BREAZE

Sustainable house day in Ballarat this year involved 7 BREAZE houses.

The range of features was huge, and in a variety of combinations. There was the super-efficient house with basic aesthetic appeal, the "bog-standard" brick veneer that was not built for sustainability but retrofitted on a budget to become a dream of efficiency, the "working towards sustainability" miner's cottage, the bio-sewerage system with highly efficient house attached, the excellent straw-bale, the geothermal system plus and the beautifully-thought-out modern home.

The limited number of volunteers did a sterling job of showing visitors the benefits of the homes they were visiting. People came from all over, including Geelong, Melbourne and Wangaratta as well as Ballarat. A couple of houses had well over 100 visitors – 400+ visits in total.

The event in the SmartLiving Centre was well attended and filled the needs of people interested in learning more about the principles of solar passive design, complete with an expert panel.

Many visitors had homes ready to build or existing ones which they felt needed improvement. I can safely say that all visitors went away inspired with thoughts of how they could apply what they had seen in at least one of the houses.

All the home-owners reported positive experiences of connecting with their visitors – all of whom expressed appreciation of being able to see sustainability principles in action, and often at an affordable price.

Thanks go to those special people who worked to make the day a success. We were all too busy to take photos!

(Just one from Jenny Ryle in the Straw Bale house.)

History

Look at the report of the 2010 sustainable house day - http://breaze.org.au/action-groups/retro-renewable/rr/593-sus-house-sep-2010