Clean energy future?

The Australian Senate yesterday passed the package of Clean Energy legislation to allow Australia move into a new phase of its history! This legislation is aimed at driving the production of non-renewable energy down and increase the amount of renewables or clean energy available to Australia in the future. The legislation will also attempt to cut emissions that Australia would have otherwise generated by 2020. And the biggest and most publicised component, is that there will be a price on carbon from the 1 July 2012. This will commence at $23 a tonne for the top 500 polluters in Australia.

I was recently interested to know that Brisbane City Council is one of these top 500, but from the information that I recently heard from their Mayor, they are well on their way to looking at alternative sources of energy and ways to improve their activities and how to reduce their "bill" as you might say.

What an environmental step forward our country made yesterday and I am pleased that the government stood up to big business. Pin It

Climate Smart Home Inspection...energy efficient light bulbs

Well after my little rant on Green Dreaming about the extreme delay in my energy saving light globe in my hallway that was provided by the Climate Smart home service I got some customer service.

Initially the service responded to my blog and asked me to contact them. I did this and they said that they could replace the light bulbs by posting them to me. I thought this was excellent service because not only did I not have to wait around my house for a person to come between x and x, but also had the convenience of it just arriving after I let them know the attachment type (bayonet or screw in). (They did offer to send both at the time but I thought since I enrolled the help of their service in the first place as a environmental footprint reduction type measure it was best I call back with the exact specifications).

My light bulb arrived in the mail...surprisingly intact. As for functionality, it has certainly improved since the last version, but there is still some delay (really quite minor). Another reason that could cause a delay apparently is how far the electricity has to travel around the circuitry in your house before it gets to the particular appliance. Nevertheless I have adjusted (can't expect that everything will be the same when making environmental decisions in one's life, sometimes we have to change our behaviour and expectations as well).

So, thanks Mr/Mrs Climate Smart service, appreciate the swift and personable customer service.

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Climate Smart Home Inspection...energy efficient light bulbs

Just thought I would post that I am not too impressed with the couple of energy efficient light bulbs that my Climate Smart Home inspector put into the few light bulb fittings in my house that weren't already this format. The one in the hallway that he put in seems to take 'forever' to illuminate. So much so that I actually generally double take back to the light switch because I don't think I have actually turned it on. However, the light starts to glow just as I re-reach for the light switch and reminds me that it wasn't me it was just the light bulb taking forever to glow.

Not sure whether this is the brand/type etc of energy efficient light bulb that they have put in, but none of my other ones in my house have this delay. It is just bugging me a bit. Pin It

Climate Smart Home Inspection

Well I have finally had my climate smart house inspection. For my $50 investment I had a very friendly elderly gentleman come and visit my house and install a wireless energy meter and a couple of energy saving light bulbs. Certainly the wireless energy meter is the reason that I requested the inspection. It has certainly provided some indication of the appliances that chew up the energy...anything with a heating element...the kettle, the electric heaters, etc.

I am surprised at the small amount of energy that the reverse cycle air-conditioner in my toddler's room uses, as well as the again small amount of electricity the additional fridge & chest freezer in the garage use. These three appliances were the ones that I felt would be definitely would be shovelling money into a deep chasm never to pay for their existence. And in turn convince my other half that they needed to go (well at least the fridge/freezers in the garage). The Climate Smart inspector informed me that the second fridge/freezers usually don't consume a significant amount of electricity because they aren't opened as often as the fridge in your kitchen and thus just maintain themselves rather what your kitchen fridge does which is forever replacing the warm air that you let in when you open and close it and thus use more electricity. Your kettle and electric heaters on the other hand, seem to be the appliances to get rid of in terms of their kwh usage.

Well, I am now certainly more aware of the energy footprint that we have....let's see what we can do to adjust it. Pin It

Climate Smart House Inspection

I have booked in to have my house "assessed" as part of the Queensland Government's climate smart house inspections. This program checks your house to determine the appliances consuming the energy in your house.

I have my suspicions. My bet is the ratty old chest freezer and little fridge in the garage. I have energy efficient light bulbs, I turn most of the appliances off at the wall, I have a fairly small house and only a small LCD tv (the smallest one you can really buy that isn't a computer screen and only bought after the last tv died). Perhaps also the air-conditioning in my daughter's room that we run overnight might add to the power bill as well.

So next month they will come (yes there is a bit of a wait) and install my wireless power monitor, replace light bulbs (although I don't actually have any they will need to replace) and give me a water and energy efficient showerhead for my $50. I am really just paying for it for the power monitor the rest as I said have either replaced myself or got when they were doing the waterwise house inspections (they checked my showerhead then and said it was as water efficient as the one they were going to give me).

My hope is that we will become aware of how much energy each of our electrical items consumes and costs us and then may make some appropriate decisions to either down size or upgrade to more energy efficient appliances. Pin It