Changes to QLD Feed-in tariff

The Queensland State Government has announced that they will be reducing the feed-in tariff rate for solar energy produced from residential houses from 44 cents per kilowatt hour (kwh) to 8 c/kwh. This change to the tariff will occur after the 9 July 2012, but those already receiving the 44c/kwh feed-in tariff will continue as long as you still meet the relevant eligibility criteria.

A State Government factsheet is available at:  http://www.cleanenergy.qld.gov.au/demand-side/solar-bonus-scheme.htm

This change will have a significant impact on the amount of income that a house can potentially generate in the future and also reduce the incentives for families to invest in this technology. Hopefully the investment that the residential sector has generated over the last few years will have brought the cost of solar panels to reasonable level and still provide enough incentive for families to continue to think of this renewable source of power as a reasonable alternative to traditional non-renewable sources of power.

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Solar hot water system...bit of boosting!

Late last year we installed an evacuated tube solar hot water system. I have found the system we installed awesome to date!

Site-specific features of our system include:

• having the system mounted on a north-facing rack. This ensures the system works to its maximum potential, particularly during the winter months.
• a booster when the system doesn't achieve adequate heat through the roof mounted system. For our system we chose to have a mains electricity booster.
• having my booster attached to an overnight tariff. 

The last couple of weeks have brought me some awareness to weather conditions that will challenge the solar component of my system. In the last two weeks we have had overcast weather, with occasional showers. In addition to this inclement weather, we are now entering winter where the sun is positioned further in the north in the sky during the day. All of these factors contribute to lower efficiency in all solar systems, when compared to these systems' performance during prime summer sun positions and certainly has resulted in some diminished performance of my system.

As a result of this cooler, wetter and gloomier weather the water tank that stores my hot water did not maintain a temperature much over 23 degrees. As a result, morning showers were a little cooler than one would consider comfortable and a little shorter than usual (good though for the water level in our rain water tank). But thanks to the boosting system, we flicked the switch and by the time we woke up the next morning we were back to a stable hot water tank temperature of 65 degrees.   

This one night of boosting was adequate and the next day I turned the booster off and the roof mounted tubes managed to kick into doing their job for the rest of the week due to some sunny weather.  Pin It

Where to put your power points?

Having moved in our new home not too long ago and this coinciding with my increased passion for energy efficiency and sustainable home design, many "home renovation" ideas have been added to our family's "to do list".  One of our key considerations, is how we function with existing infrastructure in our house (one of the key "environmental" principle - reuse), or alternatively what we would need to do to the house to make our life easier or improved without creating a significant cost to the environment.

One of the things that should be considered, but may not seem so obvious to most people and surely should be towards the top of the list, is the location or placement of the humble power point or power outlet. Why, you might ask?

(Source: South Australian Government)

In the modern household, power points are typically low down, in the corners of rooms throughout the household or just generally tucked away. However, if you re-locate these to locations that are higher on the walls or just surrounding the "edges" of your furniture, you will be encouraged to turn off your appliances at the wall. Through this simple re-location, you have the potential to create significant environmental and energy savings in your home (particularly, if you live in a typical modern, western household).

The mere action of moving power points to more accessible and more prominent locations means you are more likely to turn them off (at the wall) when your appliance isn't in use and if you're really diligent even remove the appliance's plug from the power point. Why do you need to remove the appliance's plug from the wall as well? There is actually a small amount of current used by many modern appliances even when they are turned off at the wall but remain plugged in, quite often to run memory requirements or maintain batteries, etc. Therefore, the simple act of removing the plug to the appliance from the wall removes this energy requirement and save you money.  

All in all, the action of turning off appliances at the wall means you save electricity, money and  reduce the amount of greenhouse gases and "obviously" save the planet in the process. And all this is more likely to happen if you can see your power points and reach them.  





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Speed Dating a Sustainable Designer

How cool is this concept? The Alternative Technology Association is hosting a series of dating events (advice service) with sustainable architects and designers in various cities around Australia. The event is called "Speed Dating a Sustainable Designer".

The idea is you get 10 minutes with a sustainable designer or architect (or maybe you're extra special and get several dates) to chat about renovations, building ideas relating to your personal sustainable building project. One of the most important things to remember to bring along as many plans, photos, props, etc to help you get the most out of your 10 minutes and to communicate your ideas and aspirations.

There are still upcoming events in Sydney and Brisbane, with Melbourne holding one of these earlier this year. Have a look at the ATA's website for further information about these fabulous events and register your interest.

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How much energy does your household use?

Would you like to know exactly how much energy you use in your home?

