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Russell Baillie describes his Baillie Eco-Home as a modern, contemporary house that’s also green under the skin. It’s a two storey, four/five bedroom home in Mt Eden which was completed in 2016. The house is a showcase of efficiency, sustainability and universal design. Russell has publicly shared his design and build journey on the Baillie Eco-Home Facebook page, and often opens his home to tours so others can benefit from his learning.
An Example of What can be Achieve
Russell has been promoting energy efficiency and sustainability all through his professional life, so has has a great deal of experience in the field. He completed a number of renovations where he increased the insulation and made small improvements to existing houses. But he wanted to create an exemplar, modern family home.
The Baillie Eco-Home at a Glance:
- Total floor area: 252 sq m
- Land area: 513 sq m
- Building coverage on site: 157 sq m
- Bedrooms: 4/5. The family/living room is designed to be used as bed #5. Down stairs bedroom is sized as full disabled access (wheel chair down both sides of double bed), but also doubles up as a study.
- Bathrooms: Full disabled access bathroom downstairs plus family bathroom and full ensuite upstairs.
- Rainwater collection: 3 x 5,000 litre tanks
- Imported water use: 2 months/year in a dry summer
- Solar electric: 5kW peak
- Inverter: 5 kW
- Electricity use (minus electric car): Nett exporter
- Heating: zero, totally passive
Russell also wanted to walk the walk. He explained that he’s attended presentations from knowledgable people who don’t always practice what they preach. (I can relate to this. I find myself guilty of it too sometimes. I’d love to have a fully insulated, air-tight home, yet I feel constrained by the financial reality of the Auckland housing market.) With the Baillie Eco-Home, Russell has shown that careful planning and getting the right people on board, can produce great results.
Thermal Modelling to Influence the Design
The design of the Baillie Eco-Home has been influenced by thermal modelling. From the location of the building on the site, through to the use of block walls and exposed concrete floors for thermal mass, Russell has paid close attention to his end goal.
The result is a home that is consistently healthy, dry and comfortable all year round. And it achieves this with minimal energy consumption. For the 365 days to 11th October 2017, Russell recorded a net -32kWh energy use, including charging his electric car! The house is truely a net positive energy home.
The Baillie Eco-Home Dream Team
Russell attributes much of the success of the Baillie Eco-Home to the people he involved in the project. Key people include:
- Thermal Modelling: Jo Woods, who was working to eCubed at the time, along with Ella Osborne.
- Architects: RTA Studio
- Builder: Dave Anstis of Ecoconstruct
There were many other people and organisations along the way including Lifemark, the New Zealand Green Building Council and Vector to name a few.
Takeaways
In choosing a builder, Russell explained that attitude was more important than skill or experience.
A builder with the right attitude can learn new tricks and they’re prepared to be flexible and adaptable and follow the things that you have researched.
Having a builder and tradespeople that don’t follow through on the details of a design can be very disheartening, explained Russell. It’s amazing how often products get substituted or plans simply don’t get followed because it’s not what the builder normally does. Sentiments such as, ‘Oh nah mate, you don’t need that,’ are all too common.
An Example for Everyone
Russell recorded his whole journey of Facebook so others can learn from this project. He has continued to add occasional updates describing life in the Baillie Eco-Home since completion. These include Russell’s experience with his electric Nissan Leaf, highlights from their fruitful garden and of course performance data from the house.
The Baillie Eco-Home is much more than a contemporary, modern home with green under it’s skin. It’s an example for everyone for what can be achieved so more of us can create healthy, sustainable urban living.
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