Beacon

It is a home that is designed and built to be sustainable.  It will perform better: warmer, drier, healthier.  It will use fewer resources: less electricity and gas, less water.  It will last well into the future and be flexible for changing households.  It will cost the same as a similar house to buy but it will cost a whole lot less to run.  In time, as buyers realise the benefits of sustainable homes, it will have great resale value.  And, most importantly, the people who live in it will reap the positive health, social and mental health benefits of a quality home.

And how does a HomeSmart Home achieve this?  By using simple, proven designs and technologies in combination, HomeSmart Homes address the performance of the whole house – from energy efficiency to water to the indoor environment, and even to waste.

Typical features

The typical features you might see in a HomeSmart Home are:

• A design which faces the north with lots of windows on the northern side
• A concrete floor or wall which absorbs heat from the sun and releases it when the air is cold
• High levels of ceiling, wall and floor insulation, much higher than in the Building Code
• Double glazed windows to keep the heat in and the noise out
• Solar water heating
• An efficient pellet or wood burner with heat transfer systems to move the warmth around
• A rainwater tank to collect and reuse rain
• Passive ventilation to keep down moisture and avoid overheating

HomeSmart Homes are designed to meet the performance benchmarks set out in Beacon’s HSS High Standard of Sustainability®. 

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