First for fibro as students' reno reduces overall energy use to zero The fibro house triumphed in the 2013 Solar Decathlon finals. THE humble suburban fibro home is a new weapon in the war on carbon emissions, a group of local students have shown in a dazzling triumph on the world stage. By retro-fitting a leaky 1960s fibro and reducing its net energy consumption to zero, a team of Wollongong students has beaten the world's best in an international energy contest in China, while pointing the way to a cleaner energy future for Australia's eight million homes. "The crux of it is that the best way to address the energy crisis we are facing is by retro-fitting rather than building new homes," said Jack Breen, a member of Team UOW Australia, an alliance of University of Wollongong and Illawarra TAFE students. The team took a fibro home, with its notoriously high thermal losses, and revamped it to be energy efficient and comfortable to live in. They increased its airtightness, enlarged windows and verandahs, installed vertical gardens, a photovoltaic thermal air system and a rainwater harvester. The Illawarra Flame fibro house beat 19 other entries from around the globe to triumph in the 2013 Solar Decathlon finals held in the city of Datong, 300km west of Beijing. It scored 957.6 of a possible 1000 points, beating teams from South China University of Technology and Chalmers University of Technology from Sweden. "About 13 per cent of our greenhouse emissions come from household consumption," Mr Breen said. Over half the energy use can be changed by occupant behaviour. It's not just energy efficiency, it's about how people use the home. Water-saving features in the house include a reed-bed and a slow sand filter to reuse treated water in toilets, washing machine, car washing and irrigation. As each Australian house leaks about 14 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year, the same amount expended by a car driving from east to west across the continent, modifications to existing homes could have a dramatic impact. "We don't want to sit in our ivory tower and design something that can't be done," said project manager Lloyd Niccol, a cadet engineer with BlueScope Steel at the Port Kembla Steel Works. A team of 30 students schooled in the disciplines of engineering, architecture, design and construction, supported by a network from industry and academia, first retrofitted the house on a site in Wollongong before disassembling it and shipping it to China. Planning took two years but the home was rebuilt on site in 12 days after a six-week journey across the Pacific. The project cost about $300,000.