By Michael Doran
Taking a vision and turning into reality is usually a long and frustrating journey, particularly if it involves shifting Australians perceptions around housing.
From his Healesville factory, Colin Ure has given his vision on what houses of the future could look like a boost, gaining approval for a housing estate in South Gippsland.
“This is iCUE Home’s first major development, a pilot project for 12 units in Korumburra and the first one approved where power is from a micro-grid embedded within the DNA of the development,” he said.
“The 12 houses will each have rooftop solar linking into a micro-grid with a 400kw battery. You could have two weeks of snow but still have enough power because you have a battery in each house backed up by the large battery.
“This means each house is not individually connected to the external grid so you are saving on individual connection fees. The estate is connected to the grid but the aim is to sell power outwards, not bring it in.”
To reduce power consumption it is important that the house have effective insulation, a real problem with traditional ‘sticks and bricks’ houses he said. “In this structure it is so well sealed then you may never need aircon because when it’s 35 outside it will only be 25 in here.”
There is a prototype in his factory and a joint-venture is underway building a house in Healesville. “We are putting all the premium stuff in there and then going to have it monitored by the CSIRO to prove our point,” Mr Ure said.
“This model works best for everybody because it takes away the need to upgrade infrastructure and if you do smaller developments with batteries it is far easier to take a small regional community off the grid.
One word you will never hear from Colin Ure is cheap; there is nothing cheap about the quality of his houses and nor are they cheap to buy.
“At Korumburra a two-bedroom unit will range from $465,000 to 565,000 but that includes everything so people can move towards a fossil fuel free future,” he said. “We know we can do it in high volume and we know when we get to high volume the prices come down.”
These sustainable houses are not just about energy production and also have systems for water recycling, waste disposal and are wired to use low voltage appliances.
