Sustainable Home Builders in Perth

Sustainability in Perth

RiverStone is committed to building more sustainable homes for our clients. Recent legislative changes mean that all homes in WA must comply with the 6 Star Energy rating standard and this is now a serious level of ongoing operational energy efficiency being built into the design. The new rules however do not address embedded energy and recycling value of materials. Further water sustainment is only looked at in a secondary way leading to a serious shortfall in this area. While moving toward better performance in energy and water sustainability we recognise that many of the technologies are immature and costly. There is a lot of misinformation around from suppliers and contractors claiming major sustainability attributes for products that essential re no different to those being used in the past. Many products on offer do not work reliably over the life of the home. As with much in life, you generally get what you pay for. We have done the research and continue to monitor the developments in the field. We only present tested quality products to our clients.

One of the key issues around sustainability in your new home is the cost benefit analysis. All of the recent changes in legislation lead to increased cost to the consumer. All of the additional options available to owners have significant cost implications. Some of the technologies are not yet mature enough to give trouble free operation. Some of the technologies have operational issues that make life in the sustainable home less comfortable.

For this reason RiverStone will only select as standard those products that are sustainable, which also provide good value for money, are totally reliable and add to your comfort in the home. One of the added features we include that does meet our exacting standard is the underground water tank. These have been included in our standard specification since 2008 and make a great contribution to reducing water usage from the mains on all homes. RiverStone also includes as standard on our full specification homes a high performance gas boosted solar hot water unit. From 2012 thermally broken double glazed aluminium windows will be added to the standard full specification and will be displayed on our new display home in Mosman Park due to open in December 2011. These inclusions make a significant contribution to the performance of the home, have proven reliability and come at a reasonable cost.

We also then offer products that may have a cost implication, but are sustainable, reliable and have reasonable ongoing operational costs as options on our homes. So for example we recommend to all our clients that include Photo Voltaic power system in their new home. But because of the cost we leave it to our clients to decide if they are prepared to spend the money needed to make a sustainable contribution.

RiverStone would love to go further. If you want to go really green we can help you achieve your dream. We can devise plans for you to be 100% energy and water self sufficient. Let us know up front and we can facilitate you achieving the outcome your require.