Salt townhomes revealed

THE welcome mat will be laid out at the newly built Salt Torquay estate on Sunday (October 16) as part of Geelong Sustainability’s Open House Day.

Sustainability experts are on hand to provide free entry and advice for the energy efficient 7.8 star Salt townhomes that are totally gas free and include rainwater harvesting and a 6kw solar and battery system.

The Salt estate is regional Australia’s first One Planet Living community and despite its relatively small 100-lot size, it has packed a punch in terms of its influence on estate development, with its minimum 7.5 star efficiency housing setting a benchmark that will be closely reflected in national building codes from next year.

It’s also helped precipitate a change in planning rules whereby networked gas is no longer an obligatory requirement for residential developments.

The all-electric estate’s combination of rooftop solar with a 250kW solar array on the Barwon Water land opposite the estate, and energy efficient housing, mean the development is expected to generate as much energy as it consumes.

Household rainwater harvesting and reuse, and smart water meters, are among the integrated water management initiatives that were introduced by the estate’s developer, Barwon Water, on what was previously the site of the Torquay water basin.

To achieve the estate guidelines, Jedi Building Group collaborated with the developer and builder of Salt Homes Torquay and GKA Architects to ensure the townhomes’ orientation and sitting worked with the local site conditions and provided a good level of natural lighting, ventilation and increase of indoor air quality.

Underground water storage of 3300 litres harvests rainwater from the roof that is used in toilets and for watering the low maintenance native plants in gardens.
A mixture of sustainable, energy efficient and eco-friendly cladding types like Weathertex Cladding and Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (AAC) were used together with LightBridge™ double glazing in thermally broken aluminium frames to optimise energy performance that simultaneously provide light, ventilation and views.

The open house is one of many examples of homes that are open to the public this weekend during Geelong Sustainability’s Open House Day that will provide people with the opportunity to learn more about sustainable housing options and what makes a more sustainable city.

The Salt townhomes are at 2 Wurrak Cresent Torquay and will be open between 1pm and 5pm on Sunday, October 16.

For more information, head to www.geelongsustainability.org.au/shd2022