Abdallah House

The Abdallah House project tranformed an old energy guzzling bungalow into a showcase of sustainable design. It began in May 2008 with the purchase of this three roomed bungalow with bathroom / laundry tacked onto the side on a 584 sq metre (1/8 acre) block. The bungalow was carefully deconstructed and used, along with other recycles and new materials, to build a home that showcases low energy and passive systems that each apply some, if not all of the permaculture design principles.

Regular blog posts are kept to highlight at least one of the 12 principles and keep readers up to date on what is 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 AUS $100,000
• Moving into the home within one year of the start date
• Water collected on site for irrigation and domestic use with mains water as a back-up
• Approximately one 45kg gas bottle used per year, only for cooking
• Our 1.5kW Solar PV system to supplies more than enough power for household needs
• Electricity use averaging 2-3kWh per day, around 1/5th of a typical household
• Only one rubbish (120lt) and one recycle bin (240lt) used during 2011, the ‘binimum’ challenge
• Cycling of all compositble materials generated on site
• Cellar and cool cupboard integrated into the house design
• Growing a diverse range of fresh fruit and vegetables to supplement our diet.