Australian Passive Solar Home

One benefit of owner-building a new house is that you can do weird stuff without any questions being asked. Like what sort of stuff? Here is the western wall of our lounge / dining / kitchen in the build. It’s a wall with lots happening!

In the middle are the two 15-inch, 200 litre subwoofers – they sit in the loft and pump through wall vents. To the right of them is the intake for a fan-forced heat transfer duct (it goes to the other end of the house) and the grille for a wall speaker. To the left is a spare intake duct (it will be used if the first doesn’t provide sufficient airflow) and a second speaker. The wall speakers are two of the seven that provide sound through the whole house, and the subwoofers work as part of that system, and also for the home theatre system. In testing, movie explosions shake the room. All the amplifiers (three of them) are in the loft space.

In the centre is the wall grille with rear opening shutter that provides the exit for the convectional ventilation in this room.

Installing things like these is easy when it’s done during house construction. And if you do it yourself, such personalisation also costs relatively little.