Energy Efficient House Design
What is an energy efficient home?
When you’re designing your dream home, an energy efficient house design might not sound as exciting as picking bathroom tiles or kitchen cabinetry – but it should be.
Thinking about sustainable design early on isn’t just about reducing annual energy use and installing solar panels. Smart planning for an energy efficient home design can lower your energy demand and reduce energy bills, make it more comfortable year-round, and even improve your health and wellbeing.
At Hamlan, we make this a priority. Our homes in Geelong are designed to meet, and often exceed, the minimum energy efficiency standards in the National Construction Code, so you can enjoy a sustainable, comfortable home for years to come.
Let’s take a closer look at some of the sustainable house features that make our eco-friendly homes possible.
Windows and doors
Improving your home’s energy efficiency and comfort can be as simple as choosing double-glazed windows and doors, and at Hamlan, they come standard.
Our double glazing features two panes of glass separated by a layer of air or gas, sealed to create a powerful insulating barrier. This design helps reduce heat transfer, keeping your home warmer in winter, cooler in summer, and improving its performance under the Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme (NatHERS). The result is greater comfort, added value to your sustainable home, and a design that helps you save energy.
Thermally broken windows
To improve window efficiency, thermally broken window frames can be installed to reduce the heat or cold transfer that occurs through standard aluminium windows and door frames. These systems separate the external and internal frame with a non-metallic material, helping maintain a more stable indoor temperature.
Thermally broken window frames are on display in our Gen Fyansford display home.
Solar Power with backup
As part of our commitment to reducing environmental impact in Geelong, every Hamlan home now includes a renewable energy system – the Solar ChargePack with battery. This customised solar-plus-battery setup stores energy generated during the day so you can use it at night, helping you save on annual energy costs and reduce reliance on the grid.
During the day, your solar panels charge the battery. At night, your home draws electricity from the stored power, keeping your home running on clean, renewable energy around the clock.
Smart Home Orientation and Lighting
Positioning your home the right way on your block can make a big difference to comfort and energy efficiency. By maximising natural light and heat from the northern sun, Hamlan homes reduce the need for artificial lighting, heating, and air conditioning.
Our flexible house plans allow living areas and bedrooms to be flipped while maintaining the location of functional spaces like garages, ensuring your new home suits the block perfectly.
Lighting is another key factor in an energy efficient home design. Every Hamlan home comes with stylish downlights that provide excellent illumination, and by using energy-efficient lighting like LED downlights over halogen globes, you can brighten your home longer with less energy usage.
We also design homes to retain warmth in winter and stay cool in summer, taking into account the local climate and its effect on comfort and energy demand. All Hamlan floorplans support passive solar design, optimising solar heat gain in living areas and the overall layout.
Hamlan’s new home consultants highlight these design features early in the planning process, showing how each home meets the seven-star minimum under the energy rating scheme, and how it can perform even better.
Building tight and ventilating right
It is common to see a frame go up for a new home and then a wrap be installed around the frame. This wrap is designed to make the home weather tight and reduce the heat gain or loss of a home. Insulation is then installed before the home’s plaster is installed.
You may assume this construction method in new homes creates an energy-efficient home; however, the average new Australian home still has a lot of leakage equivalent to a 3m by 3m wall missing, which is a poor performing building envelope.
Air leakage increases the cost of your power bills and makes for a less comfortable home
Building a home with an effective air barrier around the outside of the house is one step to building a tight home, but a vapour permeable barrier installed inside the home can stop moisture from leaking from the home and into the insulation, which can cause mould.
Our display home in Gen Fyansford has been built with the addition of a vapour permeable barrier. With this, along with the external wrap and installation, the home will be very tightly wrapped which will reduce air leakage. The average leakage of a new built Australian home is equivalent to a 3m by 3m opening. In comparison, our Gen Fyansford display home will have air leakage equivalent to a small letterbox slot.
Heat recovery mechanical ventilation system
With a tightly wrapped home it’s important to have a system to ventilate the home to ensure healthy air and also regulate the temperature. A heat recovery ventilation system installed into the ceiling of a home removes air from the rooms and brings fresh air from outside. When the home has combined double glazing with thermally broken window frames, the right insulation and wrap, and ventilation, then there’s no need for any heating or cooling.
This solves the mould issue, when the internal air has a high relative humidity and comes into contact with a cooler surface, i.e. glazing or internal corner, creating condensation leading to mould. Fresh air keeps moisture out of the air.
You can come and see how comfortable our sustainable homes can be with these features at our new Gen Fyansford display home.
Learn more about how to heat and cool your home.
Our Sustainability Expertise
Blower Door Testing
We’re proud to have Brodie Edge, Hamlan’s internal energy assessor, as part of our team. Brodie is qualified to carry out blower door tests and works closely with our construction and design teams to make sure Hamlan homes deliver the energy performance we promise. Having this capability in-house makes Hamlan one of the only builders in the region able to perform blower door tests ourselves. That means better control, faster feedback, and better outcomes for our clients. We offer blower testing as part of our Sustainability upgrade pack.
Read more about blower door testing at Hamlan.
Reducing Waste, Building Responsibly
At Hamlan, we’re committed to not only building energy-efficient homes but also making sustainable choices at every stage of the building journey, which is why sustainability is one of our Hamlan Hallmarks.
By partnering with local waste management experts Coastal Bin Hire, we’re able to divert up to 90% of construction site waste from landfill. Their hands-on sorting process separates materials like bricks, tiles, concrete, steel, timber, plaster, and dirt for recycling, helping us minimise waste and reduce our environmental impact on every build.
Learn more about the recycling process here
If you want to take it up a notch…
All Hamlan homes are quality-built by local trades using locally sourced quality products and durable materials, and that’s before any upgrades! We’re also upfront with our costs, meaning you know exactly what you’re in for before you sign your contract.
Every Hamlan home comes with sustainable features built in, from double-glazed windows and doors and LED downlights through to solar power and a heat pump hot water system, giving you a strong energy-efficient foundation to build from. To take your eco-sustainable home to the next level, you can add energy-efficient appliances and products and personalise your home with our simple design upgrades.
Ceiling height is something that everyone notices when they walk into a home! High ceilings instantly make a home feel big, open and airy. Our homes already come with 2550mm ceilings but you can increase that to 2700mm to add more space and natural light into your home.
Our standard electrical fittings are from the Clipsal Iconic range, upgradeable to match your home’s colour scheme for a polished look. These fittings are also operational with home automation, another great upgrade that allows you to do things such as turn lights on and off via an App.
Your dream home should always feel comfortable, no matter the season. At Hamlan, there’s a selection of upgrade options to give your home the added comfort of cooling in summer. Take your pick from split-systems, refrigerated cooling and evaporative cooling options. Split systems are considered one of the most energy-efficient major fixed appliances for heating and cooling. Some split systems also conserve energy by using motion sensors that slow the system down when you’re not using the room.
Read more about our inclusions and upgrades here.
