About this event

Get ready for an exciting online event that will leave you inspired and informed! Discover how a frigid and draughty home can be transformed into a warm, energy-efficient, and healthy sanctuary, through a riveting real-life case study. Simone, an expert in sustainable living, will share priceless tips and tricks gleaned from her own experience, including the crucial do’s and don’ts of the process.

That’s not all - we’ll also unveil the incredible power of Evitat’s logbook, which allows you to effortlessly set and track your own goals, and monitor your progress towards creating a more sustainable, healthy, and cosy home. And not to forget, you’ll be doing your part to decarbonize Australia’s homes! Simone Schenkel is a certified Passive House designer and the founder at Gruen Eco Design & Gruen Architecture, whose mission is to make energy efficient spaces a staple in the Australian landscape. Everyone should have the right to live and work comfortably without costing the earth! She has used the passion, experience and knowledge she gained from her upbringing and architectural studies in Germany to create Gruen Eco Design. A business where she works with her clients to create not only beautifully designed homes that won’t cost the earth. But also spaces that are healthy, thermally comfortable, energy efficient and resilient for future generations.

Simone loves making the world a better place by improving the way houses are built. And helping others to live a more sustainable life.

Simone will tell you about her renovation story. Their original brick veneer unit had no insulation and had single glazed aluminium windows, resulting in a freezing 0.8 stars rating with halogen lighting throughout and old appliances. With some changes, the house had been converted into a comfortable family home with low bills, rated at 8.4 stars. All external plasterboard and insulation were ripped off from all walls, floors, ceiling, and double glazed uPVC windows were imported from Germany. Back then in 2010 they offered better performance than anything available in the Australian market for the same price. The windows have a U-value of 1.1. Simone has transformed this 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom unit into a modern 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom home without changing the footprints by rearranging and changing some internal walls and opening up the home to the north.

New LED lighting was installed throughout, along with new energy-efficient appliances and water-efficient taps and mixers. All paints are low VOC, and Livos oils are used for timber floors. A 1.5 kW solar PV system is installed on the roof.

It's hard to say exactly how much money the renovated house was saving. Before the renovation, Simone didn't have kids, and it was just two adults working during the week, only home at night and on weekends. Our usage was about 21.5 kW/h.  After the renovation, with four people in the house and Simone working from home the usage was down to 6.2 kW/h.

Don’t miss this exciting online event - RSVP today!

This is a Sustainable House day Community Event in collaboration with SHD and Renew.

The Panelists

Simone SchenkelGruenEcoDesign, Certified Passive House Designer

Simone is a certified PassivHaus building designer and 2020 AusMumpreneur VIC-TAS People’s Choice Making a Difference (Environmental) Silver Award winner. She is owner of GruenEcoDesgn practice designed over 300 homes for Australian clients. Simone’s mission is to make energy-efficient homes a staple in the Australian landscape. "Everyone should have the right to live in a comfortable house that doesn't cost the earth!"

Sonja MarkovicCEO and Co-founder at Evitat

Sonja is the CEO and co-founder of Evitat. An impact startup empowering renovator making better decisions and create healthy, comfortable and climate resilient homes. With more than 20 years experience in digital technology, human centric design solutions and system thinking, she is on a mission to use technology and innovation to incentivise good, low-carbon renovation choices and turn it into quality sustainable property value.

Panelists

Simone SchenkelGruenEcoDesign, Certified Passive House Designer

Sonja MarkovicCEO and Co-founder at Evitat