When I first started my engineering degree in 2013, The Illawarra Flame House was being constructed, destined for a Solar Decathlon China victory. I remember sitting in my first lecture when a strapping young fellow by the name of Lloyd Niccol (Project Manager of the Illawarra Flame) came to speak to the class. He spoke to wide eyed first year students about a sustainable, net zero energy house he and other senior students had designed and that they were now literally building said house! I still recall thinking, ‘wowza, I can’t wait to be a part of a team working on that kind of purpose filled, real world project’.
Some five years later, that brings me to the now. Wearing fluoro pink high vis workwear harnessed safely atop the the Desert Rose.
My name is Dan Simpson and I have been a part of the Desert Rose Team for the past year and a half. During my final year of study at UOW I worked on the design of an innovative small scale constructed wetland to treat the greywater produced in the Desert Rose. The system is now built at the Sustainable Buildings Research Centre and will testing will commence in the coming weeks. If successful, the system could treat household greywater in an energy efficient and cost-effective manner, resulting in a reduction in potable water demand by safe reuse around the home in activites like clothes washing, toilet flushing and irrigation.
From this specific area my passion for the project grew as did my involvement! My role was extended to look after all things water related within the Desert Rose. Since then I’ve joined forces with a team of plumbers (Bob and Andrew) from Tafe NSW who have been nothing but supportive in taking up new, sustainable and somewhat left of centre approaches to traditional Australian residential practices. For example, one special material supplied by Reece Plumbing is Rehau’s Raupiano piping. Rather than the conventional toxic and environmentally harmful PVC piping used for drainage and stormwater, Raupiano is made from 100% Polypropylene (PP) which takes comparatively low energy to manufacture. PP is also 100% recyclable, contains no harmful chemicals and requires no toxic glue or primer during installation.
The team has also worked with our industry partners Enware to try and provide a unique way of contributing to our mission of providing a house that enables the occupants to age in place. Enware has provided the Desert Rose with an electronic water supply system. This electronic system enables house occupants to communicate over the Desert Rose’s building management system with water fixtures (interface examples include phone, iPad or computer). For example, if you have arthritis and struggle to turn tap handles these taps can be programmed to respond with 15sec lukewarm water just from an effortless push on the handle. The tapware even lights up according to water temperature flowing through them – visuals being a key aspect for peoples with different age-related diseases! And from an interesting data perspective, we can monitor the water usage throughout the entire house and observe an occupants water usage from a health perspective.
In the past few weeks the Desert Rose has been moved from TAFE to Innovation Campus (only a few kilometres away!) in shipping containers to simulate a competition build. We have a public opening on Saturday the 21st. It’s a very exciting and intense time for all involved. The completion of the house is a showcase of years of hard work, sweat and tears. I’m so proud to be volunteering countless hours on this project as the conversations I’m having with such a wide demographic is really increasing the general awareness about how we can do so much more to increase both the sustainability and liveability of our future homes.