CSIRO is conducting a study examining 500 homes across Australia (Brisbane, Adelaide and Melbourne) to look at how much energy households are using for cooling and heating. The researchers are presently looking for households that would like to one of the 500 households.

One of the conditions of entry is that your house has to be less than ten years old, which removes my household from participating, as well as many of the people I know, but if you meet the criteria you can sign up and reap some of the benefits.

Have a look at their website: http://www.csiro.au/house to see if you are eligible to take part.

Benefits that CSIRO states households will receive from participating include:

• learning how to reduce your energy bills;
• a report on your home's heating and cooling energy performance;
• a set of infrared photographs that show if you are losing heating and cooling and where it is going 
• $100 cash for looking after and returning a pair of thermometers; and
• some homes may be eligible for installation of an energy monitor, valued at $1500, to provide online access showing where your electricity is being used.

I think this would be so cool, particularly the photos of your house showing the heat/cool leaks!

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Hard-stand surfaces

Did you know that flooding and decreased soil quality and health is significantly affected by the amount of roads and hard-stand surfaces (footpaths and other impermeable man-made surface structures)? These structures do not allow rainfall or overland flow to penetrate into the soil structure, as would otherwise occur in an natural environment. Due to the lack of infiltration into the soil the water then flows faster and in greater volume into drainage channels, creeks, rivers and bays thereby creating flooding issues in quicker time frames and with more devastating effects.

If the water is otherwise allowed to naturally penetrate the subsoil would be healthy and retain any water for longer periods of time before flooding the downstream catchment.

In Portland in the US, there is a community group that is actively "ripping" up areas of pavement and hard-stand areas in locations that no longer require this type of cover but due to lack of interest and finances would otherwise remain as hardstand. The group is called DePave and through volunteer participation it transfers these areas back into community greenspaces. What a great idea!

I wonder how much space in your local community could be returned to its natural landform or cover and in turn bring more greenspace back to your suburb and return some life to the soil below. Pin It

Do you deserve a green star?

A number of projects, particularly commercial construction, have been rated in Australia, using a 'green star' rating system. This sounds good when someone tells you their project has rated six green stars, but what does it really mean?

The Green Star system is a system developed by the Green Building Council of Australia. It aims to rate environmental design and construction of buildings in Australia and is done in a voluntary, national and "comprehensive" manner. Within the Green Star rating tool there are nine categories. These are:

• management
• indoor environment quality
• energy
• transport
• water
• materials
• land use and ecology
• emissions
• innovations

Each of these categories are then divided into credits and a project assessed against the objectives of the categories and awarded credits within each category. These credits are then assessed as a percentage score, with a Green Star weighting factor then applied to then determine the building's overall rating, being four, five or six Green Stars. Six Green Stars indicates that the building project is considered as demonstrating 'world leadership' in environmentally sustainable design and/or construction.

Further information about the Green Star rating system is available on the Green Building Council's website.

How useful this is is potentially questionable, but at least there are some questions being raised about the efficiencies that can be undertaken both during design and construction within a commercial building development and hopefully this then transfers through to the building occupants and they continue to "capitalise" on the green savings the building can generate for them! Pin It

Solar hot water...things you need to consider

I have now had three commercial companies come and provide me with quotes for a solar hot water system for my house and I feel that it would be easy to get caught up in the sales pitch that these "environmentally-friendly" companies give you. So, here are a few things that I learnt about solar hot water systems and some of the greenwash or sales pitches I have heard.

Things you need to consider:

• Size of hot water storage tank (this will depend on the number of people using hot water in your household)
• Whether you want a split system or not (this is whether you want the storage tank on your roof or not)
• Where you can and/or want to accommodate the solar system on your roof
• What type of boosting system (gas or electricity) you want for your system
• What orientation your roof has (use a compass to find out) and whether it will appropriately accommodate a solar hot water system (see previous post on Solar Hot Water).
• How large your house is in area and where the areas that use hot water are (this will help you position your storage tanks and/or solar collection "panels" on the roof and whether a solar hot water system will efficiently deliver hot water to those areas)
• How much money you have to purchase a system
• What rebates are available to you from the government (if this an important factor)
• What your climate is like and whether is it appropriate to a solar hot system
• Is there enough open solar access for a solar hot water system to be effective and efficient at your location
• The amount of structural capability your roof has and whether it can accommodate a roof-mounted hot water storage tank
• Whether you want to show the world you have a solar hot water system (this will determine whether you are happy to mount the collector panels to achieve best orientation, if needed, or have a flat panel system on your roof)

Now here are some things I have learnt about:

• for maximum efficiency and to increase the likelihood that I can get hot water all year round, I should be positioning my solar hot water collector panels to the north. This is particularly important for those winter months when I want to catch as much of the sun's energy as possible, when the sun is positioned further into the northern hemisphere
• on my house this means mounting the panels on a frame, these are constructed to position my panels in a northerly direction, my problem with my position is that these potentially collector panels will still be shaded in some parts of the year and thus, boosting from either mains electricity or a gas system will be required
• insulation of pipes between the collector panels on the roof and the storage tank below (if you're opting for a split system) will ensure maximum hot water is collected in your tank and therefore you don't loose heat through the transfer process
• the storage tank is either boosted (from electricity or gas) or water re-circulated into the "panels" when the water is lower than sixty degrees Celsius
• in a split system the water is pumped onto the roof with a small motor in the storage tank
• you may require more than two "panels" on your roof if you have a particularly large family or have a significant hot water use
• most of the storage tanks seem to have what is called a sacrificial anode, which corrodes overtime and requires maintenance approximately every five years (depending on the quality of your water)

Here are some things that I am a little unsure about and either smell of greenwash or just outright competition between businesses (there may be legislative requirements but can't seem to figure it out yet):

• one company offers a titanium based panel which means that you can orient them outside of the optimum orientation (north) and not loose efficiency....apparently the titanium has the capability of heating hotter than the standard components and therefore can orient outside the optimum north facing 
• consideration of winds if you are mounting your system on racks. Obviously this is important in some locations, but the amount of winds and strength that we have at my place i think is unlikely to impact on the system, but you should definitely get this checked out
• the size of your storage tank needs to be the next size up from your current storage tank. Apparently, this is because solar hot water can only be generated during the day and not consistently and therefore for continuously available hot water, whenever you want you need a larger storage capacity. To me you just need to train your family to use hot water when available and not demand hot water anytime. 
• If you are mains electricity boosting your hot water storage tank, you're not suppose to have this on Tariff 33 (the overnight/off-peak tariff). I am unsure about this and will have to contact my energy provider to see if this is true. The company that told me this said it was legislation. If this is the case and you only use this for hot water, again this company told me that I should have the meter for this tariff disconnected because the energy company would still charge me a service fee for this meter even if I wasn't using it for hot water heating any more.
• the life span of these systems seem to be about 10 years, but no one will put a firm number on it and there is often the statement that the technology has improved so they are likely to last longer than this magic number. Also from the information I received from the companies it seems as if it is the storage tank that will need replacing first and this is just as you would with a traditional hot water storage tank.

A useful Australian government publication is the "Your Home: Technical Manual", which has a section on hot water systems and provides a lot of facts that you need to consider when deciding what hot water system is appropriate for you and has great tips and facts associated with solar hot water.

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The journey has begun....

As you have seen from some of my previous posts, we moved into a new home recently, with the idea we would become a little more self-sufficient and enjoy the Queensland outdoor lifestyle a little more.

We have now started the transformation of our house from a typical suburban/semi-rural house into my "dream" home.  So, what have we done in the three weeks we've been here?

• installed a black cold compost bin;
• started to clean out the gutters on the house to ensure we collect maximum amounts of rain that hits the roof (as we are on tank water);
• checked out the water tanks and determined they require some maintenance works;
• got a water filter for our drinking water;
• started getting quotes for solar hot water systems; 
• enquired about grey water;
• put in some herbs and lettuces in small areas in the garden; 
• investigated heat-retardant blinds for the western facing rooms; and 
• started planning where other permanent garden features/beds will go. 

All of these have all been done in spare time around work, other commitments and this week around colds (guess it all caught up with us). But it has been fabulous being outdoors, having each morning greet us with visits from the local native birds and a lovely sunset view in the evenings.

No matter whether you've been in your space for a long or short time, view the natural world with new eyes and see what can be done around your place.

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Top 10 green building trends

I just found a press release from the Earth Advantage Institute posted on the Green Architecture and Building Report website outlining the "top ten green building trends in 2011". It was an interesting read and certainly shows that there is so much to learn about and to consider. New vocabulary alone will take me a little while to remember and grasp.

