing the initial embodied energy of our construction and the ongoing operational energy of the building.

Materials with a high thermal mass give that substance the ability to absorb, store and release heat.

Examples of materials with high thermal mass we can use in our buildings are: rammed earth, concrete, brick, block, stone, Phase Change Materials, and even water.

To get these substances to work correctly, the layout of the design needs to place the thermal mass so it has sun

exposure in winter but summer shading. Another important factor is to make sure the material being used for thermal energy storage is thermally isolated from the external temperature changes.

Rammed Earth Walls are constructed by ramming a mixture of selected aggregates, including gravel, sand, silt, clay, and a small amount of cement, into place between flat panels of formwork. Rammed Earth at a density of 2000kg/m3 behaves as heavyweight masonry with a high thermal mass. All other things being equal, a high mass building material such as rammed earth remains close to the 24-hour average temperature, so reducing the temperature fluctuations.

Concrete, with a density of 2240 kg/m3 and usually part of most constructions, can be used very efficiently when correctly shaded and exposed. When the concrete is linked directly to other thermal mass materials you end up with a very large thermal storage working to make your home more comfortable year round.

Brick with a density of 1700 kg/m3 can be used in a reverse veneer situation within the building, placed on the inside of the insulated external frames throughout the building or as independent feature walls. Geoff Gibson Homes used this method extensively in our 9 Star energy rated “Satori” that was constructed in 2016 on Hume Street in Toowoomba. This particular home was awarded Queensland’s most energy efficient at the 2016 HIA Housing Awards.

Phase Change Materials are a recent inclusion in a building designers tool kit. PCMs use the power of phase change to actively absorb and release heat. These ‘phase changes’ help maintain constant, comfortable building temperatures. PCMs shift the warmth of the day into the night and the cool of the night into the day, all the while passively keeping a near constant room temperature. A great advantage of PCMs is their light weight and slim profile.

In an area like the Darling Downs where we have a great diurnal temperature range, a well-located high thermal mass wall or floor can supply a battery of useful thermal storage to make your home more comfortable, without you lifting a finger, or costing you a cent.

If you would like to know more, simply arrange a time to visit me at my Design Centre at 20 Stradbroke Street

Toowoomba.

— Geoff Gibson

Sustainable House Day 2023

Fri, 05 May 2023 01:19:17 GMT

Sustainable House Day is an event organised byRenew. It provides the opportunity to explore some of Australia’s most unique and inspiring homes, and learn from the people who designed them, built them, and live in them.

One of Geoff Gibson Homes most energy efficient homes will be open for inspection on Sustainable House Day on

Sunday, March 19th.

If you would like to part of this event, all the details will be available from Renew, the organisers of this event. Geoff

Gibson Homes are proud to be members of Renew and have been involved with Sustainable House Day in previous

years with several homes open for Inspection.

Renew is a national, not-for-profit organisation that inspires, enables, and advocates for people to live sustainably in their homes and communities. Established in 1980, Renew provides expert, independent advice on sustainable solutions for the home — to households, government, and industry.

This year, Sustainable House Day will have free online sessions featuring experts and Sustainable House Day homeowners. You’ll be able to explore homes on their website, and in-person at selected local events.

One of our clients has kindly agreed to showcase their unique home on SHD. This home has employed many different technologies to make it more sustainable and exceptionally energy efficient. With an Energy Rating of 8.9,

this home requires only a fraction of the energy normally required to heat and cool a home. It is naturally warmer in

winter and naturally cooler in summer by harnessing the energy of the sun and storing that energy in strategically

placed thermal mass. As well as being one the most energy efficient homes in the region, it has a very low environmental footprint by the choice of low Embodied Energy building materials.

The home’s design started with collaboration between our clients and building designer Ross Campbell from Eco

Blueprints. Textbook orientation and a plan layout designed with a narrow western façade and a maximised northern façade get the design off to a great start.

Throughout the home we have employed the use of polished Earth Friendly Concrete floors for the dual purpose of reducing the home’s embodied energy and decreasing the operational energy. Portland cement is the largest contributor to a typical home’s potential carbon emissions — but Earth Friendly Concrete doesn’t use cement at all in its binding process (reducing this home’s environmental impact dramatically). Central to the plan is a Stabilised Rammed Earth wall, creating a unique internal thermal battery.

