How do you renovate a home as a Passive House (or Passivehaus)? Especially when that home is an early 1900s weatherboard cottage?
In this episode, I’m going to be sharing the experience of a homeowner who renovated their early 1900s weatherboard home into a Passive House. They’ve lived in it now for 3 years, and it’s located in inner Melbourne, about 10km from the CBD.
This project is a great opportunity to see how an old weatherboard home can be renovated into a Passive Home that is comfortable and saves thousands in running costs each year.
Cameron’s family home is known as Armadale Passivhaus. They open this home for Sustainable House Open Day each year, and Cameron also has a great website on all the nitty gritty details of the home and project (see the resources below for more information).
Circa 1910, this weatherboard home faces north-to-street. So, if you’ve listened to this podcast for a while, and heard the episodes I did back in Season 1 about orientation, you’ll know that north-to-street is a challenging orientation in the southern hemisphere.
This is because we like to put all our main living areas at the rear of the home, with indoor / outdoor connection to perhaps a deck or alfresco area … and lots of glazing to connect the two. And if the home is north-to-street, it means that the sun is moving around the front of the home, and not the rear.
This means, especially in a location like Melbourne, that the rear of your home can be cold, in shadow, and not getting the natural light you want into your main living areas.
The home also has a heritage overlay, which meant that extensive alteration to the facade wasn’t allowed, and there were two brick chimneys that had to be kept. Lots of homeowners would say at this point - “Forget Passivhaus … we’re putting this entire renovation in the too-hard basket!”
The Armadale House sits on a 430m2 block in inner Melbourne, Australia, and is located about 10 km from the CBD.
Cameron and his family had lived in two weatherboards home prior, and so their experience was always that leaky sieve experience you may be familiar with if you’ve ever lived in a weatherboard house. You can feel every breeze move through them. They’re hot in summer, cold in winter, and terrible performers thermally.
When they moved into the Armadale house, it was the same experience. They could see the sky, sunlight coming in below the door, and the windows would rattle with the slightest breeze. The chimneys meant they could see the sky, and rain would come down them whenever it rained.
It’s inspiring to see how this home was renovated 3 years ago, and how this family stayed committed to their desire to create a comfortable, sustainable home. There’s a huge amount of knowledge to gain from this project, and seeing how you can renovate your own Passive House.
As I explain in the podcast, the audio recording of my interview with Cameron did not go to plan!
So, listen to the episode as I share the highlights from my conversation with Cameron. And then keep scrolling to read the full transcript of our interview. Both will share key tips, strategies and knowledge to help you with your own project.
LISTEN TO THE EPISODE NOW
In this episode, I ask Cameron ...

Can you please tell us about your home, the Armadale Passive House ... who lives there, rough area of it, the block of land it’s situated on, how long have you lived there?
It's a weatherboard house and those are notoriously challenging in terms of keeping internal air temperatures stable and being energy efficient homes. What prompted you to create a Passive House in your renovation?
What makes it a Passive House? How does it work, what is special about it, what differentiates it from a more traditional house
Do you remember at the time if you were worried it would limit you in anyway or any compromises you’d have to make?
Where do you see the big differences in living in a home like this (feelings, and tangible cost savings etc)?
Your extension is in ram