SIPs News

 What's it like to live in a SIPs home? We get asked this all the time.

So SIPs Industries asked the 17-year-old daughter, Abby, of parents who built with SIPs to give us her take on what it's like, from a teen's perspective, to live in a SIPs home.

Take a read of the article below to see what Abby had to say.

My Experience Living in a SIPs Home

17 years and of the 7 homes we have lived in, 6 were brick.

Living in a SIPs home is easy. In small ways, the way we live and act in our home has changed almost without thought. There are habits that have changed due to the effects of using SIPs, (and Chalk Build as a building company).

The SIPs kitchen 

It’s July now, mid-winter, so the weather tends to be icy at the best of times. Outside temperatures during the nights and early mornings constantly drops to 8 degrees and sometimes accompanied by howling winds and thunder storms or rain. While mother nature is beating her fists outside, inside nothing is even heard or felt.

Right now while writing this article, I’m sitting in the home office on the top floor with a wall of floor to ceiling windows. Its 16 degrees outside, but I wouldn’t know it because I can't feel the outside temperature inside the house. I am currently dressed in shorts, however, I think I'd freeze if I wore them outdoors at the moment.

Getting dressed in a SIPs home is always difficult, again, because I can’t feel the outside temperature. What happens now is when everyone is dressed we step outside the front door just to get a feel of the morning's weather, which usually results in us jumping back inside, slamming the door shut, mumbling something about it being ‘really cold today’ and running upstairs to put on a thicker jacket.

Comfortable living in a SIPs home

Our house truly is at a really constant temperature all year round, and at all times of the day. All of the windows and sliding doors in our house are double glazed, sealed and positioned in a way that the sun shines in all year round, heating it in the middle of the day naturally.

A rule in my house is that windows pretty much stay shut in the winter months as the heat that is inside should stay inside. Surprisingly though, none of the rooms are ever stuffy. We have an air system that circulates are from one side of the room to the other. This air is then filtered and circulated through the house. Constant air flow and an air tight home means its always at a comfortable room temperature.

Last year, in our brick home we dressed in layers of clothing, socks, uggs and had a gas heater positioned in front of the TV to warm us up in the evenings. Now, we wouldn’t dream of it. With the door separating the SIPs half of our home to the brick half staying shut at all times because it really is that cold in the brick half.

SIPs provide an ambient temperature in the house all year round.

Sleeping in a SIPs home is possibly one of my favourite things to do as, in the middle of June and July, I'm able to wear pyjama shorts and a t-shirt to bed. Our beds are still covered in the same duvets that are used in summer, with an added light blanket on some nights. The bedrooms all have heaters in my house, however, not one has been used this year.

And the air-conditioner in our living room which heats the dining room, living room and kitchen has been switched on twice!