"gardenlen" wrote in message
...
g'day jen,

i'll hark back to the need to thinbk ourside the square, it would be
all too easy if climates were stat' but we have hot and cold and
everything in between etc.,.

but a properly thought out design can take the edge of both extremes,
to the degeree that if you build to get the absolute best in one
extreme because that is the one you get more of then the other extreme
will be more manageable.

in the desert like copper pedi take the example.

in every climate if you build undergraound then the home would have
stable all year round temperatures.

we have to consider that people have been living in places like arid deserts
and extremely northern locations for millenia & they didn't have
airconditioning or heated toilet seats :-)

i still say the designs that we are indoctrinated with are not working
anywhere in australia, they may fare better for folk who by accident
bought one on the right aspect, and it is aspects which give us our
micro climates so that is what we are about with our eco' home design
we had.

didn't matter if it was 38 outside in the sun or -10 on the ground on
a winters morning we were comfortable without wasting extra resources.
but then we ahd more stable climate conditions ie.,. no extremes form
either end of the scale.

what was your house like?

even this macmansion that we have in the 'burbs now only needs some
passive cooling and a few strategicaly planted plants, we need no
heating in the winter because the home is orientated not too badly on
the block. and the aspect of the block isn't as bad as most.

we had a home similar situation near the bay and we needed fans in all
rooms all summer and heating in the winter, the results of the wrong
aspect and no consideration by the builder to orientation of the home
on the block, though it wouldn't have helped much as the aspect was
hopeless as is the aspect of roughly 70% of all homes.

that's right. also, i think people underestimate how much plants can help
"rescue" a crap house, as well. (a subject pertinent for this group!)

but overall, i think generally good design had better become a more common
thing in australia soon!
kylie