When Tyson Dirksen and Katrina Ellis bought a fixer-upper home in urban Melbourne, Australia, they decided to redo it to take advantage of the sun and rain. Since the back of the home faced North (the south of winter sun in the Southern Hemisphere), they opened up the back with big windows and laid a polished cement floor to trap the heat inside (in the summer it works in reverse).

With their 7000 liter rain bladder under the house and a solar hot water heater on the roof, they now have hot rainwater showers. In this video, Tyson shows us how it all works.

We also have a video on a permaculture home using passive solar for AC and a blog post from Tyson outlining his green renovation (among other posts on his work).