Rammed Earth Walls are a very traditional technology that through the materials’ high thermal mass, help in the

reduction of temperature fluctuations. In an area like the Darling Downs where we have a great diurnal temperature range, a well-located Rammed Earth Wall can supply a battery of useful thermal storage to make your home more comfortable.

The efficiencies of this home are further enhanced with northern pergolas for the summer shading and western roofed pergolas, to help exclude western sun.

The entire envelope of this home is fully insulated — like all our homes — but this home has the added benefit of

thermally broken windows including Low E smart glass.

At Geoff Gibson Homes we are always looking for new products or reinventing traditional materials to improve the

energy outcome of our homes and reducing the potential environmental impact the construction of our homes can

generate.

If you would like to know more about this home or how you could incorporate some of the features of this home into your new home design, come out to this open house to catch up with me onsite.

— Geoff Gibson

Designing for Climate Change

Mon, 06 Feb 2023 02:44:08 GMT

A couple of years ago in Style, we ran an article focussing on the importance of designing homes to suit whichever climate zone you live in. Australia has eight climate zones and 69 regional subzones — all defined by the National Construction Code (NCC).

In our local region we have three distinct climate zones. The Toowoomba region is in Climate Zone 5 (warm temperate — needing both heating and cooling) the Lockyer region is in Climate Zone 2 (warm humid summer, mild winter — needing mainly cooling) and out on the Western Downs, it is Climate Zone 3 (hot dry summer, warm winter — mostly cooling), so if you want to minimise your ongoing household running expenses, we need to design with different priorities in mind to suit these diverse climates.

According to the NCC, each of these climate zones require different design and construction strategies to capitalise on sustainable efficiencies. Your local climate will dictate your heating and cooling needs and thus the most effective and cost-efficient design approaches.

So, while our local zones are quite diverse in climate, generally the fundamental aspects of good home design do not change in these three distinctive zones.

However, it is important to appreciate these codes have been based on what has been the fairly reliable weather patterns of the past, but this appears to be changing before our very eyes — Sydney and Victoria have experienced their coolest and wettest Spring since records began in 1858!

While we understand these cycles mostly come and go as part of ‘normal’ weather patterns, no-one can predict their precise timing, or more critically, how extreme they will be. And just to add another spin to the weather roulette wheel, according to the World Meteorological Organisation, the past eight years have been the warmest on record — at least 1C above the pre-industrial levels of 1850-1900. And the easing of the current La Nina effect is likely to be replaced with the drier, warmer El Nino.

Regardless of any preconceived or favoured views on‘climate change’, wisdom would dictate that any new home should be built with ‘plenty of scope to more than cope’ with whatever extremes of weather blow against you. Because, it seems, EXTREME is the one thing we can now be sure of, and therefore should do our best to prepare for.

The good news here is that — our normal building processes and practices are already designed to exceed what we currently call extreme. And we’re not talking about having to build you a ‘Fort Knox’ or a Hobbit-hole.

There are still lots of relatively simple, costeffective processes to implement in a new build that won’t cost the earth (literally), and are designed to generate the easy-living home environment you expect — not just for today, but well into a possibly very erratic future. For a start, we will meet you on your proposed block, before you even sign up, to advise on its suitability, for all blocks are not equal. Some will be cheaper to build efficiently on, and others will just be nightmares of extra expense for you!

We already meet (and usually exceed) the recommended insulation in ceilings and walls. As just one example, our recommendation is for low U value glazing and the use of low SHGC glazing. We advise avoiding the overuse of glazing because of its easy heat transference just when you don’t want it, plus having ceiling fans in all living and sleeping areas and reducing the air infiltration in your home.

For long-term cost saving after you’ve built, ‘design for climate’ requires the use of passive design principles, along

with energy-efficient heating and cooling systems, and, most importantly, energy-efficient behaviour by the occupants. If you would like to know more, simply arrange a time to visit me at my Design Centre at 20 Stradbroke Street, Toowoomba.

— Geoff Gibson

Solar Sense

Wed, 16 Nov 2022 03:46:13 GMT

Earlier this year we started discussing your options for improving the sustainability outcomes of your home design and construction. If you’ve been following these Style magazine articles, you will understand that with Smart Design we can achieve a very energy efficient home.

To make your home even less dependant on external energy suppliers — and therefore cheaper to run — here’s a brief description of just one of the renewable energy sources readily available.

