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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Save electricity

Turn your microwave off at the wall.

Sure you won't have the clock function but did you know that your microwave will actually use more energy to run the clock than the energy used to cook or defrost the food.  I'm sure this is dependent on how much you actually use your microwave, but I would assume most of us don't use our microwaves to cook every meal and as such believe that it is likely that this statement is probably true.

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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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Beyond Zero Emissions

I organised a talk by Beyond Zero Emissions (BZE) for a local community group on Tuesday night. It was a great night and very informative.

This organisation is promoting the idea that the Australian energy sector could change from non-renewable energy (ie gas and coal-fired power stations) to renewable energy sources in just 10 years. It sounds unbelievable but in this plan the idea is to transition our economy from these existing dirty energy sources to clean energy with currently available ("off-the-shelf") renewable energy technology and therefore can potentially achieve this timeframe!

The best part of the presentation was the presenters' assurance that the plan they put forward may not be the complete solution or the one that ends up being implemented, but it to showcases that such a transition is completely plausible and possible and that such ideas should be examined, supported and in turn allow Australia to lead the world in part of the solution to some of our current environmental predicaments! What a goal!

There are certainly many questions that the presentation raised for me and showcased some of the existing barriers that the plan would have to overcome to be implemented, but the best part of the idea is that they are trying to move forward.

Don't get stuck in the existing model and the doom and gloom that the energy sector puts forward when it comes to alternatives. It is important to examine alternatives on their merit, join in the debate and tell politicians that you would like to see them, their government and big business help Australian citizens achieve their dreams of Australia's renewable future.

Maybe you can get along to one of these talks or organise BZE to talk at your next function or just get involved and ask your politicians to get involved and informed. Pin It

Planning an Earth Hour Event?

31 March 2012 sees another Earth Hour celebration! Sixth one! Earth Hour is a public awareness campaign and aims to have people switch off their power for one hour and draw attention to the idea of a sustainable future for all.

(Source: WWF)

If you're planning an event, WWF has created a Earth Hour toolkit, which you can download and use to help you organise your event, as well as providing useful tips to make your event even more sustainable! You can also register your event at the new Earth Hour Unplugged website or alternatively you might just find an event to go to.

Enjoy your preparations and look forward to hearing how you spend your Earth Hour! Pin It

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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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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Solar Hot Water Systems

Today has not been wasted!

I learnt that it is in fact best or most efficient to install your solar hot water system's collector panels facing north.

I knew this was necessary for photovoltaic systems (or solar electricity systems), but thought that because there isn't the requirement to transform sunlight into electricity but rather just heat the water it isn't necessary for solar hot water. But it is! According to the information I have read if the panels don't face north, the efficiencies drop off in solar water heating just as much as in the solar electric systems.

So moral of the story, if you are thinking about either of these systems, orient all your panels as close to true north as possible.

If you have any experiences or comments on solar hot water systems feel free to post your comments below. Pin It

Are you letting the cold air out?

My main fridge is about nine years old and starting to look a little daggy. Don't get me wrong I think it still does a marvellous job and wouldn't dream of replacing it, but I was a little concerned that I might be paying a higher price to run it.

Why you might ask? Basically over time the seals around the doors start to deteriorate. This means that your fridge can't keep the cold air in and has to continuously replace this cold air by running the motor which then costs your money in energy usage.

But how do you know if your seals need replacing? I had somewhere in the back of my mind that you place a piece of paper between the door and the fridge, close the fridge door and then try and remove the paper. I did this, but I could easily remove it from multiple locations around the door frame for both the fridge and the freezer. Either my seals were completely dead (which I didn't think was the case) or there was something wrong with my method.

After a quick internet search, another method suggested was to place a torch in the fridge at night, turn off all your lights in the vicinity of the fridge and see if you can see the light coming out of the fridge. If you can see any light you need a new seal. I tried this method last night and couldn't see any light, so currently I am assuming that my seals are ok. See if I can come up with any other methods to test my fridge and freezer seals.

Maybe worth a try at your place.

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US to remove dam to restore catchment qualities

I just came across a 'green' article discussing the US's largest dam removal project. My first thoughts were that this was just greenwashing putting a slant on this event rather than just talking about the removal as a project addressing an aging piece of infrastructure. But it seems my initial pessimism was wrong.

