How much free energy from the sun did your house soak up on the shortest day of the year? This photo is from Jenny's house, mid-day, mid-winter.

Many people don’t realise how perfect Canberra is for smart, solar design. All it takes is some basic building science, good design and quality construction to make a house that requires very little, if any, day-time heating during the Canberra winter.

Canberra is very sunny, with mean daily sunshine of 7.6 hours/day. In summer mean daily sunshine is around 9 hours/day dropping to around 5-6 hours/day in winter – Bureau of Meteorology.

Only Sydney and Brisbane have more winter sun than Canberra. Yes, we even beat Perth and Adelaide (and romp all over Melbourne and Hobart). See more info here.

Following are some images we've collected from past clients, all taken at the winter solstice (various years)! Feel the warmth and check out the happy dog at the end!

Franklin House (our previous office and display home) at 12:00 – thermal image taken with infrared camera. The heat soaked up by the concrete floor is re-radiated into the home because the slab is insulated on the underside as well as the vertical edge. At midday the outside air temperature was 10.8 degrees and the internal temperature (measured in the central corridor of the house) was 19.5 degrees with no heating on.

Under construction in Downer, the sun streaming in at 11am (this one taken last weekend - so not quite the winter solstice.)

Jumping for joy at the Bywong House at 12:30 pm.

Nelson House at 12:30 pm. That’s one happy puppy.

Soak up the Sun