GreenSmart Homes

Five steps to a smarter, greener home.
Here at Greybox Homes, we work with GreenSmart principles to effectively improve the quality of Australian homes and their environments. Select a GreenSmart built house and your Greybox home will showcase environmentally responsible housing design on every level. You’ll appreciate the long-term benefits such as lower energy and water bills, a warmer house in winter, a cooler house in summer, increased resource efficiency, a healthier home and less waste going to landfill.

Without compromising on quality or style, all Greybox GreenSmart Homes:
• Demonstrate improved energy, resource and water efficiency.
• Enable home owners to waste less and recycle more.
• Reduce the waste from the building process.
• Create healthier homes for occupants.
• Improve site management during construction.

Step One – Orientation
Be Sun Smart
Building or renovating a home the GreenSmart way starts with the appropriate site selection to ensure that you can maximise passive solar design principles in your home. Finding the perfect placement on your block will allow your home to take advantage of nature’s heating and cooling cycles. The efficient design of eaves on the northern side lets the sun into the home in winter while preventing the hotter summer sun - which is at a higher angle - from entering the home, reducing the need to artificially cool the home in summer.

Step Two - Insulation
Rugging Up
Insulation should be seen as the first line of defence against the external elements after incorporating passive solar design as it helps to reduce heat loss and heat gain through walls, roofs, floors and flooring systems. Ceilings can account for 25 - 35 per cent of heat loss in winter so it’s important to place insulation close to the ceiling.
Floors can account for 10 - 20 per cent of heat loss in winter, so timber floors and suspended concrete slabs used in cooler climates should be insulated.
Walls can account for 15 - 25 per cent of heat loss in winter. However, in cooler climates selecting suitable thickness of insulation can significantly reduce heat loss. The correct selection and installation of insulation in the ceilings, floors and walls, in conjunction with using thermal mass, can achieve significant reductions in heating and cooling costs.

Step Three - Thermal Mass
Working With The Elements
Thermal mass refers to the ability of a material to absorb heat energy. High density materials such as concrete, rammed earth, bricks and tiles have a high thermal mass, which allows them to absorb heat, unlike timber which has a low thermal mass.

In winter, the correct positioning and treatment of thermal mass has the ability to absorb natural heat from the sun during the day and re-radiate the heat through the house at night. In summer, the thermal mass absorbs any heat that has entered the house during the day and cools it at night, which can help reduce internal temperature fluctuations. To achieve the benefits from high thermal mass materials, they should be placed on the inside of the building.

Step Four – Ventilation
Easy and Breezy
Ventilation is the movement of air through and around the home. Ventilation can be achieved using both mechanical and natural methods. Mechanical methods include ceiling fans and externally ducted exhaust fans.

Natural methods include the location and orientation of openings (doors and windows) to allow the flow of air across the rooms, externally ducted air vents to allow air to be pulled through the home or roof-mounted systems to extract hot air from the roof cavity. It is also important to minimise draughts throughout the home by sealing gaps in doors, windows and exhaust fans. This can reduce heat loss by 15-25 per cent.

Step Five - Flooring
Step On It
Your choice of flooring can contribute to your home’s thermal performance, i.e. how thermal mass is utilised in the home. Carpets can minimise the benefits of thermal mass by covering and insulating the thermal mass i.e. preventing useful accumulated heat from entering via the floor, unlike tiles and concrete floors, which will assist in heat gain through conduction. The colour of flooring can also influence heat absorption, with darker colours absorbing more heat which can re-radiate into the house.