Often it is the builder's house that is the messiest in the street - littered with unfinished projects. Or the mechanic's car that is a wreck.
Not so with the personal home of Solar Flair's Alan Kerlin and his family.

Alan's home in the new canberra suburb of Harrison is a showcase of sustainable design features implemented despite a restricted budget.
And the whole project was designed by Alan and his wife Gaylene.

Vinyasa

Sanskrit: Nyasa—’to place’, and Vi—’in a special way’;
In yoga: ’flow’

Vinyasa is the name given by Alan to the design for their home.
The name embodies the efforts Alan and Gaylene put into selecting land with the perfect orientation and size, and designing a home that recognises and works with the climate in Canberra—a climate of extremes, from snow in winter to frequent summer temperatures above 40 degrees.
Snug and warm in winter, in summer the whole house acts as a thermal syphon, embracing the inland's cool summer nights to draw all the heat out of the house, preparing for another hot day.

The goals were to design a 6-star plus house with:
•    direct winter sunlight in every living and bedroom; but with little or no summer sun inside
•    comply with principles of energy and water efficiency, safety, security and universal access
•    flexible room selection and design to preserve yard space for children
•    to do this on a modern small suburban lot (569sq m), with largely conventional materials and building methods, to demonstrate a ‘better way’ to a mainstream local builder and the local community.

External thermal mass is reduced with light-coloured Colourbond on the roof instead of tiles, and Hebel panels on the walls instead of brick, but for a similar cost. Hebel insulates to R1.87. Add R2.5 bulk wall insulation, R4 in the ceiling, draught seals on vents, exhausts and doors, honeycomb blinds, and ComfortPlus Low-E windows in thermally-improved frames, and the house keeps warm in winter and cool in summer.

Every bedroom and every living space faces north so that they are drenched in winter sun all day long.
A few hours of sunshine and the inside temperature is up above 20 degrees, with no heater required.
The 1.5 metre eaves on the north side ensure no summer midday sun shines on any of these north windows, yet allow every bit of winter sun to shine into all living and bedrooms.

Winter sun shines right through the loft to the south side of the house.

The open-plan living space provides flexibility in layout and large expanse of glass to the northern winter sun.
The F&P Dishdrawers in the kitchen allow for half-size loads and therefore reduced water and energy consumption.
The water supply to the dishwasher is a tempered hot water line rather than cold, to reduce electrical heating within the dishwasher.
The loft above can be opened to the internal void and to the outside, to allow hot air to drain up out of the house during summer.

Lighting includes compact fluoros, fluoros, and LED downlights under the cupboards draw just 3 watts each.
The externally flued cooktop and no ducted heating keep indoor air pollution to a minimum.
Wide doors (870 and more) make the home wheelchair-friendly.
All doors are full height (2400) so there are no 'hot pockets' in the ceiling and the whole house is designed to allow a 'thermal syphon' at night during summer to purge any hot air (being inland, the night-time temperatures almost always drop 10 degrees or more during summer).

Smaller windows to the west and south are shaded by eaves and awnings, minimising penetration of summer afternoon sun.

As the house is on a small corner block, large courtyards enclose additional private open space. As they encircle both bathrooms, they also provide privacy that allowed clear glass to be used instead of frosted.

While the bulk of the roof skillions to the north (bringing the eaves down closer to the windows on the south, the garage roof faces north to provide better solar access for the Endless Solar hot water system and future PV array. The entire roof is piped to the 9000 litre tank, which in turn is plumbed to the toilets, laundry and garden. The garden is also irrigated by the greywater collection and pump-out system.

A ramp to the front door adds to the overall accessible design of the house, and makes movement of wheelie bins easy.
A pond captures stormwater and hopefully will be home to frogs soon.