Solar photovoltaic (PV) systems generate electricity from sunlight and — no surprise — Australia is an ideal location. In fact, one-in-four householders throughout Australia now have solar panels on their roof, the highest uptake of household solar in the world (Clean Energy Regulator, 2020). By installing solar panels, you can reduce both your ongoing energy bills and your greenhouse gas emissions. Before you install a solar (PV) system there many things to consider.

Here are just four to start:

1. It is important to get the right sized system for your household. Don’t go too big or too small. Most households install a 3-5kW system (depending on a household’s particular circumstances, such as electricity consumption or rebates available).

2. The position and angle of the solar panels will affect their efficiency — how much electricity they’ll actually produce.

3. Financial considerations for buying a solar PV system include the upfront cost, any rebates and incentives, money saved on energy bills, and money earned through Feed In Tariffs (if available). This depends on your individual circumstances.

4. The payback period for solar PV systems is generally between four and eight years for most Australian homes.

A Solar PV system has two main components: the solar panels and the inverter. Every solar panel has solar ‘cells’ containing silicon, which converts sunlight to direct DC electricity through the photovoltaic effect. This DC electricity produced by the solar panels is converted into AC electricity by the inverter, for use in your home.

There are a few other key things to consider as well before purchasing a solar PV system, to ensure you are getting value, and selecting the system right for your needs. Make sure the system comes from a recognised manufacturer and has a good warranty coverage. The system should be listed by the Clean Energy Council as an approved module and is installed by an accredited installer with proven experience. There are lots of big promotions out there... if the deal seems too good to be true, then it probably is — see the Scamwatch website for advice on avoiding solar scammers.

The size of a solar PV system is measured in kilowatts (kW). The amount of energy generated over time is measured in kilowatt hours (kWh). Most homes will be suited to a 3-5kW system (1kW of solar panels produces around 4kWh of electricity per day, and a typical home uses 15-20kWh per day).

However, an energy efficient home — which is what we are constantly pushing — will use much less energy at under 10kWh per day. This is where your cost savings really begin to add up.

If you have followed our suggestions over the last few months in the design of your new home, you will only require a smaller, cost-efficient solar PV system to offset all the energy you require.

If you would like to know more details about this subject, please arrange a time to visit me at my Design Centre at 20 Stradbroke Street, Toowoomba.

On our website www.geoffgibsonhomes.com.au — in the news section — you can find previous Style articles for your reference.

— Geoff Gibson

Protecting your home from Bushfires

Thu, 08 Sep 2022 23:54:12 GMT

Protecting your home from Bushfires

In our previous articles, we’ve examined the principles in designing and building a sustainable, energy efficient,

liveable, and healthy home. We will now look at some of the key points in protecting this amazing home — if you

are going to build in a bushfire-prone area.

Bushfire has been a natural part of the Australian environment for thousands of years, therefore it is us who need to adapt to its environment. Not only is it not going

to go away, the Royal Commission into National Natural Disaster Arrangements identified that “the likelihood of increases in the severity and frequency of natural hazards should be taken into account in land-use planning and

building decisions.”

If you suspect your potential home site could be in a bushfire-prone area you should arrange the bushfire attack level (BAL) of your house site to be assessed. It is encouraged that you engage a Registered Building Practitioner or other suitably trained professional to assist in determining the BAL for your site. This will determine the level of exposure to radiant heat and ember attack. The home can then be designed and constructed to mitigate the potential bushfire risk.

There is no single strategy to protect life and property from bushfires. These measures should reflect the anticipated level of bushfire attack and work in combination with each other. Bushfire protection measures include:

• Positioning of your home

• Design of your home (further detail below)

• Separation of the home from the bushfire hazard

• Access for firefighting and evacuation

• Landscaping

• Water supply and other utilities.

Bushfire attack mechanisms include flame contact, ember attack, radiant heat, wind, and smoke. All of these can affect a building. Ember attack is the most common cause of damage from bushfires. Embers can travel well in advance of the fire front, entering an unprotected home through gaps and igniting the building’s interior.

The key design elements to reduce the likelihood of bushfire damage in the design stage of your home are:

- simplifying your roof line and house outline, to reduce the

opportunity for debris and embers to build up.

- using appropriate non-combustible or low combustible materials in the construction.

- using only appropriate tempered glass in your windows and sliding doors.

- Installing metal flyscreens on all window and sliding door openings.

- ensuring gaps of no more than 2mm for all the external envelope of your home.

