Household energy usage: (http://www.yourhome.gov.au/energy)
An average Australian household uses 40% of it’s energy to heat or cool the dwelling. The next big hit to our energy usage are all the appliances (e.g. refrigeration, cooking appliances, washing machines), these use up 33% of our energy consumption. Water heating is 21% and Lighting is 6%.
As our generations change our homes are becoming bigger but our families living in these bigger homes are now smaller. This now produces a much bigger calamity to our environment. Our greenhouse emissions per person are much higher now. According to the department of Environment and Energy (http://www.environment.gov.au/resource/help-prevent-climate-change) Australian households generate almost one-fifth of Australia’s greenhouse gases, about 14 tonnes per household each year. This is due to the high reliance on electricity from Coal mining.
City of Joondalup did a survey (very old 2014, Can’t find anything recent) (http://www.joondalup.wa.gov.au/Files/8745%20Household%20Energy%20Graph%202013-14.pdf), and this survey showed that an average house used approximately 20KwH per day.
With smart design we can eliminate the heating and cooling costs of your household. This would save you (40% of 20Kwh), 8Kwh per day. This would save you approximately $250 a month.
A Solar Hot Water unit will save you another 21% off your energy bill. That is atleast another chunk off your energy bill. Adding on Solar Panels will save you a lot more.
Whenever I speak to anyone and I mention I design ‘Eco- friendly’ homes for a living, all of a sudden they think, these are elite/posh homes. No, they are not!!! They are actually a smarter designed home that takes into account the environment we live in, the position of the home and of course the home owners needs.
An ‘Eco Friendly Home’ is for every budget. You may start with the basics which is a smart solar passive design (costs nothing more than a normal project home) to having the full ‘off-grid’ lifestyle (Solar panels, veggie gardens etc).
To find out more about our ‘Eco Friendly home’ designs contact us at [email protected].