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- Hamptons Passive House
The Challenges
When husband and wife Garrett and Angela Clark were looking to renovate their dream home, they knew it would be usage of smart materials and products that would help achieve their goals.
Ang was after a modern Hamptons-style home with a family friendly open plan but designed to be liveable for Australian conditions.
Garrett was looking to apply his expertise as co-owner and Project Manager at Red Cedar Constructions to design a beautiful home built to Passive House standards. The core attribute of the new home was to maintain 20 and 25 degrees year round for comfortable family living with less energy consumption.
A specialist in Passive House building and construction, Garrett knew the home needed windows with a strong seal, bulk insulation options, and mechanical ventilation with an ‘airtight’ seal to enhance energy efficiency.
For a standard home in Sydney, the air changes per hour (ACH) is between 15 and 20 which means constant heating and cooling requirements that run up the energy bill. The standard for a quality airtight seal by Passive House standards is 0.6 ACH.
Bondor’s SolarSpan® SIP (structurally insulated panel) is an all-in-one panel that not only provides simplified rigid insulation but has the required airtightness to certify a home with Passive House standards.
The Solution
“Our number one strategy was to use Bondor’s SolarSpan® roofing panels, not just for the high thermal efficiency, but also for the extremely long spans,” Garrett said.
“Being able to span massive distances gets away from needing any structural beams inside the home and significantly reduces structural framing requirements.
“The panels are also lightweight and easy to install; I think we did this whole roof in a day and a half.
“The end result was the house was watertight during the build and has an airtight layer in the finished home to help us achieve the passive house outcome,” he said.
Ang added that the family were able to wear summer pyjamas throughout winter.
“So during winter we didn’t have to put the heating on once. During summer we did need to use air conditioning a few times as we live in northwest Sydney, but it’s on far less than you’d expect.
“But with the passive house design most days the house is a comfortable 20 to 23 degrees whatever the temperature is outside,” she said.
Both Ang and Garrett are thrilled with their Hamptons Passive House.
“The kids are in the pool constantly. We’re outside eating most nights in the barbecue area. I do feel like we’re living the Aussie dream,” Ang said.
Long-time user of Bondor products, Garrett shared that the SolarSpan® panel is used in most of his Red Cedar projects due to the ease and speed of installation.
“It is amazing to work with. The panel has COLORBOND® sheet top and bottom with a rigid internal insulation,” Garrett said.
“The major bonus being that this one product takes care of timber rafters, insulation, roof batten, sarking or vapour membrane, roof sheeting all in one go. Going one step further in the Passive House space, a tape is run down the join in sheets providing the airtight layer required to give a Passive House standard airtightness.”
SolarSpan® is Australia’s leading insulated roofing panel offering long-spans, low pitch, and high thermal efficiency. CodeMark-approved and conforming to Australia’s Building Standards, SolarSpan® features a COLORBOND® steel exterior roof, and EPS-FR rigid insulation core with a pre-finished COLORBOND® ceiling underside in a variety of profiles and colours to maximise creative expression.
Images provided by Red Cedar Constructions.