At Geoff Gibson Homes we are regularly designing and building in Bushfire-prone areas, and we liaise with our Bushfire assessors to achieve a much safer outcome with our homes. Many of the features incorporated to improve a home’s bushfire resistance will also improve the energy efficiency of the home.

To achieve an energy neutral home, in our next Style Magazine article we will look at Solar (Photovoltaic Cells) and battery storage to offset our home’s already dramatically

reduced energy requirements.

If you would like to know more about the design issues raised in this article, please arrange a time to visit me at our Design Centre at 20 Stradbroke Street, Toowoomba. On our web site in the news section you can find previous Style Articles for your reference.

— Geoff Gibson

Why you'll love the ease of living in an adaptable home

Thu, 08 Sep 2022 23:25:49 GMT

A liveable and adaptable home is one that can quickly and easily respond to your changing household needs without later requiring lengthy, costly and substantial alterations.

Careful planning and forward thinking at the initial design stage can make sure your home suits you now — and well into the future.

First, we need to define these two separate design terms.

Liveability

A liveable home is designed and built to meet the changing needs of home occupants throughout their lifetime. A liveable home uses a combination of building features, fittings and products to promote ease of independent living, benefiting people of all ages and abilities. It ensures rooms and services within the home are of a size and type for as many people as possible.

For example, slightly wider doorways and passageways, and entries without steps, built in from the beginning, removes the need for later (expensive) additions of ramps and handrails, while improving access for prams.

Key Points

Easier to enter
Easier to navigate in and around
Capable of easy and cost-effective adaptation; and…
Responsive to the changing needs of home occupants.

Who will benefit from a liveable home?

Families with young children
People who sustain a temporary injury
Ageing baby boomers; and…
People with a disability and their families.

Adaptability

An adaptable home allows further modifications to be easily and readily made to meet a person’s specific needs — a disabled occupant for instance. This may include modifying the kitchen, laundry and bathroom to improve access and independence.

Building a more liveable and adaptable home has many distinct and cost-saving advantages. The occupants can live in their new home much longer because their changing needs can be easily met, so this reduces the likelihood of having to relocate to alternative housing.

Liveable and adaptable homes provide attractive housing options for the greatest number of people and therefore are a sound investment for resale and rental.

These homes enable rapid response to changing life needs, which can arrive swiftly and unexpectedly. It also increases the building’s serviceable life span before renovation, with associated financial, energy and material savings.

We already incorporate many of these ‘Liveable Home’ requirements. Wider doorways, wider passageways, designed entries without steps, no-step wider showers are all standard inclusions with Geoff Gibson Homes.

Next month we will discuss design adaptations that will protect your new home in a Bushfire-Prone Area. If youwould like to know more about the design issues raised in this article, please arrange a time to visit me at my Design Centre at 20 Stradbroke Street, Toowoomba.

— Geoff Gibson

Healthy Homes

Fri, 29 Jul 2022 01:04:33 GMT

Over the last few months we have investigated

design objectives to achieve a more sustainable

home in our local climate zones.

This month we will look at a few simple and costeffective

alternatives that are available through selective

material choices and specific design strategies that will

improve the health of the indoor environment of your

home.

Most of us spend a significant percentage of our lives

indoors, so it is worth thinking about the air quality in our

homes (especially in light of easily transmissible airborne

diseases).

People often talk fondly of the ‘new home smell’ (like

new cars), but those odours actually come from Volatile

Organic Compounds (VOCs), present in many glues and

household products, and in a wide range of construction

materials, new furnishings and the like.

VOCs are not good for your health long term. They are

chemicals containing carbon that evaporate into the

atmosphere at room temperature. Formaldehyde is one of

the most common VOCs.

As the first simple step in a ‘clean air strategy’ when

building a new family home, we chose Low VOC building

materials, like naturally termite resistant Cypress timber

for all our framing. To further reduce the need for toxic

chemicals, we also only use Termimesh, a specially

designed, non-toxic, long lasting physical termite barrier,

to reduce the need for extensive, expensive and repeated

chemical treatments. Not only much safer for you, but

also preferable from a wider environmental perspective.

Inside your home, we further carefully chose all Low

VOC products, laminates and floorcoverings, like Dulux's

Wash&Wear Low Sheen Acrylic interior paint, which has

both low odour and low VOCs.

All manufacturers of these materials list the VOCs

contained in their products.

