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Editor Kerryn Burgess bought this 1954 house in 2010 when the property, in Victoria’s Macedon Ranges, was in near-original condition.
‘It had no wall or floor insulation, little ceiling insulation, single-glazed windows, gas hot water, gas cooking, and no garden,’ recalls Kerryn. ‘It was freezing in winter and hot in summer.’
Over time, Kerryn made gradually environmentally-conscious upgrades to her Kyneton home, starting small with building compost bays, installing a rainwater harvesting system, and developing the garden.
‘Every few years, as I could afford it, I did something more to decrease my carbon footprint, make the house more comfortable, and decrease my energy bills,’ she says. ‘[I added] more insulation; replaced the windows with double-glazed uPVC windows; and installed rooftop solar, heat pump hot water, and split system heating and cooling.
‘I made mistakes along the way: I installed gas-fired hydronic heating at a time when gas was still affordable.’
By 2023, Kerryn was ready to complete the ‘final push’: make the house airtight, eliminate its reliance on gas heating, and create a more practical and beautiful kitchen.
Kerryn engaged Outlier design studio to achieve all this and more by draught proofing the home and adding a solar PV system, efficient lighting, electric appliances, and appropriate external planting to strategically shade the interiors.
Outlier delivered, while managing to work with recycled materials — which can have potential detrimental outcomes on air leakage — wherever possible.
Educating trades and consultants on the importance of not penetrating the subfloor membrane, and sealing the existing plasterboard wall and ceiling lining, was vital.
Post renovation, a blower door test showed the airtightness of the house had changed from 23 air changes per hour (ACH) to less than two.
For comparison, the Australian Government Your Home website states some old Australian houses have total air changes in excess of 30 per hour, and the average new Australian home has an airtightness of 15.4 air changes per hour.
The house also achieves a very impressive 8.9-star NatHERS rating.
‘With this level of airtightness, I hope to be able to live without the gas heating this winter,’ says Kerryn.
A new heat recovery ventilation system provides fresh filtered air to the home when the windows and doors aren’t open, and assists in condensation management.
These sustainable updated have made Kerryn’s house a delightful space to look at and inhabit. The property is a harmonious blend of light, air, and warmth, embodying the essence of what Outlier strives for: homes that are sanctuaries.
