Fairmont Homes NSW is proud to announce our range of Energy Efficient Homes as a joint venture with Sycon.

Our goal is to use an alternative construction method to standard building practises to provide an energy efficient yet attractive home for clients. Bringing star rated homes to the consumer can not only be cost effective, through its use of materials and construction practises, but the contemporary facades are challenging the common view, that “all green homes are ugly”. The main issues we want to address are future constructions costs. With the likely hood of a carbon tax being introduced, many products such as bricks will increase dramatically in price. With the use of lightweight materials, that aren’t taxed as heavily, as well as the speed in the construction (using a simplified construction process), this cost saving can be passed onto the consumer.

Our first energy efficient home, The McKenzie, is located in the new housing estate, Gregory Hills. This façade was designed by leading architectural firm, Heyward Lance Architecture. It incorporates the use of both lightweight materials in Sycon Stria Board and Sycon Matrix, as well as traditional methods of Brickwork thus taking the consumers needs and wants into account. During our research, we found Consumers felt more comfortable to have brickwork over the garage as a safety issue therefore we have included this as a rendered feature. Another feature includes the use of VELUX skylights with High performance double glazed skylights installed. This home was assessed by an Energy Consultant to achieve a 6.5 star energy rating. It was amended to the specifications detailed in the report, which equates to a 46% reduction in predicted overall energy use for heating and cooling on your yearly power bills

Any home can achieve an energy rating. Please feel free to choose one of our standard designs and we can customise this to your block and orientation, and provide a detailed report from our energy consultant.

So what makes an Energy Efficient Home?

That’s simple. Generally the main features are;

• Upgraded insulation in the walls and ceiling
• Glazing requirements from standard glass to Comfort Plus to certain windows
• Orientation of the home
• Zoning of rooms (basically adding cavity sliding doors, or standard doors to stop the loss of heating or cooling)
• …and that’s it! The main features. As you can see, there is not a lot of difference between a standard home and an Energy Efficient Home
• Skylights are also added to provide natural light which in turn minimises the use of lighting