Buildings or developments that illustrate the principles of the circular economy in an exceptional way.
Ash+Ash is designed by Hennebery Eddy Architects with the goal of integrating contemporary architecture and high-performance sustainable design. To this point, they partnered with Brightworks Sustainability to achieve Platinum certification under the USGBC LEED for Homes program.
A rainwater reclamation system with over 9,000 litres of storage collects, filters, and purifies rainwater for domestic and potable use – greatly minimising water consumption by taking advantage of Portland’s abundant natural rainwater. Water is screened at the roof drains, run through a centrifugal screen before reaching the cisterns, treated with ozone in the cisterns, circulated through 20- and five-micron filters, and UV treated before entering the household domestic system.
The system supplies most domestic water needs for over six months per year, including a swimming pool. The pool systems include a 400-square-foot rooftop solar collector and an interconnection to the home’s geo-exchange heat pump system to harvest excess heat produced by that system seasonally to warm the pool.
A geo-exchange heat pump system combines under-floor radiant heating and heat recovery ventilation for interior environmental control. Water is heated by an Air Tap heat pump water heater that is interconnected to harvest excess heat from the geo-exchange system heat pump. High-efficiency LED lighting is used throughout the project, and a 10 KW photovoltaic array powers the home to projected net-zero energy expectations (diagram below).
While the initial quality of the filtered UV purified potable rainwater was satisfactory, the addition of ozone generators to the storage cisterns improved the taste of the water.
