Location: Christchurch, New Zealand
Designer & Builder: Paul de Roo
VELUX products:
Three years ago Paul de Roo embarked on a cunning plan; to build a sprawling 410 square metre home that didn’t come with super sized power bills. The site for his plan; Christchurch’s Halswell on the Park, bounded by native reserve on two sides. The single storey home was planned with two distinct aspects; a self contained upstairs apartment, and a swimming pool room, with energy efficiency taking centre stage. “The thing I hate most is the power bills – every time you turn around they seem to put the price up. Friends have had power bills of $500 – $1000 per month,” comments de Roo.
Location: Christchurch, New Zealand
Designer & Builder: Paul de Roo
VELUX products:
Three years ago Paul de Roo embarked on a cunning plan; to build a sprawling 410 square metre home that didn’t come with super sized power bills. The site for his plan; Christchurch’s Halswell on the Park, bounded by native reserve on two sides. The single storey home was planned with two distinct aspects; a self contained upstairs apartment, and a swimming pool room, with energy efficiency taking centre stage. “The thing I hate most is the power bills – every time you turn around they seem to put the price up. Friends have had power bills of $500 – $1000 per month,” comments de Roo.
A Fixed Skylight is letting Daylight in the Hallway, making it inviting.
The apartment:
To maintain the single storey design, the upstairs apartment was created in the roof space. “We wanted to be able to tuck our family under our wing,” says de roo. To achieve airflow and lighting de roo placed two banks of 3 VELUX Skylights in the roof. “It would get stuffy and stagnant with traditional windows,”
explains de roo. “Without the VELUX skylights it would have been difficult to achieve this quality of living – warm sunlight and natural lighting and natural ventilation.” VELUX banks are on either side of the apartment to catch sunlight through the day. “The sun sets in the west, so the only time we turn a light on is at night.”
The swimming pool room:
“VELUX Opening skylights clear humidity and condensation” The swimming pool room faces onto the reserve’s small lake, so the family can breakfast watching the ducks through two sets of interior windows.
In this 7 metre wide room, de roo installed two banks of VELUX Skylights – two up and two down.
The sun shines through the skylights, across the swimming pool room into the lounge, creating extra natural light. Humidity was a possible issue for the swimming pool room. VELUX Opening Skylights move air and clear humidity and condensation at the touch of a button. This highly spec’d swimming pool room can also be a movie theatre.
An open and shut case for energy efficiency.
The de Roo household’s power bill this summer has averaged an acceptable $200 per month, which includes the initial heating up of the swimming pool. de roo attributes the natural lighting and ventilation to his decision to use VELUX. “We designed the house with luxury in mind, and to be much bigger than the average sized family home, but costing as much in energy to run as an average sized home. “Power keeps going up – VELUX adds the lighting upstairs so we don’t have to.”
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