News: Not just another brick in the wall

By Jessica Little November 26, 2009
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New online tool provides an innovative approach to a more energy efficient home.

A recent survey revealed 70 per cent of Australian homeowners do not consider energy efficiency a major concern. With this in mind, Think Brick Australia has launched an online sustainable home design tool to help Australians combat our harsh climates through architecture.

The online climate design wizard allows homeowners, architects or builders to access information regarding the unique climatic conditions of their chosen site. Based on more than 10 years of climate research on 27 climate zones in Australia, there’s information on air temperature, humidity, heating and cooling, solar irradiation and sky condition, rainfall and wind data.  

“Information has been around for a long time but has not been available in a simplistic format that everyday homeowners can understand,” says Linda Ginger, CEO of Think Brick Australia.

As well as climate information, the website features simple design tips on how best to cope with the climatic conditions of the area – ultimately leading to a more comfortable and energy efficient household.

“The idea of designing for climate has been around for hundreds of years, but since air conditioners have been adopted, homeowners seem to have abandoned a lot of their thermal design practices,” Linda says.

 “It’s got research that backs up and supports every design strategy mentioned on the site – it’s simple and it’s directly supported by science,” Linda says.

Linda said after having already developed a strong subscriber base for the website, that the positive response from consumers and architects has been overwhelming.

Future development for the site is focused on adding more site locations where major population growth is expected to occur in the next 20 years.

View the Think Brick Design for Climate website.

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