With winter now here, another obvious source of indoor

air pollutants is smoke and combustion products. To

maintain good air quality when you have a ‘crackling

good fire in the hearth’, firstly you need adequate fresh

outdoor air coming into the room, to vent the pollutants

to the outdoors, and keep flues and chimneys clean.

Mould is also a rising worry with all the recent prolonged

wet weather, and if, as many predict, we face more

uncertain weather patterns in the future , it could be an

ongoing problem, if a clear strategy to combat it is not

built into your home from the outset.

Therefore, strategies to prevent mould getting started

include adequately venting sources of moisture (from

bathrooms, laundries and kitchens) externally to reduce

condensation. Importantly, this also means installing bulk

insulation and sisalation correctly in the first place, to

reduce the build-up of condensation.

Another amazingly simple step to keep your home’s

air clean is to properly seal the internal garage door to

minimise exhaust pollutants from the vehicles in the

garage — and reduce the running time of vehicle engines

in the garages connected to the home.

In short, ensure your home is well designed from the

start, that allows for controllable ventilation and that can

be well sealed when required, to avoid outside pollutants

entering your home and compromising your health.

Next time we will look at simple and cost-effective design

criteria that you can employ now to make your home

more easily accessible, especially as you age.

If you would like to know more about the clean air design

issues raised in this article, please arrange a time to

visit me at our Design Centre at 20 Stradbroke Street,

Toowoomba.

— Geoff Gibson

Climate Zone 3 has its cool advantages

Fri, 29 Jul 2022 00:48:25 GMT

Last month we investigated the ideal design objectives for Climate Zone 2 (which included the Lockyer Valley and Somerset areas), and this month we will examine Climate Zone 3.

Climate Zone 3 — that’s hot to very hot dry summer with a cool winter — is an area stretching right across central Australia from the western downs in Queensland to the coast in Western Australia. Locally this is reflected in areas west of the Toowoomba Regional Council area, Southern Downs Regional Council and South Burnet Regional Council areas. In practical terms, the boundary of this zone is much closer to the Great Dividing Range than those council boundaries reflect. Also, climate science warns us that this boundary will gradually move east as we experience greater climate fluctuations.

The main aims in Zone 3 are to reduce the need for cooling in summer and removing the need to heat in winter. Fortunately, this is relatively straightforward and cost effective because the zone has low humidity and high day-night temperature ranges.

The basics we have discussed over the last few months are still paramount; Orientate, Insulate and Seal. Last month we discussed encouraging cross-ventilation in Climate Zone 2 and ventilation is still a priority in Climate Zone 3 but for passive cooling via night purging. Thermal currents are common in the flatter, inland areas, created by daily heating and cooling. The cool night air is a reliable source of cooling where cool breezes are limited and diurnal temperature ranges usually exceed 6-8 C.

Hot air radiating from a building fabric’s thermal mass is replaced with cooler night air, drawn in by the internal-external temperature-pressure differential. This procedure requires some management from the homeowners to open the home up in the evening to promote the flow of cool air.

Passive cooling can be improved by roof space ventilation with the positioning of eave vents around the home and thermostatically controlled vents to the higher parts of the roof. This encourages the flow of the cooler external air through the ceiling space. A lighter coloured reflective finish roof sheeting will add further to the reduction in the roof space air temperature. A combination of bulk insulation and reflective insulation works well directly under the roofing material. The bulk insulation uses pockets of trapped air within its structure to resist the transfer of heat and the reflective insulation mainly resists radiant heat flow because of its high reflectivity.

Another approach that works well in Climate Zone 3 and other similar climate zones is the incorporation of strategically placed internal thermal mass to improve the thermal performance of your home. This can be achieved using materials with a high density and long thermal lag times, like concrete, brick, rammed earth or even water. These materials need to be insulated from the outside and protected from the summer sun.

In Climate Zone 3 cooling will be required and because of the low humidity evaporative cooling will work well. If you provide ceiling fans in all living and sleeping areas it will reduce the need for air-conditioning by up to 75% (evidence from a study in Darwin, Brisbane, and Sydney).

Incorporating these simple design features into your new Climate Zone 3 home can deliver a lifetime of thermal comfort, with low energy bills and low greenhouse gas emissions.

We have discussed increased sustainability thoroughly over the last few months and next month we will look at choices you can make when designing your new home that will make your home healthier.

