Our eco guide and building practices create healthier homes, reduce greenhouse emissions, decrease running home costs for occupants and improve the energy, resource and water efficiency of our homes.
Orientation & block selection
The location, surroundings and placement of your new home on your chosen block play a very important role when planning your sustainable future. By taking advantage of climate features such as sun exposure, cooling breezes or shading you can control heating and cooling aspects throughout your new home.
Energy efficient design
By working closely with our team of architects, Borcky Construction can help to design your dream home that is truly sustainable and energy efficient – taking into consideration block selection, orientation of your home, solar access, breezes, building materials, and product selection.
Our aim is – to design a home for you, that flows from internal to external. A home that welcomes sunlight into all living spaces while aligning windows and doors to promote breeze paths throughout and use passive heating and cooling design principles.
By applying these concepts to your design, we can ensure your home is a comfortable, HAPPY & HEALTHY place to live in all year round.
Product selection
Before the building process begins we encourage our clients to consider the following questions.
– Where do my products come from?
– What qualities do I want my building products to bring to my home? I.e. A thermal quality, or a cooling quality?
– How far must my products travel before arriving at my site?
– Will my products affect the air quality in my home?
– Are my products environmentally friendly and can my products be recycled?
When building an energy efficient home, it is important to think about where the products are coming from, as well as what the product is made from. By locally sourcing materials we can ensure the travel distance is shorter. By carefully choosing each product we can eliminate VOC emissions and toxins being released into our home, and by using recycled products where possible we can bring a cost saving element to the build while using renewable materials.
Finishes & features in your home
Glazing & thermal performance – The impact of glazing is a result of aspects such as the layout of your home, building materials (the amount of mass and insulation), the size and location of windows and shading and thermal properties of the glazing units.
Double glazing is highly beneficial for almost all homes and will increase the energy efficiency of your home.
In conjunction with the use of double glazing Borcky Construction use ecofriendly insulation in the timber or steel frames walls, ceiling, roof and subfloor to keep the heat or cool, in or out as required.
Hot water systems – Heat pump water systems are highly efficient water heaters that extract heat from the air to water using less than one third the electricity of electric storage heaters. The use of heat pump hot water systems is highly beneficial to your home, with one of the main benefits being minimising future running costs.
Depending on your climate up to 90% of your hot water needs can be provided by Solar energy. Solar can be used to power the water heat pumps mentioned above. Solar energy can also be used to power the electrical elements of your home and by taking advantage of the suns RENEWABLE energy we can help you to eliminate costly power bills for good!
Energy efficient lighting such as compact fluorescent downlights, fluorescent lamps or LED downlights are the perfect product for your new eco home with most bulbs lasting over 50,000 + hours, however to minimise the use of lighting throughout, we can these techniques to bring natural light into the home.
– Maximise the use of daylight through window and door placement
– Use skylights if possible
– Use light coloured paint work throughout your home
Re-use & recycle water where possible. Use rainwater tanks to collect water from your roof and use it to flush your toilets, clothes washing, watering gardens etc. Also by installing water efficient tapware and appliances such as shower heads, toilets, dishwashers and washing machines we can reduce our water usage.
Landscaping & gardens. Use indigenous and native plants in your gardens. For example, in WA, use plants that can tolerate hot weather and drought. This is one way you can reduce water usage while still maintaining a beautiful garden. Some native species include carex appressa, lomandra longfolia, juncus flavidus, melaleuca, and goodenia ovate.
Heating & cooling your home naturally
Passive Solar Heating is about taking advantage of natural heat sources to heat your home. Passive solar heating can be achieved by:
– Locating thermal mass (such as a concrete slab) where it will be exposed to direct solar radiation to store heat.
– Insulating walls ceilings and subfloors.
– Sealing draughts around doors and windows.
– Locating particular rooms of your home to face north, south, east or west.
Passive Cooling maximises the efficiency of your home by minimising heat gain from external environmental elements. Passive cooling can be achieved by:
– Orientation of windows to cooling breezes to maximise ventilation
– Reduce internal air path barriers to increase natural ventilation
– Install ceiling fans to assist with air circulation
– Avoid extensive glazing on east and west facing facades to minimise heat gain
– Where glazing is located on the east and west facades, shading should be used
– Use light coloured roofs and walls to reflect solar radiation