Results Summary
Project Features
Design life
The design life for the three buildings has been predicted to be 80 years, taking into consideration suburb redevelopment pressures, occupancy rates, ownership and building design quality.
Materials
The amount of concrete used in the buildings has been reduced thanks to the high amount of recycled brick and timber that has specified. Further reductions have been achieved with a 50% fly-ash blend concrete mix. Finishes have also been carefully selected to reduce the amount of maintenance and replacement required, such as polished concrete finishes and recycled timber.
Operational Energy
Life-cycle operational energy of the buildings have been significantly reduced due to improvements in energy efficiency features and lower carbon sources.
Energy efficiency improvement features such as building integrated energy monitoring, high efficiency lighting, low-flow shower heads, well ventilated refrigeration cabinetry, solar hot water systems, ceiling fans, internal drying lines and improved thermal performance (more than 6 stars NatHERS rating) have been specified for all three buildings.
No air-conditioning systems are required due to the high thermal performance of the buildings. Additional thermal comfort in summer and winter will be easily met with ceiling fans and wood pellet heaters.
Further electricity savings have been achieved with specifying non-electrical appliances such as gas cooking, gas boost for the solar hot water system and wood pellet burners for winter heating.
Renewable Energy Generation
Solar PV panels have been installed for all three buildings (5kW, 6kW and 6kW respectively) which generate more renewable energy than the buildings consume. The exported renewable energy helped to offset the embodied energy of the building thus providing a very low life-cycle carbon outcome, if not carbon positive as is the case for Unit A and B.
Additional Features
The buildings also save mains water with rainwater collection tanks that are plumbed into the laundry, bathroom and toilets.
This assessment was conducted by Fei.
