Sustainable household living is to be showcased today at a Sustainable House Day Seminar and Trade Show being hosted by Lismore City Council and Rous Water at Invercauld House from 5pm ahead of this Sunday’s national Sustainable House Day.
This trade show will feature two local educators at the forefront of sustainable living and home design, Dr Leigh Davison and Dave Lawrence, who will outline contemporary and affordable techniques for eco-design and retrofitting.
Local businesses including Eco-hut, Summerland Building Design, Trouts Enviro Plumbing Plus, Nickel Energy and Rainbow Power Company will also be showcased ahead of a warm supper to be held at 7.30pm and then a panel discussion on the pros and cons of DIY retrofitting, which will include the guest speakers as well as the national Sustainable House Day participants.
Then on Sunday September 9 the public are invited to take a tour of some of the sustainable homes around the Lismore area from Larnook to Terania Creek, Nimbin to Clunes, as homeowners and a local business open their doors to the public as part of the tenth national Sustainable House Day.
Three homes and one business will be open for public tours between 10am and 4pm, including the home of Richard Swinton and Cindy Thummel who moved into their project home five years ago and set to work transforming it.
‘It was facing the wrong way with two small windows on the north side, so we added a covered deck, put in recycled sliding glass doors and a large window,’ Richard said.
‘We turned the water mains off three years ago as we have 30,000-litre rain tanks. We installed a 2kW solar system, solar hot water, insulation, roof vents and a roller blind over the northern deck awning to block or let sunlight in according to the season.
‘The garden is Cindy’s domain, with raised vegetable gardens, a vine-covered arbor between the house and garage, chooks, a worm farm and composting.’
Call Lismore City Council 1300 878 387 for Sustainable House address details or to reserve a seat for this evening’s seminar.
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