Comfortable living - the art of self respect.

Building designers commonly concern themselves about structural adequacy and safety issues, and it is proper that they should.  This satisfies your concern for your family's wellbeing and your children's safety, quite aside from meeting statutory building regulations. 

But if your welfare is their concern, why do designers wholly ignore your thermal wellbeing so often?   The answer of course is that energy has been plentiful and cheap for too long.   The tendency is to shunt your comfort into the hands of appliance and energy suppliers rather than designing buildings that suit the local climate.

Tragically this backfires on you.  Sure the advertised price of the house is kept down, and everyone loves low prices, but you'll soon discover that your new house is not comfortable to live in.  To make matters worse, when you come to fix this problem, you'll find remedial costs much higher than if the building had been designed to be comfortable in the first place.
This happens because your house design forbids the natural collection of ideal temperatures in your climate zone.  Now, because building alterations are prohibited by expense, you'll find it cheaper to install large scale heating and air conditioning plant. 

And so you're cheated for the second time.  You'll have to pay large energy bills over the years to come.   You will have to service your equipment, insure it, put up with unwelcome noise, clean hearths and filter pads, and generally suffer inconvenience.  All will be to your cost and detriment, and all because the designer who supposedly considered your wellbeing forgot to consider all of your wellbeing.  Stupidly enough, this is what most people consider to be normal and the best that the building industry can deliver.  But you are not expected to notice!

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'Comfortable living' is an idea that promotes a wholesome approach to house design. 

It means a house having a different nature, one that traps winter warmth and provides a cool refreshing summer haven.  

Sunlight is bright and cheery in winter and naturally obtained warmth asks nothing more than to be enjoyed. Fresh cooling air in summer is invigorating. It revives, stimulates, soothes and protects. 

Desirable temperatures free you from nuisance and ill feeling,   Contentment and disposition to others is similarly influenced.  Not shivering from cold, or irritated by summer heat, your mental focus is naturally alert and your temperament and emotions are at ease. 

Naturally comfortable homes bring a rewarding atmosphere that is not confined to one or two rooms.  The outside of the building and the roof respond to the climate as the building designer intended.  As a result inside temperatures are agreeable and these ideal conditions will naturally be found through the whole house.

Ideal temperatures throughout means freedom for you to enjoy family togetherness, or to seek solitude. You may pursue hobbies, study, or seek privacy without having to take a heater with you.
Desirable temperatures throughout open up a whole new range of possibilities, from furniture placement to space utilisation, and from traffic patterns to decorating aspects.

Interior design is freed from unnecessary nuisance to better serve family activities and lifestyle. Solar efficient design means the need to clean hearths and filter pads is avoided. Noise is reduced so quiet passages of music and television are more enjoyable.

Safety is improved naturally, and with no active temperature adjustments there’s less responsibility for babysitters and greater peace of mind. Fire risk is minimised through solar efficient design and there’s no need to store fuel or firewood. Electric blankets are made redundant. Works of art and musical instruments depreciate less in mild temperatures too.   Naturally, building design is a lot more important than many people realise.

Health aspects are improved.   Unlike forced heating and cooling that is abrupt, natural temperature changes are gentle, so flue or asthma symptoms are less aggravated as a rule. Likewise children are less fractious when temperature extremes are reduced.  Family tranquillity is more likely.

Study concentration improves when temperatures do not impose.   Who can predict how that might influence a child’s development, and what academic or other achievement might result. Children and older folk especially love the ambience of naturally comfortable homes. 

Comfort solutions expand outdoors. Outdoor living will be more amenable in sheltered courtyards, sun drenched patio’s in winter, and under rain sheltered areas. These improved living  conditions are often cost free.  Building predicable seasonal conditions into your house design makes a world of difference.

Patio’s are more serviceable. Their amenity value is much greater when their design and location harmonise naturally with winter sun and cool summer breezes. Seasonal use is often extended and your family will experience greater living enjoyment. Natural comfort is all embracing, much more than just heating and cooling and saving energy.

Good design means greater economy. The capacity of these buildings to procure ideal temperatures is built in; the structure itself does the job and this faculty cannot be removed except by expensive alterations or demolition. 
If you choose to compare a naturally comfortable house with another that is not designed to perform this way, the cost of providing artificial heating  and cooling must be added to the house that is temperature deficient.  If not, the price comparison is meaningless.
When lifecycle costs over 40 or 50 years are accounted in this way - being the only appropriate way to make such a comparison - then naturally comfortable houses are found to be 30 to 40 percent cheaper than those that rely on normal heating and cooling. 

Turn assets into equity so easily.  Energy savings really amount to regular dividends from investing in the climate assets you bought with the land purchase.  And those savings (GST included) may be reinvested like any other dividend. This tax-free investment is exclusive to naturally comfortable houses.  Those that depend on usual heating and cooling miss out!

Solar efficiency becomes financial efficiency.  By contrast, large heating and cooling energy bills are little more than a 'penalty fee' for not using the natural assets you purchased previously. 

You can save thousands of interest dollars simply by re-directing energy utility dollars to pay your loan faster   Climatic comfort can knock years off the mortgage term.  

Early equity can then lever more investment.  So nice to buy your holiday home years before others finish paying their mortgage?

Build character Comfort creating homes offer full size working models to teach environmental awareness, elementary physics, prudence, integrity and healthy environments to your children.  Your children will love 'operating' their new home and learning how they can control their own environment.  They will pick up other skills too.  These houses nurture independence, self-reliance, and foster resourcefulness.  They reward advance planning and penalise forgetfulness, an admirable lesson for children. These character-building rewards all come from unity of purpose.

Enrich your lifestyle  Natural comfort is an invisible and indivisible quality that enriches life, gently, quietly, and without intrusion. It is nature’s blessing on wise choices and thoughtful planning.  And it all stems from one decision.

Now you understand how to turn assets into benefits its time to look at natural energy

 

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