Thread: Free Australian House Plans

Just reading about a government web site: 'Australia's guide to environmentally sustainable homes'. I think most of us here are aware of 'passive cooling' and such, so there may not be anything new there, but they do offer three sets of free house plans:

http://www.yourhome.gov.au/house-des...tions#Download

While Australia is only 12 degrees south at the top end, it is 42 degrees south at the bottom, with the bulk of the population living outside the tropics. So while some of the website's advice will be relevant to Thailand, remember a lot of it will be more general. And don't forget to swap North for South when they're talking sun and windows!

Newspaper article

The government website:
YourHome | Australia's guide to designing, building and living in environmentally sustainable homes.

Cheers.

Here's what we did. Not the best picture. See left side of house. 1 m overhangs. At 9:00am the East windows completely shaded. North windows partially

That govt website has a photo of 'sail cloths' / 'shade cloths' that are used in Oz for shade - almost all the schools and kindergartens here in Sydney have them over their outdoor assembly areas etc.. Don't know if they are available in Thailand? They work a treat. Made of a tough woven vinyl material, no problem with tearing or anything.

About halfway down this page: http://yourhome.gov.au/passive-design

Originally Posted by pominasia

Here's what we did. Not the best picture. See left side of house. 1 m overhangs. At 9:00am the East windows completely shaded. North windows partially

I'm working on a design, we won't be building for a few years yet. I'm thinking at least a metre overhang like yours. More overhang would look downright odd do you think?

(Oh the irony - I'm linking to a govt high-tech passive cooling website, and your traditional Thai design shows that 'passive cooling' ain't anything new!)

Originally Posted by bindog

That govt website has a photo of 'sail cloths' / 'shade cloths' that are used in Oz for shade - almost all the schools and kindergartens here in Sydney have them over their outdoor assembly areas etc.. Don't know if they are available in Thailand? They work a treat. Made of a tough woven vinyl material, no problem with tearing or anything.

About halfway down this page: Passive design | YourHome

Got an aussie mate here that does shade sails.

Not cheap but quality is fantastic.

http://www.latitude12.net/Latitude_12/SHADES.html

Originally Posted by Fondles

Got an aussie mate here that does shade sails.

Not cheap but quality is fantastic.

Some of our Shade projects

Good on him, that is something that has real application in Thailand. Have bookmarked his site - thanks for that.

A few of my wife's old uni mates and their husbands came for a visit a couple years ago. There were two school teachers and a school director amongst them, and they were most interested in those shade sails.

Originally Posted by VocalNeal

Upcountry Thai style car park shades using "Orchid Farm" shading material would be fine.

Of course not cutting down all the trees on the lot would also be a start.

As for the Aus. housing plans, Cairns seems to be as far north as they go spec wise. How does that equate to Thailand? Same?

Having built a house using US R values does Australia use US or SI units for R values.

Darwin is further north, up on the flat bit in the middle, nearest to East Timor. But both Darwin and Cairns are in the 'hot humid summer, warm winter' zone that would equate best to most of Thailand.

Australia is metric btw, but I couldn't tell you whether that goes as far as 'R values'. I would assume yes, as we started the conversion from the imperial system when I was in 3rd or 4th grade. And I'll be retiring from the workforce in the next 5 years or so. Wikipedia says "SI units are now the sole legal units of measurement in Australia." (I had to google 'SI units', had never heard of them. )

I've just been reading an interesting case study on the site - for a house build on the outskirts of Darwin. Some food for thought there, when considering a Thailand build. E.G.:

"The home has a high-pitched roof that minimises sun exposure and creates a cathedral ceiling to maximise air circulation. Vents in the roof ridge and apex exhaust heat. The roof is clad with steel and lined with insulation with an air gap to act as an additional insulative barrier to heat exchange. The owners say this insulation specification turned out to be controversial with local builders and was the deciding factor in the choice of builder."

