Construction and materials
Make smart choices about your walls, floors and ceilings to maximise the energy savings in your home design.
When you’re choosing building materials, talk to your builder or architect about thermal mass and how different products can add to the insulation in your home. Keeping temperatures stable inside the home is a good way to reduce your heating and cooling costs.
Maximise insulation
Insulation is the single most effective item that you can add to your home to improve its energy efficiency.
A well-insulated, energy efficient house can:
- reduce your household energy use by up to 70 percent
- keep your home up to 10ºC cooler in summer and 5ºC warmer in winter
- generate total energy savings of over $800 each year, or more than $20,000 over the average 25-year home mortgage.
There are many different insulation types to suit different areas of the home. The higher the ‘R value’ of the insulation, the better it will perform.
An energy efficient builder, designer or insulation retailer can help you decide on the best type of insulation product for your walls, ceilings and under the floor.
Use thermal mass to control temperature variation
Adding thermal mass (heavy building materials) within the insulated building envelope helps to reduce extremes in temperature inside the home.
Materials that can provide thermal mass include concrete floors and masonry walls. Lightweight materials such as timber or plasterboard can be useful internally when you want rooms to heat up and cool down quickly.
It is important to consult with your architect or builder about the best materials for saving energy in the climate where you live.
Minimise Waste
Building or renovating can produce a lot of waste. Work with your builder to reduce, re-use and recycle as much as possible during your building or renovating project to create less waste and save energy in the longer term.
Quick Action: Lighting
Replace conventional globes with compact fluorescent light bulbs and you'll save around $9 each time.
