Using permaculture ethics and design principles to transform an old energy guzzling bungalow into a showcase of sustainable design. It's about energy cycling, building community, self-reliance, creatively using and reusing materials... without spending heaps of money.
OVERVIEW
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Video by Happen Films recorded in April 2018, 10 years after original purchase of the property.
The Abdallah House project began in May 2008 in suburban Seymour, Central Victoria, Australia with the purchase of this three roomed bungalow with bathroom / laundry tacked onto the side on a 584 sq metre (1/7 acre) block. The project is driven by permaculture practitioner Richard Telford with support from his partner and children Kunie, Kai and Sen.
BEFORE: The original energy hungry bungalow, with no insulation throughout
Richard, Kunie, Kai and Sen (2012)
The bungalow was carefully deconstructed and transformed to build a new home that showcases low energy and passive systems that each apply some, if not all of the permaculture design principles.
Regular blog posts were kept to highlight at least one of the 12 principles and keep readers up to date on what was happening on site. Some of the milestones of the project include:
The felling, milling, drying and using of all parts of the massive Red Gum that was on site
The owner building of the new home within the budget of AU$100,000
Moving into the home within one year of the beginning of construction
Birth of our second son at home, 10 days after moving in (June 2010)
30,000lt of water collected on site primarily for domestic use with mains water used for irrigation and as a back-up
Approximately one 45kg gas bottle used per year, only for stove top cooking, since reduced to around 3 x 9kg bottles per year in 2017.
Our 1.5kW Solar PV system to supplies more than twice the electricity that we consumed in 2011/12
Electricity use averaging 2.34kWh per day (2011-12), around 1/8th of a typical household (85% less than the average for our area - 18.1 kWh per day)
Our 'Super Fridge', an upright freezer conversion uses around 200Wh of energy per day, about 50% less than a similar sized fridge, but it died after just 5 years.
Our Super Fridge Take 2 is a big improvement on the original - 30% more energy efficient than the previous one and much easier to use.
Only one rubbish (120lt) and one recycle bin (240lt) used during our 2011 'binimum' challenge
Cycling of all compostable materials generated on site
Cellar and cool cupboard integrated into the house design
Finalist in the 2012 HIA Greensmart Awards in the 'Custom Built Homes' and 'Resource Efficiency' categories
Our 2012 mission of analysing food / drink purchases revealed that we spent $15.50 per day for our young family of four - about $1.30 per person, per meal.
Our 2013 mission was to record all produce harvested for the year. 509 eggs, 276kg of vegies, 90kg of fruit and about 4kg of herbs - which averages out at around 1.4 eggs and 1kg of produce per day.
Our 2019 food harvest produced over half a tonne of food, with a total yield of
498kg of fruit and vegetables along with 805 eggs collected. Results for 2016 (442kg/782 eggs) and 2017 (308kg/718 eggs) also detailed on spreadsheet.
Principle 11: Use edges and value the marginal I collected a large pile of concrete which had been sitting out the front for a number of years. It had become habitat for snails mainly. Originally the concrete blocks were footpaths from around the original house, so they hadn't traveled far. This material is more commonly known as 'urbanite', and is used in some pretty creative ways . I've been thinking about creating a space for an outdoor kitchen for some time now, and figured that I really needed a paved area in between the shed and cellar to set it up. The urbanite seemed like the perfect answer, allowing me to clean up around the front and create a great space round the back. My mate Dylan suggested that I make up a form and mortar mix to set the concrete block pieces onto. Seemed like a good idea to me, so after thinking about it for a few months and with summer just about to start, I decided to get stuck into it. After clearing the space I set up a
Principle 12: Creatively use and respond to change I'm one for trying out different things, and I like to see what we can get away with before committing to something bigger and 'better'. Fridges and freezers are one of the biggest energy consumers in the household - usually behind heating / cooling and hot water systems. Our upright freezer to fridge conversion in action We've trialed a number of fridge systems here before settling on the upright freezer conversion. First we used an old 150lt bar fridge that used around 670Wh per day Then we bought a 150lt chest freezer (using around 466Wh per day) for preserving bulk food - with the idea of a possible conversion. Our bar fridge died two weeks later so we used ice from our freezer to create a 'ice box bar fridge' We then tried a smaller old Engel fridge (about 50lt) that I had in the Kombi that used about 420Wh per day. After not being entirely satisfied with any of the above I finally decided
Principle 3: Obtain a yield We produced over half a tonne of food in 2019, with a total yield of 498kg of fruit and vegetables along with 805 eggs collected, which was a significant improvement in our harvest from 2017 of 308kg and 718 eggs. This was harvested from a Garden Farming area of 387m² (land size, less roof area) in a year that we recorded 344.5 mm of rain, 41% lower than the long term average. This equates to a fruit/veg yield of 1.29kg/m². I attribute the increased yield attributed to a number of factors. An increased diversity and biological activity after 9 years of living on the land. The installation of drip irrigation. And, improved gardening and animal management practices. In the table below I've divided the food grown on site into several areas. The herbs and 'other' - which includes mushrooms, dried pulses, dried corn - are much more time consuming to produce and are valued more highly. Eggs (2019 harvest total was 805) Vegetables (2019
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