AVD Win Award For Energy Efficient House

AVD Australia has won the AMX Best Projects Award 2009 for its innovative and ground-breaking energy-efficient residence.The residence, which was once a four-storey sweat shop in the heart of the city, is now a five-storey family home built around an atrium and central chore, which has a motorised roof that automatically opens and closes according to the required conditions.

Using AMX systems which communicate to the Daikin VRV air conditioning system through AVD’s own D-Bacs gateway interface, the client is able to read the temperatures of each of the 30 conditioned areas. When the temperature in an area is too high, they open motorised louvers, or if it is very hot, they open the 4m x 4m motorised glass roof to evacuate the air from the entire five-storey home.

Conversely, on a cold day in the middle of winter they do the opposite. They take the hot air at the top of the building and vent it through 50mm pipes to the areas of the house that require heating.

Water catchment to the house is stored in a 10,000-litre storm water detention tank and pumped to the different garden levels. Water storage capacity is monitored via touch screen systems, as is the watering of the gardens in the central atrium, ensuite green wall and roof top garden. There are also plans for a black water treatment plant.

Power consumption and lighting levels are monitored so that lighting output is varied according to the amount of ambient light available throughout the day.

“With a highly advanced level of integration of all products, we were able to design a way to maintain a constant level of air temperature throughout the house, with the result that the client hardly ever has need for the ducted air-conditioning system, even in winter” said Sandy Howard, Managing Director AVD. 

The client’s verdict: “A truly energy-efficient home which simply runs itself thanks to the sophisticated level of integration. And it all happens with very little input by us!”