Posted 27 February 2014 - 12:43am
The team behind Josh's House were the big winners at the 2014 Master Builders WA Housing Excellence Awards in Perth on Saturday night, winning the Waterwise Home, Most Liveable Home and Excellence in Energy Efficiency categories.
The brainchild of ABC Gardening Australia’s West Australian presenter Josh Byrne, Josh's House is a low carbon building development based in Hilton, Western Australia. It is one of three Living Laboratories projects being funded by the CRC for Low Carbon Living (CRCLCL).
Josh’s House consists of two 10-star NatHERS*-rated houses that have been built within a similar budget and timeframe as a typical Aussie home. These highly energy efficient dwellings are estimated to consume 90 per cent less energy and 60 per cent less water than conventional housing stock, leading to savings of more than $3000 every year.
“It’s great that the Master Builders Association has formally recognised the water and energy efficiency aspects of the project as well as its livability,” says Josh.
Built by Highbury Homes and co-designed by Solar Dwellings and Josh Byrne & Associates, Josh’s House has been developed to demonstrate that high performance homes don’t have to be complicated or expensive to build and maintain.
The performance of Josh’s House will be intensively monitored over the next three years as part of a research project being undertaken by Curtin University through the CRCLCL. The results of this research will be made available to industry, government and the broader community to further awareness of high performance housing.
For more information on Josh’s House, go to www.joshshouse.com.au
*Refers to the Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme (NatHERS) which is based on a scale of 0-10, with 10 being the highest rating score. 6 stars is the minimum energy efficiency standard required under the Building Code of Australia.