Renew’s Sustainable House Day 2024 is happening across Australia this Sunday
Over 100 homes will be open to the public this weekend in celebration of Renew’s Sustainable House Day 2024.
The community-driven event is a day of peer-to-peer sharing of ideas and inspiration, and will showcase homes that have met the challenges of reducing energy bills, getting off gas, being more climate-resilient, and providing a comfortable home environment.
Sustainable House Day has grown since its origins in 2001 and now kicks off a month-long national celebration of building and living sustainably. More than 160 homes will be profiled online, and a series of eight online events will deliver expert guidance from Australia’s leading sustainable architects, designers, and builders, with topics centred around key areas of sustainable building and design.
This year’s open homes feature everything from gorgeous new-builds to modest retrofits, reminding us that sustainability is something that all households can invest in to improve comfort and reduce energy bills.
Renew CEO Helen Oakey said:
“We are excited to that people will be able to experience firsthand the benefits of a sustainable home and share in the enthusiasm of homeowners for what they’ve been able to achieve, whether that’s a new build home made of recycled content, or a retrofit of an existing home.
“A sustainable home can be within reach of many homeowners through simple changes which improve comfort and reduce energy bills such as insulation – ceilings first, and then walls and floor where possible – and then sealing up leaky draughts in homes. Many homeowners are also moving away from using fossil gas for heating, cooking and hot water. Gas is both expensive and creates greenhouse emissions, unlike green electricity from rooftop solar. All-electric houses can save money on energy bills and allow them to switch to energy efficient space heating and hot water. It’s a win-win.
“One of the biggest challenges retrofitting older inefficient homes to be more sustainable is the up-front costs for insulation, solar PV and energy efficient appliances. Householders do well to investigate what rebates and loans might be available to help with up-front costs. This year’s Sustainable House Day showcases what some homeowners have managed to achieve over time on a modest budget.
“Before buying a home, it’s important to ask about sustainability or get an energy efficiency assessment, so that you can put budget aside for energy upgrades that will reduce running costs. Unfortunately, in most Australian jurisdictions it’s not required to include energy efficiency ratings in the advertisement for a property. Yet this is something that would really help people choose more efficient homes, or at least be aware of energy upgrades that might be necessary after purchase or leasing.
“In good news, many homes featured at Sustainable House Day are new homes that have been built to the very highest of energy efficient standards, proving what is possible with careful planning and good design. All new home buyers across Australia will soon benefit from improvements to the National Construction Code that will require all new houses to meet an Energy Efficiency Rating of at least 7 Stars.”
Pictured here is ‘A Biophilic Unit’ designed by Planet Architecture, a featured home of SHD 2024.