Sustainabilit y Matters

SUSTAINABILIT Y MATTERS

BY CHRIS SLY, BUSH AND BEACH HOMES

Best Lighting Options for a Sustainable Home

Lights are used every day in the home, a lot more than most appliances. To ensure your home is truly sustainable, it is important more modern lighting options are used instead of the traditional ones, such as the incandescent bulbs that burn so much power. If you are still in the planning stage of your home, it is a good idea to ensure that it makes as much use of natural light as possible. That means placing the living areas on the side that gets the most sunlight and designing the building so the natural daylight can pour in unimpeded to a great extent. Natural lighting can also be enhanced by the use of skylights or light shafts, by the use of light-coloured paint on the walls, and having window furnishings that can be pulled right back to let in the light. While halogen downlights are still popular, much of the power used is wasted on producing heat. These lights need to be carefully installed so as to keep the heat away from insulation or anything else that could catch alight. Even though they last about twice as long as other incandescent lights, the cost of running them is much higher, with the transformer consuming 10-30 per cent of the power needed. The most modern lights – the compact fluorescent light and LED lighting – are cheap to run and last much longer than other kinds of lights. This offsets the initial cost which often puts people off buying them. Because some last up to 50,000 hours before they wear out, it is possible to save much more than the cost of purchase in that time. Fluorescent tubes last for around 8,000 hours – much longer than incandescent lamps – and they are cheap to run, generating only a fraction of the heat. However, the size, shape and flickering are seen by many to be obstacles to their installation. Nowadays, compact fluorescent lights offer a good alternative as they are cheap to run and durable, but LED lighting is an even better option. By utilising a combination of fluorescent and LED lights, the cost of lighting can be reduced by up to 85 per cent; a saving that is well worth while. LEDs generate very little heat so your home will not heat up as quickly. There are several new developments available for residential lighting that will offer even more savings. Compact fluorescent lights that need no transformer to gobble up the power, and LED lights that use only three watts while still providing fantastic light, will ensure that your costs can be cut even further.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Chris Sly – Managing Director – 30 years of experience in construction and management have equipped Chris to position Bush and Beach Homes as industry leaders in the category of Sustainable Homes. Bush and Beach success is all about their people, and together with fellow Director Mark Cruse they have assembled an exceptional team of skilled and experienced construction professionals capable of exceeding your dreams for your new home.

Create. Escape. Discover.

Bush and Beach ‘Greensmart’ homes combine environmentally friendly materials to form creative rooflines and facades that are perfectly at home in the Australian Bush or at the Beach. Wide verandas, eaves and flyover rooflines, combine with breezeways to provide passive heating and cooling year round. Expansive decks create the perfect space for outdoor kitchens enhancing the Australian lifestyle we all enjoy, also doubling as undercover play area for the children regardless of the heat or the rain.

Sloping Land? Not a Problem for Bush and Beach Homes! If you’ve got a sloping block we’d love to hear from you, Bush and Beach Homes specialize in building on sloping land. Let us talk to you about all the great features and benefits and help you to work out what’s going to be best for both your needs and the requirements of your site.

“Anne Robotham and Bruce Turnbull

We approached Bush and Beach with our ‘must haves’, wish list and budget. We met them on-site and were overwhelmed by the Concept drawings they presented. These exceeded our expectations and surpassed what we had achieved with the original architects. What is more, the estimated build cost was very comfortably within our budget. ”

Our team of professional consultants and home builders will help you to get the best value out of your building budget. For more information call today on

1300 329 033 visit bushandbeach.com.au or facebook.com/bushandbeach

Drop in for a coffee and a chat about your requirements or schedule a free land consultation and discuss your ideas with one of our friendly and experienced design consultants.