environment

"At Quon we prefer to assemble rather than build. Building is an inefficient process."

Housing reinvented. Constructed from 150mm thick, highly efficient closed cell fire retardant impregnated expanded styrene insulated self supporting walls, no nasty studwork, no thermal voids and no metal cold bridges. Clad in stunning, recycled class 1 durable timber and double glazed, composite window frames with thermal separation. Quon reinvents the way we build houses to create an incredibly efficient and beautiful home. Quon, when sited correctly easily achieve's an average energy rating of 6 Stars.

All walls are insulated and there is a mix of fixed double glazed windows and doors. All external doors are insulated and all openings will have breeze seals on all edges. The basic module is 5 metres wide allowing optimal through breezes to cool in summer. While glazed areas, when orientated north, allow optimal solar gain in winter.

1. Energy Rating
Quon averages a 6 star rating. Why? Well, mainly due to the advanced system that we use. However, as we all know, materials are only get you halfway to a great energy rating. Your energy rating depends heavily on orientation. If you get your orientation and siting correct then Quon can do better than 6 stars. We are currently installing a Quon house in the Strathbogie ranges where weather conditions can vary enormously throughout the year. With the help of award winning architect Andrew Maynard, we have sited and orientated Quon to achieved a rating just under 8 stars, thereby making it one of the most efficient houses in the world.

2. Material Usage
Quon has a very low embodied energy throughout. The closed cell fire styrene walling is resource hungry to manufacture, however this is overcompensated by its energy efficiency during the the build period and its thermal performance during the life of the building. All Quons are built in our factory. We don't have tradesman carting materials everywhere. Everything is done here where we can articulate the entire process and minimise waste.
Our materials have an incredibly high R-Value, so what does that mean? It means that our wall, floor and roof system are extremely efficient. Quon stays cool in summer and warm in winter better than any other home.

Quon has no cold bridges. The floor, wall and roof connections are all homogenous as the insulated panel continues around the entire envelope of the structure. And unlike all other housing construction Quon has no thermal voids where heat can be uncontrollably transferred.

The class 1 durability timber cladding is all entirely recycled or reclaimed. Unlike the building industry, we don't like to kill trees unnecessarily.

We don't build your house from a bundle of sticks and bricks. Bricks and stud frames are very old technology. You don't build cars, computers or phones out of bricks, plaster and wood. Likewise, we don't think that you should build your house out of these inefficient materials either. Therefore we use a material that does it all steel clad, all in one high insulated closed cell fire styrene walling panels. Of all the materials that Quon uses these panels have the most embodied energy, however this is drastically outweighed when you consider how time consuming, wasteful and resource hungry building from standard materials is. Our panels create a spectacularly efficient house with incredibly high thermal qualities.

Click here to see a full material schedule.

3. Waste Management
Unlike a building site we control our waste. Building onsite wastes a huge amount of material. On average, Australian building sites bin around 30% of the plasterboard that reaches the site. This is a staggering amount of waste for no good reason. Numerous other standard materials have a similar shelf life.

We avoid cuts. Quon is measured and designed to reduce cuts. This reduces demand on tools, time, energy and it limits the creation of waste. At Quon we prefer to assemble than build. Building is an inefficient process.

4. Greensmart Construction
We recommend that Quon be installed by a registered Greensmart builder. We have a number of builders who are preferred installers of Quon. All of our preferred installers are registered Greensmart builders.

5. Thermal Properties
Quon is constructed from advance closed cell fire retardant impregnated expanded styrene insulated self supporting panels. They are super strong and incredibly efficient. Below are 2 of 16 temperature profiles calculated for the Borogrove house. The architects orientation of our Quon modules allowed for maximum passive solar gain and control. Our insulated panel walls and glazing systems drastically reduce the thermal transmission between internal and external spaces.
WINTER PERFORMANCE - as is evidenced by the calculations of the Borogrove house, Quon stores heat with incredible resilience. The architect orientated the house so that it captured as much winter sunlight as possible and stored it in the thermal mass of the floor. This heat slowly elevates the houses ambient air temperature during the chilly winter night.
SUMMER PEFORMACE - With the addition of our recycled timber sunshading hoods the architects were able to excluded all summer sun from the internal spaces of the Borogrove house. This meant that while the temperatures were quickly rising outside, the internal spaces remained cool due to the low transmittance of our fantastic insulated wall panels.

6. Adaptability
Adaptability means green. We spend so much time, energy, materials, water, resources and time continually altering our homes. Creating a truly adaptable home is a very big step to a Green lifestyle. A small house is a green house therefore while there is just the 2 of you live in only what you need. When you decide to have kids you'll need more space, so then simply add a a couple of new modules to your Quon home. When the kids move out sell there bedrooms on Ebay and go on holiday with cash from the sale.

7. Transportation
Quon reduces traffic. We build your modules on our production line. Trucks bring quantities of material directly to our workshops. We construct your house without requiring numerous trades people to run all over town collecting materials and slowly erecting them on your site. The Quon modules go to your site once and in one piece. It doesn't arrive in thousands of piece like a traditional house.

7. Low Maintenance
Low maintenance not only means that you avoid the arduous task of continually repairing your home, it also means that your home wastes far less resources and water than most houses. A couple of generations ago people used to say "build it right, build it once". At Quon, we are reviving that notion. Death to renovation, hello Quon.









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