The article outlines both personal and commercial trends for this building industry sector.  The top ten trends for 2011 as outlined by the Earth Advantage Institute are:

1. Affordable green
2. Sharing and comparing home energy use
3. Outcome-based energy codes
4. Community purchasing power
5. "Grid-aware" appliances fuel convergences of smart grid and smart homes
6. Accessory dwelling units
7. Rethinking of residential heating and cooling
8. Residential grey water use
9. Small commercial certification
10. Lifecycle Analysis

Have a look at the original post and full analysis at: http://www.gabreport.com/2011/01/top-ten-green-building-trends-for-2011. This is an American website, so it is important to note that we here in Australia might be a little behind the times. I did notice the term and concept "right-size" housing, in their analysis, as one that seems to have been covered in a previous year's trends. This is one concept that I think we here in Australia are only just starting to grasp but despite being a little out of step is one that we should all still consider.


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Should companies be responsible?

What would happen if companies were held to account for the goods they produce throughout their products entire life-cycle? As an example in this situation, a producer of a mobile phone would therefore be responsible for all of the discarded or redundant mobile phones they produce. I think this is a marvellous situation to ponder.

Would producers end up producing products that were likely to last longer, have more recyclable or reusable content and reduce the number of new models they are produced? What other situations would arise from this? Perhaps there would be a return of repairers, rather than the standard response "it would be cheaper to buy a new one than investigate the issue and then repair the problem" or "parts are no longer available for that model".

I believe there would likely be less landfill, less pollution, more sustainability and longevity of products. Producers would become more savvy with their products, more responsible with their choice of components, increase the amount of recycled content, as well as the increasing the capability for  their products to be recycled.

To me the opportunities and positive outcomes as a result of such a scenario are endless and something that perhaps we could strive towards and maybe mark the end of endless consumption that modern, western society seems to have entered into. Pin It

Solar panels...shade is bad

I found something out today that I didn't previously know about solar panels....


If there is any portion of a solar panel shaded, then no energy is collected by that panel! How unbelievable is that? Apparently scientists are only currently looking at this issue, which is being done in collaboration with computer scientists who have worked on maintaining computer systems/servers, etc where one component can drop out and you don't loose full efficiency. 


Additional government support and investment in renewables will lead to the resolution of such issues sooner rather than later!


In the meantime, ensure your residential solar panels are not in the shade! Pin It

Loud and proud!

Currently my family and I are in the process of moving from the house that I thought I would die in (sorry). In light of this move we need to locate to a new place to live. So many questions, particularly life questions have raised their head. So many choices can be debilitating!

Some of the questions are:

• do I buy an existing house; or 
• do I build a new house that I can build to my specifications? This later option could potentially mean with a smaller environmental footprint than a house in the standard real estate market. 

Anyway, getting to the point of the post. In considering the building the house option I have been looking at land options. There was one particular land release that was of interest, which had a parcel of land that was on a north-facing slope with enough land to have a veggie patch, room for the dogs and space for anything we choose in the future (well within reason). However, the land had a covenant on it. The majority of the covenant was quite reasonable and attractive, individually styled dwellings, neighbour friendly fencing, environmental principles, etc, etc. The two parts that I found interesting were:

• the need to use new materials; and 
• the requirement not to have your solar panels on your roof visible from the road. 

The later one was the one that brought me to write this post. I thought this was particularly peculiar for a land development which was trying to encourage diversity and claim to be more environmentally friendly than the next. Surely showing off your solar panels would encourage other residents to take up such technology or consider where some of their lifestyle choices were originating and consider things that are taken for granted in this modern lifestyle in a little more detail.

Overall, I say wear them 'loud and proud'! If you have solar panels you should flaunt them! Pin It

House orientation

As the last post indicated the green house design principles are up there on my want to know about list at present. One of the primary principles if you are starting from scratch is orienting your living areas with a northerly aspect and apparently this is true north and not magnetic north.

What is true north? The north point in this instance is the geographic point of the North Pole, rather than magnetic north that moves over time and doesn't relate to the orientation of the sun, which is what you are aiming at capturing in these living areas.

A concern people may have about orienting these living areas to the north, particularly in the sub-tropical/tropical regions, is that in summer such orientation could make these areas quite hot. Well, there are a number of things that can help to reduce this heating affect but one of the first ones is to shade these areas. Plant trees outside the living areas, for example.

Well now I have to get a map out and start searching for the perfect block of land to build a lovely house with green design principles embedded in its design.

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Green House Design Principles

Well this topic is starting to become a bit of a hot topic for me at the moment. I have a strong urge to learn more about this issue and really it will take some time to come to terms with it because I don't have a mind that automatically can adopt many of the details that underlie the general principles. Nevertheless hopefully I can keep the momentum.

Today I found a great website that outlines the basic green design principles when considering building, renovating, retrofitting your house along these lines. The web address is: http://gogreendesign.com.au/principles.html. Great page that outlines the overarching principles in fairly layman terms. Hope you find it as intriguing as I do.

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