"This home is built entirely with steel which has a low thermal mass. The home and outdoor living area are shaded year-round by the roof and eaves (see Shading)."

Case study: Darwin River Northern Territory

I don't know if I'd go with "built entirely with steel", but I am becoming more convinced that a steel roof is the way to go. Those Q-blocks (?) will do for my walls I think, and a two-story house is not practical for the old bugger I'm soon to become.

caves are underrated.

^^^^^

Thanks Wasp. And I get the hint - my project for the day now is to learn how to post pictures...

Originally Posted by bindog

^^^^^

Thanks Wasp. And I get the hint - my project for the day now is to learn how to post pictures...

People just love pictures , bindog .



Wasp

if you want to get your house to meet ratings from Australia, just create an account and fill in the info.
its pretty hard to meet the 7-8 star rating now required in NSW.

https://www.basix.nsw.gov.au/basixcm...g-started.html

"Tiny ants have, however, caused serious damage to the electrical systems on two occasions, necessitating replacement of expensive components."

Bit of a worry...always seem to be parades of tiny ants in our house ...

this is the sort of window awning I was thinking of

Originally Posted by crepitas

Bit of a worry...always seem to be parades of tiny ants in our house ...

I occasionally get them in my Condo.

Do you know how to get rid of them ?

Don't think we can, just a part of life here.

Best thing we can do is keep the food prep areas spotlessly clean.

^ one can buy little packets of white powder (borax?) just sprinkle some where you see them.
They take it back to their nest and....

Originally Posted by VocalNeal

^ one can buy little packets of white powder (borax?) just sprinkle some where you see them.
They take it back to their nest and....

Sounds right - here in Oz you can buy a product called 'Ant Rid', which has 'active constituent Boron (B) present as Borax Decahydrate'. Ours is a thick brown liquid that the ants gather round like pigs at a trough.

Here's a photo in case Wasp is watching.



(In googling for that photo I found plenty of "home made ant killer" recipe references. They seem to use your Borax powder and mix it with something sweet.)



I wonder are the Darwin couple in the case study are taking the 'wildlife habitat' classification of their land a bit too far, and leaving the ants alone to do their thing.

Hooley Dooley! 12,537,175.8795 Thai baht (AUD 490,000.00) is what the (TWO BEDROOM!) Darwin River house cost and for that you get Zincalume roof sheet on the roof, outside walls and inside walls. I once built 56 outstation houses for Aboriginal Communities; as built to the supplied plans they were very basic houses but even so they had Gyprock (Gypsym, sheetrock - take your pick) interior wall cladding. Beauty in the eye of the beholder and all that but for mine about the only thing this house has going for it is "all steel", all galvanised and painted steel.
That is a good idea 'cause steel is tough and termites can't eat steel.

IMHO, 12,537,175.8795 Thai baht will buy you a shit hot four bedroom condo in Bangkok, just saying.....

Baldrick, Functionally that's perfect, aesthetically-your choice.
Make them wide enough to shade the window all day / all year.
Ensure they are all steel and all painted before assembly to the wall.
Use the thinner (plenty strong enough for this application) pre-insulated Trimdek profile roof sheet as it will almost completely eliminate the IR (this from experience, I just put a roof over a work area with great resuts..

^^^^^^

Does that include the land though - 80 hectares? The crocodile skins alone in that stretch of river would be worth a bit.

What does a regular 'project home' cost to build in Darwin? It says somewhere they set out to prove you could build one of these 'sustainable homes' for a similar price to a regular high-energy "McMansion". Good on them for that.

So, you have experience with building in remote arid areas eh Nutz? Should be handy 'round here. Me, I have experience with supporting software on mainframe computers. Useful as tits on a bull once I retire.

Here's a photo in case Wasp is watching.


He is !!! Nice piccie.

Haha!

But the other pic is gone from my gallery - do the mods delete pics? It may have had some copyright infringement on it - pics of products like Heinz sauce, and a website address. Better to use offsite pic storage huh, like photobucket.