There are actually two dams to be removed, Elwha and Glines Canyon dams, within the Olympic National Park on the Elwha River. It seems that the sole reason for the removal of these dams is to restore river's catchment.

These two dams were originally built for the purpose of generating hydro-electricity. But it seems that the construction of these resulted in a complete barrier to fish between their upstream and downstream habitats. The main value that will be restored once the dams have been removed is this fish passage.

More information about the dam removal decision can be found at the Elwha Watershed Information Resource website. There are also some cool animations showing how the dams are to be removed at the following websites: Interactive Earth Elwha dam removal and Interactive Earth Glines Canyon dam removal.

The only thing I didn't manage to determine was whether there was another renewable energy source replacing the dams electricity supply (if they were still producing). Hopefully the removal doesn't result in a greater demand for an energy source that isn't environmentally appropriate.

Overall, congratulations! Pin It

Are you an active occupant?

Did you know that there can be significant gains in energy efficiencies and cost savings in your house  but require a conscious occupancy of your house? Well it is true!

What does this mean? Basically it means that you have to be aware of how you are living in your house and what the environment is doing in and around your home. For example, as a cooler evening begins to set it, you should close your windows, draw your blinds or curtains and put on a jumper (if necessary), instead of continuing your usual activity in shorts and t-shirt and turning on a heater and leaving some of the smaller windows open. The latter results in warmer interior air being drawn out of the house and cool air into your home and potentially requiring you to heat your home for longer period. Overall, resulting in a larger electricity bill for you and a greater environmental impact.

Things that you can do in your home on a daily basis which can make a significant difference to your home's ambient temperature and overall costs include:

• shutting windows/louvres when cooler temperatures set in;
• closing blinds or curtains to avoid westerly sun into your home in the afternoons;
• also closing blinds and curtains in the evenings to keep warmer air in and cooler air out;
• wearing an extra layer of clothing or taking an extra layer off if the temperature requires it;
• using a blanket whilst you sit on the couch instead of turning on a heater;
• using interior fans instead of air conditioning (as a first option) to circulate air in warmer temperatures;
• using interior fans (set on winter mode) to circulate heated air throughout your house rather than having second or third heaters;
• using floor rugs in winter and removing them in summer to maintain appropriate internal temperatures.

These are just a few but will make a difference to your hip pocket and reduce your environmental footprint. If you have other suggestions it would be great to hear them. Pin It

What is renewable and non-renewable energy?

Recently with all the talk of the proposed carbon tax there has been a lot of discussion about renewable versus non-renewable energy. Perhaps introducing some of the basic concepts behind this topic might be useful for people.

What are the current forms of non-renewable energy?
Presently, the main sources of non-renewable energy are fossil fuels. These include coal, petroleum, natural gas and nuclear power which is based on uranium. These energy sources are considered non-renewable because they are based on materials that are finite in nature and cannot be replenished in the Earth's environment over a short time scale.

Currently here in Australia we rely heavily on coal-fire power stations to provide us with electricity and are also significantly connected to petrol for use in our cars.

What are renewable sources of energy?
Wind, solar, biomass, geothermal, hydroelectricity, tidal power and biogas are all typically considered to be renewable sources of energy and are considered as such because they can regenerate naturally. There are even some finite resources such as timber and some metal resources which can produce renewable energy because the resource can either be regenerated (in the case of timber) or recycled (some metals).

Australia has started to invest in some of these energies on a commercial scale, yet the proportion of these types of energy providing electricity to our household is still quite small.  There is however the option for you to pay a premium for electricity to obtain"green power", bringing about consumer demand for further investment in these energy types. Alternatively, putting some solar panels onto your roof and then being plugged into the electricity grid has also resulted in an increase in renewable energy available here in Australia. 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

Keep the fridge door closed!

This is probably one that your Mum and Dad told you when you were little. How often did you hear, "Keep the fridge door closed" or "don't swing off the door" or various other fridge door related naggings from your parents?

As children and even adults we are prone to 'browsing' for what might be in the fridge and then choosing based on what has taken our fancy. Well, this isn't the best option for saving the planet, unfortunately. It is better for the environment if you know what you're going to get out of the fridge before you touch the door and best if you can take multiple items out of the fridge at once rather than going back and forward to get single items each time. 

