Going Green - the sustainable investment property thread

Ooh, nice - that’s a much lighter and warmer tone than I was expecting.

Is that a scullery @Westminster ?

 

Why yes it is. Well it's a hidden room which has a dishwasher, sink, washing machine and pantry in it. It's an everything room

 

Energy efficiency scoping study

The Australian Building Codes Board (ABCB) is investigating possible changes to the National Construction Code’s (NCC) energy efficiency provisions, with a focus on residential buildings in the 2022 edition of the NCC.

This work is to be carried out in consideration of the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) Energy Council’s Trajectory for Low Energy Buildings (the Trajectory). The Trajectory proposes incremental changes to the NCC to reduce the operational energy use and associated greenhouse gas emissions of buildings.

To commence this process, the ABCB has produced a scoping study for public comment. The study outlines a possible approach and scope for this project, with a particular focus on NCC 2022.

The scoping study has now been released for public comment and can be read or downloaded from the ABCB Consultation Hub here.

The consultation period is open until Sunday 8 September 2019.

 

Great to check out the new places yesterday @Westminster ! What was the name of the 'efficient but expensive' hot water system you went for? I was thinking last night - given their size and expense vs their energy efficiency, why did you opt for them over solar hot water units (with or without a booster)?

 

It's a heatpump hot water system. I'm trying to remember the brand name - might be a Chromagem. The choice was an iterative decision based on the project - the site was so tight that bringing gas in was complicated so we opted for no gas which ruled out my favourite gas instantaneous water heaters. That left normal electric, heatpump or solar. Solar was not a complicated option due to it being apartments and the panels being on the roof and the distance to tanks on the each level would have been too far or leaving tanks on roof would have been too far plus maintanence up that high a nightmare. So that left normal electric or heat pump.

For a single house there are much more options that I had to rule out.

 

Interesting, I was actually wondering if you'd gone without a gas connection after seeing the induction stoves and the heaters! I'm toying with the idea of not installing a gas connection at the Parkwood project (not that it would be hard, it will just save a bit of money and remove an ultimately unrenewable energy source) however every agent I speak to tells me renters want gas cooktops, so I'm torn!

 

Gas connections are pretty much free here so there is not much savings to be had but yes Perth people do love gas hotplates and gas instantaneous hot water systems are also pretty good and never run out of hot water. Induction was my compromise as it's almost as good as gas hotplates and the bonus of being easy to clean and more minimalist suited the project.

 

Some reassuring research out of the UK:
New buyers and renters want eco-friendly homes

My impression is the same trend is starting to appear in Australia as far as buyers go, but it not as much of a deciding factor when in comes to renters (yet).

 

Interesting. Around how much would you expect to pay to connect a single dwelling to gas? Does survey strata benefit from the same reduced headworks for gas as other utilities?

I think from a sustainability perspective much of the argument around gas-free/all-electric homes stems from the fact that electricity can be produced renewably on site at low ongoing cost via solar whilst gas remains an unrenewable (and potentially increasingly expensive) resource.

For those who want to read a bit more on the topic: There’s no reason for new homes to include gas, report finds - The Fifth Estate

 

Also for those who haven't picked up from the above two posts - The Fifth Estate is a great resource for sustainable property development news.

 

DA has 5 attached townhouses with Torrens Title Subdivision (2 into 5 lots). Has common area parking outside of 1 townhouse and common garbage/recycle area outside another. Also behind 1 townhouse is the large infiltration tank to which all townhouses are connected. Who is responsible for this tank and also the common parking and the garbage area?

 

I don't know the actual answer on this. There is no headworks for gas but there would be gas plumber time for every connection that would be factored into most construction contracts.

We have no gas at PPOR as we are whoop whoop so would be on gas bottles. We bit the bullet and did the solar PV array + solar HWS with electric booster + induction cooktop + reverse cycle air conditioning. It's hard to for my heart to support electricity (and bloody coal powered power stations) but my brain is ok with the solar panels providing the power for all the appliances.

 

We've mentioned Josh's House on here before - but for those interested an virtual tour of the house has now been uploaded. Its pretty good.

The Josh’s House Virtual tour uses the latest in 3D capture software to provide a simulated journey through Josh’s home and garden. You can now tour the home at your leisure, and easily find your favourite video, plans and factsheets.

Take Josh’s House Virtual Tour now! Virtual Tour - Josh's House

 

Also - Sustainable House Day is on again - 15th September Australia-wide (almost).
Sustainable House Day 2019

This is a terrific event and I'd highly recommend people to head along. Unfortunately I'm away this year but get involved!

 

Our last development was 4 seven and a half star town houses in Fairfield in Victoria.

The cost of raising the houses to 7.5 stars was reduced due to the good original design.
What we found is they are renting much better for a higher yield as the occupants are more comfortable and more importantly their power bills are less.
A very short walk from the village and train station makes them quite GREEN.

There are other sustainable measures incorporated on the project but we stopped short of PV solar cells for financial reasons. We explored incentives from the government but they only offered these to owner occupiers. We felt that a small incentive a fraction of owner occupiers should have been offered which may have swung us to install the greenhouse gas saving cells.

Anyway if we ever sell these measures should increase resale also.

PAUL

 

Would you be willing to share any details, such as costs and maybe layouts? It sounds quite similar to what I want to eventually do.
Did you go with double glazing? I'm thinking of ordering it direct from China, once I'm ready.

 

Yes we can share details.

Our specifics will be useless to you as each project must be designed on its merits but we can talk about things in general.

We come from a position that sustainability is not sustainable if it costs too much.

So smart design costs nothing and can be coupled with some clever active measures to achieve a good result.
We got to 7.5 stars with only a few double glazed windows.
We believe that double glazing north facing windows can sometimes be counterproductive to your aims.

Regarding Chinese windows.....
In Australia all new windows must be certified as there are layers of regulation applying to glazing.
It is really complicated but the number one rule is they must be certified and tested by CSIRO.

Just be smart about it and come from a motivation of win/win. Win for your bank balance and win for the environment.
The cost of petrol and the cost of power are often criticized but they offer oportunity to rethink what we value. All this combined with the lowering of public transport tickets offers a chance to make a buck.

PAUL

 

I read the other day (in the government’s YourHome guide) that “some banks offer discounted mortgage rates for sustainable homes and may be prepared to lend more for sustainable features with proven LCC (lifecycle cost) benefits.” Is anyone aware if this is currently the case? @Jess Peletier @Peter_Tersteeg @Rolf Latham @Jamie Moore @Shahin_Afarin @Marty McDonald

 

I love that hidden room.. perfect for hide and seek when no one knows about it.

 

There's been talk about this in the past, but I'm not aware of any lender advertising any such thing for quite some time now. Keeping in mind the rate negotiation templates of the various lenders I'm familiar with, not one has any mention of this.