If you would like to know more about the design issues raised in this article, please arrange a time to visit me at our Design Centre at 20 Stradbroke Street, Toowoomba.

— Geoff Gibson

Any one else love Climate Zone 2? Humid Summer, Mild Winters

Fri, 29 Jul 2022 00:38:22 GMT

Last month we investigated the ideal design objectives for Climate Zone 5 (which included the Darling Downs), and this month we will examine Climate Zone 2.

Climate Zone 2 — that’s warm humid summers with mild winters — is the coastal strip between the Great Dividing Range and the shoreline in southern QLD and northern NSW. For us locally, this Zone is represented in the Lockyer Valley Regional Council and the Somerset Regional Council areas.

The main aims in this zone are to eliminate the need for heating in winter and reduce the need for cooling in summer, in a humid climate.

Many of the same simple procedures we discussed last month are still paramount; Orientate, Insulate and Seal. Eliminating the need for winter heating is covered very well with these simple steps. However, the need for summer cooling requires greater design modification.

The positioning of your proposed home and the design of its internal layout needs to allow for the easy entry of cooling breezes and encourage cross-ventilation.

One of the main problems with the average home plan is they actually end up creating locked internal air spaces. One of the ways we eliminate this common Zone 2 design flaw is to use internal shutters, for they allow the passage of cooling air and can be closed when necessary. These can be placed high on the internal walls to still achieve privacy but allow vital ventilation. Also, to promote air movement on still nights ceiling fans should be positioned in all sleeping and living areas.

The strategic placement of windows that are 100% openable, such as louvres, can also greatly encourage cross ventilation. All the windows on your home’s east and west sides should be shaded, and the roof should have at least a 600mm overhang — 900mm if possible.

The northern windows need adequate shading — but not extreme — because in the cooler winter months you will need the warmth of the northern sun coming in.

In Climate Zone 2, extra cooling may be required in extreme weather events, so to help reduce your energy needs, cooling appliances should be chosen with their energy rating as a priority. The efficiency of these appliances can be dramatically improved by have a draft proof envelope in the area you are conditioning. To achieve this, the floor plan needs to be zoned correctly so you are only cooling the space you need, and not the whole house. Additionally, all external doors and the garage entry door should be fully sealed around the whole perimeter of the doorway.

The other high energy use in the home is the water heating. Energy efficient hot water systems are no longer required by law in Queensland, but obviously are highly recommended. There are many very efficient Heat Pump hot water systems available and if you have an available northern roof space, solar is a good alternative to the standard electric or gas systems.

Next month we will examine the individual climate characteristics of the western Downs; Climate Zone 3 (hot dry summer, warm winter).

If you would like to know more about the design issues raised in this article, please arrange a time to visit me at our Design Centre at 20 Stradbroke Street, Toowoomba.

— Geoff Gibson

What is Climate Zone 5? And how you can make it work for you

Fri, 29 Jul 2022 00:22:32 GMT

Last month in our Style Magazine article I suggested we select one of the local climate zones and go into greater detail as to the design alternatives available to make your home more comfortable all year.

Climate Zone 5 (Warm Temperate) is scattered across Australia, and in Queensland it includes the Toowoomba Regional Council area, the Southern Downs Regional Council area, and the South Burnet Regional Council area. These council boundaries don’t exactly reflect the climate zone, but it does give us a basic framework to work with. Think of a region that basically follows the eastern edge of the Great Dividing Range.

Working within Climate Zone 5 for most of my building career, I have been able to try many varied methods and materials to improve the comfort of the homes we build.

We have already discussed the basics of Orientate , Insulate and Seal but certain characteristics of climate zone 5 give us greater opportunities to passively condition our homes. The moderate to high diurnal temperature range can be used to take the warmth of the day in winter to warm those cold nights and the cool night temperatures in summer can be used to reduce the heat of the following day. Fortunately for those who live in Climate Zone 5, this is very simple and cost effective.

In the initial design, the home needs to be positioned to open up to the northern winter sun — and have sufficient shading to exclude the summer sun, especially in the afternoons. Careful attention should also be placed on the location of rooms within the home for the best outcome. This winter sun will warm the central thermal mass of your home and that thermal mass will continue to warm your home throughout the night.

The reverse also works in the summer as the sun moves higher in the sky during spring.

The same glass that lets warming light into the home in winter is now shaded by roof overhang positioned above this glass, and these windows or doors help ventilate your home.

