BONDOR'S INSULLIVING® SYSTEM: QUICKER, LEANER, SMARTER AND GREENER BONDOR'S INSULLIVING® BUILDING SYSTEM IS AUSTRALIA’S NEXT STEP TOWARDS ZERO ENERGY HOUSING. QUICKER, LEANER, SMARTER AND GREENER, INSULLIVING® DELIVERS A NEW CODEMARKED BUILDING SYSTEM FOR ECO-FRIENDLY AND ENERGY EFFICIENT HOMES THAT CAN KEEP AUSTRALIAN FAMILIES COMFORTABLE ALL YEAR ROUND. IT WORKS THROUGH THE COMBINATION OF INSULATED WALLING AND ROOFING PANELS, WHICH ACT AS A COMPLETE THERMAL BARRIER AND STRUCTURAL SHELL. THIS BARRIER REDUCES AIR-LEAKAGE FOUND IN TRADITIONAL BUILT HOMES, WHICH CONTRIBUTES TO RISING HEATING AND COOLING ENERGY BILLS.
InsulLiving® is a complete building system that replaces the traditional system in totality. In doing so, it delivers a range of benefits, from design freedom and reduced costs, through to energy savings and a shortened build time. According to Bondor's General Manager, Geoff Marsdon, the development of the all-in-one system was no mean feat. "The development process took quite some time. It was one of those ideas that we worked on in the background for quite a while. We always knew what the capability of panel was but, while the core advantages of panel were always there, we had to develop the product so it was suitable for the residential environment. There was a lot of testing around weatherability and air tightness for residential standards," said Marsdon. "We wanted to create an attractive, modern house that didn't look any
different to the other houses in the street, but offered far superior performance." "We got to a stage where we had a lot of technical and concept work done, but there is no test like building a house. So we built an InsulLiving® prototype house in Burpengary, Queensland. We designed and built it from scratch, learned things along the way, and changed elements of our process. Then, in conjunction with Queensland University of Technology (QUT), we had a family live in the house for 12 months and monitored their energy usage," said Marsdon. INSULLIVING® HOUSE ACHIEVES 9.5 STAR ENERGY RATING
One year after an Aussie family of four moved into Bondor’s InsulLiving® prototype house in Burpengary, Queensland, the house achieved an incredible 9.5 star ‘real life’ energy rating, slashing the home's energy bills by
FEATURE: RESILIENT BUILDING DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION | STEEL AUSTRALIA | SUMMER 2021-2022
IMAGE: Bondor’s InsulLiving prototype house in Burpengary, Queensland.
almost 50 per cent. Built by Bondor to showcase its InsulWall® and SolarSpan® thermal building products, the stylish singlestorey home originally achieved an 8 star ‘as designed’ energy rating, easily surpassing the Australian Building Code’s current minimum of six stars. An independent study by QUT assessed the energy performance of the house over the course of 12 months. As a result, the home achieved an even higher ‘real life’ rating of 9.5 stars. Over the monitored period, the house required much less heating and cooling than the national average: 13 per cent compared to 39 per cent, according to the report by Dr Wendy Miller of QUT’s Science and Engineering Faculty.
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