Low Impact

The full title of this book is “Making your Home Sustainable - a guide to retrofitting”, by Derek Wrigley. And its that last bit of the title that really grabbed me - I’ve read a lot of inspiring stories about people who built their dream enviromentally-friendly house on a little block of land and been left with the feeling that I need to start from scratch to have a green house.

Derek Wrigley is an architect who transformed his stock-standard townhouse in Canberra to reduce its impact on the environment. The book takes you through it all in almost a “fact sheet” style - chapters focus on general areas with sections within the chapter focussing on a specific aspect. These are accompanied by a huge array of graphs and tables covering all sorts of useful topics, such as sunlight angles, water storage capacity to get through dry periods, etc.

A coffee-table book this is not, but as a reference or an idea-starter, its invaluable. The things that Mr Wrigley has done with his house are impressive:

• kitted out the house with solar cells, both on the roof and on an ingenious “swivelling eaves” system, that can rotate to either expose the solar cells to the sun, or a mirror that reflects light into the southen rooms of the house
• Installed rainwater tanks plumbed into the house for drinking
• Installed a greywater system for garden watering
• Installed a roof ventilation system to assist is venting the house of hot air on summer evenings.
• Installed a reflective sculpture that rotates during the day to reflect the winter sun into the house

Along the way, we’re taken through the rationale for installing a particular feature, the science behind it and the factors that need to be considered in each individual circumstance.

Derek Wrigley’s house is by all accounts very inspiring - in the past he has opened up his house as part of the Solar House Day, which I’ve missed previously. Here’s hoping that he has it open again this year! In the meantime, this book is a great factual reference into the thinking that went into it. Highly recommended!

Categories: efficiency, environment, green, reduce, renovate