How to create a passive solar house and how to electrify your home and car

by | May 10, 2022 | Our home building journey

JUNE 26 @ 1:00 PM – 5:00 PM

Matthew Turner from Enduring Domain

Join the highly experienced, skilled and passionate Passive Solar architect Matthew Turner at ORTO Farm!

Passive Solar design principles are really important because they allow you to create a home that gives back. Many homes are designed so poorly that it is impossible to feel their comfort. And often we are lured to spend money on the wrong things. Windows and doors are the most important elements in your home. Insulation and thermal mass are a must. Building tight and building small will never produce regrets. Use high quality materials instead of a large footprint. Keep bedroom sizes snug, so that you can stretch out in the rooms you use the most. This workshop is one of my most important workshops, because our homes need to nurture us, they need to provide comfort.There is no comfort in high electricity costs, but enormous comfort in a home that is warm on a cold winters morning from a fire or heater long ago extinguished.

Matthew will be joined by Frank Forster from EnviroShop Newstead.

EnviroShop Newstead are excellent at looking and analysing the “big picture” first, to see where solar, batteries, heat pumps, and electric vehicles can fit in. Their passion is energy efficiency and renewable energy.

For those who are retrofitting, building from scratch, or in a position to improve their rental property.

This four-hour session is going to be packed with information with two highly experienced professionals. I will be here as host and to share my experiences, as together with my partner,I have retrofitted a small double brick 1950’s home in Melbourne based on passive solar principles and our current home is built using the light earth method (straw mixed with a slip of water and clay) and pressed into form work, also using passive solar principles.

This event offers the opportunity for you to “learn what you don’t know you don’t know”, or to consolidate your approach.

We will deliver a slide show, case studies and host a question-and-answer time slot.

There will be three of us here to answer questions and to share our experiences.

Tea (herbal and caffein rich) coffee and cakes provided.

This session will be hosted in our LightEarth Home.

Don’t hesitate to ask me, your host, questions prior to the date. Arrivederci cari amici, e grazie mille from mara

Enduring Domain: Thermal mass plays an important role in stabilising indoor air temperature.
Enduring Domain: An energy efficient renovation, which would see a vast improvement to the thermal
livability and health of home and inhabitant.  A rear porch enclosure becomes part of the floor area, with a second stud wall added to create a thick comforting wrap of insulation. The walls and ceiling were lined with OSB (Oriented Strand Board) a simple textured surface to provide durability, bracing and warmth.
Straw bale home with double glazing.

Rammed earth panels.
Tilt and turn double glazed windows at Owl Woods (Talina Edwards Design)
Hemp crete walls.
Light earth home. Straw in a clay slip.

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