Why? Every time you open the fridge door a little bit of room temperature air gets into the fridge. However, your fridge is trying to maintain all your food at a particular temperature (usually much cooler than room temperature) and basically the fridge is fighting with you to keep the food cold every time the door is open. So basically each time you open the fridge the air in the fridge gets a little warmer and the motor then turns on to cool the air in the fridge to its pre-set temperature. The motor uses electricity which in turn means emissions, generally use of a non-renewable energy source, etc, etc. 

So next time you're thinking of what you might like from the fridge how about having a mental image of what is in the fridge and deciding whether a big bowl of mousse or a block of chocolate would be the better afternoon treat rather than hanging off the fridge door trying to decide. 

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Cost of green power

After posting on the 25th September about my dilemma between the installation of solar panels on my house or just purchasing green power, as a green energy alternative, I have had several discussions with friends of mine.

Presently, green power is an additional cost on top of the cost of non-renewably sourced electricity and with the cost of residential electricity to continue to rise at least for the short to medium future it is something that needs to be considered.

Given that I am not a millionaire I am once again leaning towards the upfront purchase of solar panels for my residence. This is a once-off cost (although I am not completely sure on the life span of solar panels at present) which means that I can budget for this within my expenses and determine its affordability. However, with electricity prices to rise I have no idea whether I would be able to continue to afford the premium for green power.

Electricity in itself is becoming expensive with some decisions about second fridges/freezers to be made (that is, can we afford them if the costs of power continue to rise). Could I therefore continue to pay the additional cost of green power into the future and ensure that my electricity source is 'good' for the environment? At present I am thinking that I wouldn't be able to stretch the budget in this never-ending increase cycle.

There may come a time in the future where green power is actually cheaper to source from electricity providers. But certainly at present there hasn't been any murmuring of such concepts. So once again leaning towards the selfish green energy solution of solar at my residence. Pin It

Green Power

I have recently been thinking of trying to start to convert my house from being on the normal electricity grid (the one where you pay a company for the privilege of them providing you with electricity to your home). The alternative is having your house generate its own power either through solar panels or if you're in the right location wind power from a turbine within your garden. The power is then generated by these energy sources and then you have a bucket load of batteries storing the power and you then access when you need it. To undertake such a move can be expensive (initial investment) and require some replacement of appliances depending on how much electricity you generate.

However, I heard recently that perhaps it is 'better' just to pay the 'premium' for Green Power through your electricity provider. The reasons as it was explained why this might be better, is because such an investment by yourself through your electricity provider means that your provider has to put this money into renewable energy sources. In turn, you provide direct investment into the renewable energy sector and ensures that there is an overall investment in this technology in Australia, leading to greater resourcing (financial commitment) of this sector and renewable energy becoming cheaper and more accessible to a broader cross-section of people within the community. Overall, this might mean that there will be less investment in non-renewable energy sources and less pollution.

Definitely food for thought. Currently, I have a 25% investment of the overall value of my electricity bill each quarter directed to Green Power, but certainly haven't made the financial leap to the 100%. Reason being, I haven't considered it a priority in the financial juggling that is undertaken in my household. However, I will certainly be considering the possibility in the future. Pin It

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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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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Hang your washing in the sun!

Another tip for a smaller environmental footprint that I really didn't consciously consider as a way that I make a difference, but after reading it in a book I thought this was definitely a way that I make a difference.

What am I talking about? Well, instead of putting your washing straight from the washing machine into a dryer in your laundry, why not hang it on the washing line in the back yard? There are so many benefits for doing this.

1. You get outside and this is always a positive
2. If you hang it out in the middle of the day you'll probably also get your required dose of vitamin D
3. You don't have to pay for the electricity that would have been used to power your dryer
4. You won't contribute to additional electricity usage to power your dryer
5. Whites will be whiter, without using any nasty chemicals. The sun actually whitens whites and can remove some of those stubborn stains from your clothes/sheets/towels, etc
6. Even if it rains during the 'drying process' it will wash some of those nasty chemicals that some of us wash with out of your clothes and then will dry your clothes once the sun comes back out.

I think another reason that this wasn't something that I consider as something good for the environment is because I have always done it and my mother has always done it. This I find interesting because we can accept behaviours/activities into our life and make them an everyday activity and not consciously recognise that we are making a positive difference.

So, whatever you choose to do to reduce your environmental footprint, it might be difficult or annoying to start with but over time it will become part of your normal routine and you'll be making a difference without considering it a burden on your lifestyle. Just start small and do things that are manageable for you and your family.

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