GREENhouse design
 
On this site, at Cooran, in the Shire of Noosa, a state of the art ecologically sustainable development will be built.  A 5 star GREENhouse design home, powered by 28 US64 grid connected solar panels is about to get started in 2003.

Greywater will be treated using state of the art technology from EcoDesign, and a Nature Loo compost toilet will take care of human waste.  The resources thus recycled will be used in a permaculture eco system to be constructed below the house on the slopes you see here.

The house will be on a split level concrete slab for thermal mass, and additional mass will be built into this home with the aid of Gympie Masonry concrete blocks built on the eastern, western, and internal walls which will be erected below the clerestory windows which will face north for light, and winter warmth.  This house rates 10.8MJ/m2 .

WATCH THIS SPACE
Progress photos of this project will be posted to this website as construction develops, with detailed descriptions of its features as they go up.
US 64 Solar panels Features:
   Triple junction silicon solar cells                                                                                                          
    Polymer encapsulation- no glass
    Anodized aluminum frame
    Unbreakable construction
    Bypass diodes for shadow tolerance
    20 year limited warranty
    Weather resistant junction box
    Lower embodied energy than conventional panels

GREENhouse design selected these panels for several reasons.  Regular crystalline silicon solar cells are manufactured at over 1000°C, whereas these Canon technology panels are manufactured at 300°C.  Because they are encapsulated in polymer (they can actually be walked on!), they require no glass. . . . .  the end result is a much lower embodied energy, and this further translates to a lower cost per Watt.

Furthermore, unlike regular silicon cells, their energy generation does not decline in hot weather (not exactly rare in Qld), but actually slightly improves.  They are also much more tolerant of shading. . . .  a normal panel completely shuts down if one single cell in the panel is shaded, whereas if one Unisolar cell in one panel is shaded, it will still produce over 95% of its total rated output.

Thermal Performance
This 5 star house is cutting edge efficiency.  For explanation of thermal performance click here, and return to this page with your browser's back button.  This house strays outside the BERS 'comfort zone' (the yellow bars in the chart below) for less than 150 hours in an entire year.  BERS predicts it will be below 20°C for 80 hours, and at 28°C for 69 hours.  For the remaining 8600 odd hours, this house will be between 20 and 27°C. . . . . . . !  Forget heaters and air-conditioners, they are simply not needed.


The two small blue bars indicate when the house is deemed 'cold' by the simulator program, whilst the red bar shows when the house 'overheats'.
These bars require 10.8MJ/m2 of energy to be removed.  The 5 star threshold is 60 MJ/m2  and this house's energy rating is considerably better than that.  To improve on this would require expense simply not justified in our opinion.
 

  
This house works so well because its long axis is East-West, it has no windows facing East or West, and it has much stratigically placed thermal mass.  To ensure it has as little embodied energy as possible, it is of modest dimensions, not exceeding 150 m2  internally.  Its windows are recycled and timber framed.  Timber frames do not conduct heat like aluminium windows do, and they do not have the extremely high embodied energy of aluminium either.
The walls will be insulated with foil backed R1.5 polyester batts, and the ceiling with similar foil backed R3.3 batts.