- 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

There certainly can be legitimate functional reasons/purpose for basins to be required set appropriately in relation to the wall to suit the selected wall spout setup, and having experience with similar details the spout length chosen can determine the basin position and does need to be a certain length to work properly. Sometimes this requires adjustment of basin size and bench depth. In this case something's clearly happened.....without understanding the company's particular processes my guess is that the bench depth larger than what it should be. It's your home/investment, you have to live with it long term. IMO what differentiates (great from ordinary) builders is their capacity to resolve issues and shoulder responsibility when something like this occurs. Believe me they (should) have enough fat built in the profit margins to resolve these types of issues. The good news is you actually have a physical example you can refer to in the company's display home. If required go and measure it and compare it to yours to be 100% sure - in custom/boutique situations clients don't have that luxury/back-up check. Try not to play or get drawn into a "blame" game, or accept lame excuses (which the industry is expert in ;) ), it doesn't matter exactly how it went wrong, the main thing is you want to get it right/resolved. Stick to your guns ;)

How exciting El Bee. I live in a similar rural climate. Everyone with bottled gas for heating (and anything else) constantly remarks how expensive it is. It’s really expensive to run. The most efficient heating type is reverse cycle air conditioning. The Daikin US7 has a COP (coefficient of performance) of up to 7. What that means (in lay person’s terms) is that one unit of energy produces 7 units of heat. Most other brands have a COP of up to 5. COP is also affected by the size of the unit and the temperature where the compressor is located (usually outdoors) Other forms of electric heating have a COP of 1 at best. An alternative could be wood fired or heat pump hydronic heating and water heating. It gives a much nicer heat than ducted and may be cheaper to run if you can source your own wood. If you buy firewood then the economics may not work for you. Whether a heat pump system will work for you in winter, which is when you need heating, depends upon how many sunny days you get in winter. It still needs to be powered by some electricity but is efficient. The best solution is to build a house that requires very little heating or cooling (or even none) using solar passive design principles. Good places to start are the yourhome.gov.au website, the alternative technology association website (although it can get bogged down in debates about technology) and renew and sanctuary magazines. If your house is oriented correctly, right amount of shading, cross ventilation, insulation, right materials etc then you may need very little heating or cooling at all. Good orientation and cross ventilation costs nothing but will reap huge benefits in terms of comfort and liveability, and reduced reduction on energy to heat and cool the house. For me, I would prefer the master separate to the kids rooms unless there is a solid reason for grouping the bedrooms together. It’s good to be close to kids when they’re little and need you during the night, once they are older you might want more privacy for adult activities. Teens typically go to bed later than their parents and there are likely things you don’t want them to hear. If possible it’d be great to get the loo out of the bathroom. Especially for morning rush time. Even though there’s another loo in the laundry. Think about wood storage too. Accessible to the house and easy access for the delivery truck. You don’t want to be pushing wheelbarrows of wood up a steep slope. Some wood storage inside is also a good idea so you don’t need to dash out in the cold to stock up on wood all the time. And finally, possibly more pantry space. If you are not close to a major town or decent food shopping then you may have longer between shopping trips and need more storage for food. It doesn’t need to be fancy. Just bigger. Think about using a building designer or architect with an understanding of sustainable design and solar passive principles in your climate. Or if designing yourself then going with a builder who understands these principles and has worked on similar projects in the past. They’ll have great insights about what works in your climate. Is there a sustainability or permaculture group in the area? They’ll probably be a great source of information and contacts. Good luck with the build.

What is this distance from oven to island. 1300mm is a good distance. Usually it would be good to have the oven in the kitchen, proper, it appears that it is in a thoroughfare. Is it a wall oven or underbench oven? Are the cabinets that your cook top is on, against a wall or open to another room. If it is a wall, put your oven next to cooktop on that wall. However if your oven is a wall oven, this will loose counter space, either side of cook top. And is there a reason why you have the angle on the bench top (with sink). Measurements will help to give better ideas.