MimosaYou’ve been looking at new home designs in Melbourne and the surrounding area. From big, assembly line builders to architect designed custom homes, you and your family have been evaluating your options. What are your criteria? No doubt, upfront cost is one important consideration and location is another. However, you probably also care about how much the house will cost to heat and cool, and you may also be interested in sustainability and green building. You’d like to live in a new home that isn’t going to have a negative effect on the environment. Mimosa Homes cares about the environment and we do many things, some small and some large, to give our customers efficient homes with sustainable features.
Here are a few examples.
In our essentials package, you’ll find block-out blinds, wall-hung clotheslines and alfresco ceiling fans. Every one of these features will save energy if you use it. Here’s how.
Block-Out Blinds
Have you ever heard of solar gain? That’s what happens when sunlight streams into your open windows in the summer, warming the interior of your house through radiation and convection. You may have felt some discomfort from the sun’s rays, but had you considered the effect this has on your air conditioning load? Solar gain means that you use more energy and pay more for electricity. To help reduce solar gain, we provide block out blinds for all the clear glazed windows in our new home designs.
Wall-Hung Clotheslines
Here’s another simple detail that saves energy costs and makes your home greener: wall-hung clotheslines. Both electric and gas-powered clothes dryers are real energy consumers, and a clothesline means that you can skip the dryer all together on nice days. It’s a small detail that adds almost nothing to the cost of our houses but can save you a bundle over the years.
Alfresco Fans
Most of our homes come with Alfresco dining spaces, shaded and protected from the elements by the roof, but open on the sides. These are great places to eat and just relax on hot days, but some people are tempted to leave the sliding doors open to cool this indoor-outdoor space with air conditioning. What a waste of energy! We provide ceiling fans for these spaces as part of our essentials package. They’ll cool you down by causing the moisture on your skin to evaporate and they use a lot less energy than the air conditioning.
Energy Efficiency Rating and Location
Of course, smart, simple features like those are only one part of what we can do to make your new home greener. All of our new houses have at least a six star energy efficiency rating, and we’ll explain exactly what that means in a future post. Most of our houses are located in built-up, walkable neighbourhoods with access to public transport, and they incorporate many natural, recycled and renewable materials into their construction. Don’t hesitate to call or visit one of our display homes and talk to us about what Mimosa Homes is doing to be greener than our competitors.
Green New Home Designs