Who wants to live in a house with annual power and water bills that falls under $500? Everyone.
A new eco-village, The Cape, Victoria allows its residents to enjoy perks such as affordable housing and game-changing housing sustainable technology in its 8.2-star energy rated homes.
The seaside tech-savvy suburb is kitted with the latest sustainability bits and pieces, making it a self-reliant eco-suburb. In fact, $400 of the homes’ yearly electricity cost is just the fee to connect to the power grid. These houses are ultimately expected to disconnect completely, making them highly autonomous.
For homeowners, renters, and even investors, this development is highly attractive due to it’s environment-friendly and sustainable solutions – which seem to be growing in demand due to their many benefits.
Yes, there may be other developments that offer some form of sustainable living, but The Cape, Victoria takes first place with its 5 game-changers in housing technology. Take a look at some of the latest innovations:
- Heat-seeking Drones: Who knew they be more useful than just to spy on celebrities? By using thermal heat mapping, Canadian company MyHEAT uses drones to point out areas where heat is escaping from homes, so homeowners can maximise their insulation.
- Smart windows: Generally, tight seals and glazing are used to stop draughts and block heat from the sun, which drastically helps to keep cooling costs down. However, there’s a cool new kid on the block that takes this to whole new level: smart windows.
Smart windows have a high-tech coating added at high heat that provides an extra layer of invisible insulation. Instead of a thin sheet of glass, you get a high-tech window that acts like an insulated wall! - Cool (and we really mean awesome) roof tiles: Why leave roof tiles out when everything else is getting tech revamp? Highly reflective tiles have been created to mirror heat away from the house and keep it cooler during the summers. Regular tiles can be coated in a reflective paint with high levels of solar reflectance.
- Smartphone homes: Technology is taking over basic human functions – but in a cool, green way. There are many fun and easy to use apps that can hook up lights, locks, air conditioners, and security systems, allowing homeowners to save costs by turning off expensive items when no-one’s home.
- Bright lighting ideas: Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’d know LEDs are the bulbs to use. They last almost forever and use almost no power compared to regular incandescent bulbs. But indoor motion sensor lighting has become more popular.
Motion sensors make sure lights aren’t left on in certain suspect areas: walk-in robes, laundries, and garages. Convenient and sustainable? Now that’s a trend everyone can get on board with!
You can also integrate many of these new technologies into your existing home, although they might cost a pretty penny. However, with sustainability becoming a bigger priority for buyers, it’s well worth looking into – and there are some attractive long-term savings for investors too!
