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We are in August already, it is dry and hot outside, our plants and bushes are suffering because of the heat. When we built our Passivhaus some 10 years ago, we had experienced hot summers and stormy autumns/winter with a lot of rain. We decided to include a big tank 15 m3 in the ground, which collects our rainwater. We had many thoughts and plans how to collect precious water. In the summer months we can be without water for weeks, our rainwater tank helps, contributes to water the plants, and it saves money. James put a piping system together to try and regulate/control the amount of water, but the sun is fierce and melts some pipes. We can tell, how much water is being used, as our stored water is gradually going down in the summer time.
EcoHouse Risan is a sustainable building, climate change is happening, now!
The EcoHouse Studio is part of the old building on the plan, but with retrofitting it, we have made sustainable now, with insulation, cooling etc. We offer our guests talks and visits who are interested to see our Passivhaus, we have had many interesting conversations so far.

This is an article shown in Linkedin 2024, part of our story, our thoughts many years ago,
When we were waiting for planning permission for our Passivhaus, we took time to observe the sun rise and sun set on our building plot. We are 55m up from sea level in a valley surrounded by mountains which rise up to 450m – 600m. We watched from different positions when the sun was on our land, as the mountain edges peaked or had broken away. Our Austrian Passivhaus Architect from Graz, Elisabeth Kahlen, positioned the house facing south, so we had natural day light, the east side wall of our terraces are open, so the first sun beam comes in to shine on our cup of coffee on the terrace. With the terraces facing south we have the full sun, natural daylight, nearly all day, until the sun starts to set over the Western mountains. The overhang of the roof/ upper floor over the terraces is such that in winter the sun shines through the windows, but in summer the windows are shaded.