Readers of this column would remember me talking previously about the wonders of PMS —‘Phase Change Materials’. Our Climage Zone 5 diurnal temperature range also works well with Phase Change Materials. These PCMs use the power embodied in the phase change of materials to actively absorb and release heat. These ‘phase changes’ help to maintain constant and comfortable internal building temperatures. PCM shifts the warmth of the day into the night and the cool of the night into the day, all the while passively striving for constant room temperature.

Next month we will select another of the local climate zones and examine the individual climate characteristics.

If you would like to know more about Phase Change Materials and how they work to moderate your home’s temperature, call us to arrange a time to visit me at my Design Centre at 20 Stradbroke Street, Toowoomba.

— Geoff Gibson

Naturally better timber

Fri, 01 Oct 2021 06:13:08 GMT

Many of our customers naturally take ‘environmental sustainability’ seriously – it’s why they come to us in the first place. They don’t just want any home built, even if it is built well.

For them, it is fundamentally important that, not only is the daily running of the home to be environmentally responsible, but the actual building of the home is treated with the same environmental care and decimation.

This means that all materials themselves are sourced responsibly, with as little long-term negative effect on the plant as possible, and how those materials are used in the construction of the house. Every little bit is important, even if it cannot be seen.

We quietly appreciate home owners like that, for it is in harmony with our own vision and drive.

It’s why we always insist on using cypress timber in our home constructions, even though it is a little more expensive than treated pine.

I would think it is almost universally known that cypress is naturally termite resistant. For a start, that means it hasn’t been saturated in deadly poisons. It also remains naturally termite resistant for the duration of its life.

They are obviously very sound reasons for using cypress throughout your home. But it goes deeper than that.

All our cypress comes from mature trees grown on state forest land, where harvesting is carefully managed in accordance with the government’s own struct environmental guidelines, ensuring the forest itself continues to thrive for future generations.

Cypress is also a natural store of carbon. As the young trees vigorously grow, they draw carbon dioxide from the atmosphere storing the carbon as wood. As they age and mature that process slows, and they are ideal to harvest. This is actually part of the natural cycle, and managing this ensures healthy forests will continue forever, providing the essential environment for the forest’s fauna and other flora. This management also reduces the risk of devastating wild fires, invasion of pests and weeds.

So that’s why we love to use cypress; its sustainable, durable, and naturally termite resistant. It’s good for you, good for us, and good for the environment – long into the future.

Contact the team at Geoff Gibson Homes to learn more about the importance of timber in your home build design.

Designing for Climate

Sat, 01 May 2021 06:13:13 GMT

Following on from the overview of the basic processes that make up Sustainable Passive Home Design – I would like to discuss the different Climate Zones that we need to design for locally.

Australia has eight climate zones, and 69 regional subzones – all defined by the National Construction Code (NCC). We will just discuss the main eight climate zones.

Each of these climate zones requires different design and construction strategies to capitalise on sustainable efficiencies. Your local climate will dictate your heating and cooling needs and this the most effective and cost-efficient design approaches.

Some climates need mainly passive heating, some need passive cooling, and most need a combination of both. In our local region we have three distinct climate zones. The Toowoomba region is in Climate Zone 5 (warm temperate) the Lockyer region is in Climate Zone 2 (warm humid summer, mild winter) and out of the Downs, it is Climate Zone 3 (hot dry summer, warm winter), so if you want to minimise your ongoing running expenses, we need to design with different priorities in mind to suit these diverse climates.

The main design objectives for Climate Zone 5 (Toowoomba region) are to reduce the need for cooling in the summer and a priority for heating in the winter. This zone offers good cost-effective opportunities to achieve energy-efficient outcomes.

The main objective for Climate Zone 2 (Lockyer Valley) is to reduce the need for cooling in the summer, in a humid climate. The main design objective in Climate Zone 3 (Western Downs) is to reduce the need for cooling in the summer. This is relatively straightforward and cost effective because the zone has low humidity and high day-night temperature changes.

These zones are very diverse in climate, but several aspects of home design will not change in these three distinctive zones. Basically, it is to meet (to preferably exceed) the recommended insulation in the ceilings and the walls. The recommendation is for use of low U value glazing and the use of low SHGC glazing. Avoid the overuse of glazing, provide ceiling fans in all living and sleeping areas and reduce the air infiltration in our home.

