If those prices don't include the electrician's costs of connection then to me they don't match up and I'd say your supplier/installer can't do maths lol. Pricing will change between supplier and of course electricians, and of course I'm working off the impression that the floors are flat where you want it installed. If the quote includes the electrical work, as in it covers everything besides tiling to where you can switch it on, then it looks reasonable to me and sits around the ballpark of what we paid. With the electrician's connection costs included then the figures match up better between the bathrooms and the living area, looking at it from a total per m2 viewpoint. If it includes the floor covering as well, then I'd say get on the phone and book the job straight away before they realise their mistake lmao. For instance if the quote is just for material and install, without electrical connection then the two bathrooms are quoted at $166.66 per m2 and the living area is quoted at $53.57 per m2. A large difference at cost per m2. If however the quotes include the electrical connection then you can average out the m2 cost across all three rooms and it amounts to $73.53 per m2. The electrician would be charging the same price for connection of each room (with only minor differences) if there is nothing out of the ordinary in any room. That means it's a static cost in each room that could make the bathroom quotes look inflated, and the living room look on the cheaper side. When you have a m2 quote on something across multiple rooms of different sizes, it's important to factor in anything outside of materials that's included in the quote. Assuming the install could be considered standard (whether it be underfloor heating, tiling, carpet, etc.) there will be other costs involved such as labour hours, wiring connection, installation materials, etc. Some can be considered static such as the electrician installing a single thermostat in each room, whatever actual size that room may be. Others will be more fluid such as labour hours for the tradesmen doing the install - will take a lot longer to lay tiles in a room of 56m2 than it will to lay them in a room 6m2. Whenever you are given a quote involving installations by m2, it's important to get them to detail what exactly is included in the quote. If you don't do this you run the chance of ripping yourself off. Let's say you get 3 different quotes from underfloor heating suppliers who all give you different prices but without details. One may look more expensive than the other two but actually be cheaper overall due to including everything up to 'turn on' phase, where the other two may only include supplying and laying the underfloor heating with you having to organise your own electrician after install.

- Any wood fired heating we have would be purely run with wood from our farm, as opposed to buying anthracite. We would really like to have woodfire doing at least two jobs, i.e. cooking and heating/heating and hot water/cooking and hot water (as we are under the impression that solar hot water would not be enough in winter??). There's nothing like lighting a woodfire to keep your house warm, except for the great big hole in the insulation that it causes. As beautiful as they are (and I'm a massive fan of open/wood fires), they are pretty bad when it comes to ceiling penetrations. A lot of insulation is lost by having an open fire, a wood heater not so much, but still bad enough. For heating, the best advice I can give is this. You need a battery storage system! Then whatever type of heating you go for, you won't run out of energy for your cooking, cooling or anything else you won't to run at the same time. I believe this is a necessity, not to mention a very smart investment. If you want to be off grid, then be completely off grid. I personally don't believe in still being connected to the grid and having the energy your home creates, sold back to you for an absolute pittance. If you invest in a good battery set up, it'll last you up to 15 years and you'll have never have to worry about heating or cooling. I visited a house about 12 months ago that was off grid for power. They purchased an induction cooktop and electric oven, that way the idn't have to worry about refilling gas bottles or having a gas bill come in either. They didn't have the smartest idea when it came to lights as they were still using halogen's, but even still, their battery system never went under 80%. Even during winter, with two teenagers, and a couple of plasma tv's, playstations and all other sorts of electrical goods that they used. They were never too careful so as to make sure they had power in reserve. They just lived life and if they needed to make adjustments, then they could've done. But they didn't need to. That was all done with a 5.5Kw/H system. You'd be surprised how well solar hot water works. It just depends on the type of system you get. Again with battery backup, you won't need to worry. - We are planning to insulate the slab, but have not gotten as far as deciding what product we would use, are there several different products like the one you described? We do plan to have polished concrete flooring throughout the entire house – with the possible exception of bedrooms on the south, if absolutely necessary they will have carpet. I know it's probably more expensive, but I would recommend the Kingspan K3 Floorboards. It is a brilliant product and I recommend it to be used in all my jobs. The effect it has on an energy rating is massive. Depending on the layout and orientation of the house, just by adding slab insulation, I have noticed an increase of almost a full star difference in the rating. So that's from 6 star compliance, to 7 star above average. Here is the product site: https://www.kingspan.com/au/en-au/products-brands/insulation/insulation-boards/kooltherm-k3-floorboard - We will also be aiming to have the optimal amount of glazing for solar gain (and prevention of heat loss). I still haven’t worked out why I can’t upload a picture of our plans, but will do ASAP as we would love to hear feedback on our plan. As for the layout, you just need be mindful of window sizes and orientation. If you have the time before you build to play around with a few different variations of your plans, it might be a good idea, as just by changing a couple of small things, it can give you large benefits. One of the main focuses I have with my business is to help people such as yourself utilise the energy rating software to make small changes at the design stage, instead of just using such a powerful tool at the building permit stage. By then it's too late to make any significant changes. Just keep that in mind. It's a small price to pay to know that your house is going to be as energy efficient as it can be. If you want to, feel free to email me the plans and I can give them a quick look for you. Just to give you some quick advice on them. Giuliano green design & consulting

We are commencing a new build in Sydney. We are having polished concrete on the southern side which is a large open plan kitchen, dining and living room. Whilst we do have mild winters, being south facing, it won't get any sun in winter. We will have reverse cycle air conditioning, but are considering underfloor hydronic heating in this area. We will have solar also so would look to install using heat pump. I would love any advice and experiences on this. Thanks!

There's a move away from gas to the extent that new suburbs where I live are not even being provided with gas mains. Evap cooling when we researched some time back required some windows open and I remember people complaining about that during last summer's smoke. Regardless of which systems you choose, I could not agree more with oklouise, start with good solar passive design and insulation, that's the most efficient way of reducing the reliance on and cost of heating and cooling systems.