For long-term cost saving after you’ve built, ‘design for climate’ requires the use of passive design principles, along with energy-efficient heating and cooling systems, and, most importantly, energy-efficient behaviour by the occupants.

Next month we will select one of these climate zones and go into depth about the design alternatives available to make your home comfortable all year.

If you would like to know more, simple arrange a time to visit our Design Centre.

How to attain an Environmentally Sustainable Passive Home Design

Tue, 01 Dec 2020 06:13:11 GMT

Good passive home design is critical to achieving a lifetime of easy-living comfort, low energy costs, and low greenhouse emissions.

A Sustainable Home incorporates climate-appropriate design features like correct orientation, coupled thermal mass, comprehensive insulation, shading and glazing to take advantage of natural sources of heating and cooling, and reduced Air infiltration. When incorporates in the right way for your climate, they can keep a home’s occupants comfortable all year. Sound complicated? It's actually very simple.

Start with the correct orientation of your home

A wide frontage to the north and a reduce exposure to the west, fives you a good starting point. Generally, a longer narrower house placed with northern side being the widest elevation is the best. Also, the topography of the site needs to be scrutinised to make sure there is some protection from the inter winds but allowing access to the summer breezes. With improved orientation we can make the biggest single cost-free improvement to the lifetime sustainability of your home.

Insulating the entire envelope of the home

When you are constructing a new home, it is a very simple and cost-efficient process to insulate the complete external walls and the entire ceilings areas. This should include the internal garage walls. This reduces the heating and cooling effect that vehicles coming and going will create. Also, go for the highest R-Value (measure of the resistance to the flow of heat through a material – the higher the number the better the insulation). This is not costly but will give you a much better long-term outcome.

Zoning

The principal behind this is also very straightforward. When you open the front door or the garage entry door this allowed the heat and cold to rush into the living areas. By sealing the entry space with an internal hinged door and by putting breeze seals on the internal garage door we reduce this air movement. The other consideration is to place doors at the hallway entries so when you are heating or cooling, you only need enough energy to condition the living area.

Reducing Air Infiltration

Air leakage accounts for 15-25% of Winter heat loss in homes and can contribute to significant loss of coolness in climates where air conditioners are used. This air leakage can add substantially to your energy bills and add up to 25% of your carbon dioxide emissions.

Summing Up

If you include these processes in your new home the potential reduction in the carbon emissions could be up to 6,000 kg per year with an energy saving of up to $2000 per year for the life of the home. These four simple procedures are just the beginning of ‘Smarter Living’.

Our team would love to chat further with you around building a sustainable home. You can contact us today!

Starting to build? Just point me in the right direction and all will be well

Wed, 01 Jul 2020 06:13:10 GMT

At this stage you’re now the proud owners of a block of land that’s ticked as many of the boxes as you could get, and you’re armed with at least a rough idea of the kind of home you’re going to build.

It may just be pencil sketches scrawled on your kid’s homework, or it may be architect’s blueprints, but the next exciting stage is about to begin.

The first and most fundamentally important step in attaining a low-cost energy efficient dream home is placing it on your land so it’s facing the right way. This is so fundamentally important that it’s surprising how many get I wrong. The common mistake is to simply face it to the street.

Its where we live

Where we live in the world determines this – the southern hemisphere. The weaker winter sun shines from the north, so that’s where you will want your living areas facing. Bedrooms ideally should face the east or south. Let your garage be the cheap barrier for the intense western sun. If your house plans are still at the scrawl stage, this is a really good time to re-evaluate where your living areas are in relation to this, and how your house will actually fit on your block.

If your house plans cannot be altered, positioning your home on the allotment will be the critical trade-off.

Remember the main point – don’t waste money

As the point here is building a liveable home that doesn’t cost much to build energy efficiency in right from the start, and that doesn’t cost much to heat and cool once it’s built, it must make full use of no-cost natural heating and cooling. Therefore, the cheapest heating you can get is the sun’s rays, and you want to be able to store as much of that as possible. Bu the same token, the cheapest cooking is to stop that heat from becoming uncomfortable.

The greatest energy expenses are in heating and cooling. That means installing quality insulation in the right places.

It’s what you build in, that matters

Size and placement of windows, choice and colour of building materials and how much thermal mass you build in, heights of ceilings, amount of roof overhangs, location of breezeways, patios and verandahs all have a direct bearing on passive heating and cooling.

To learn more about how to be optimise the building process, talk with our team at Geoff Gibson homes.