Suburban Greenie

Silence

2008-11-11T02:17:00.000-08:00

I haven't posted in a while - because nothing much has happened. Or maybe too much has happened. We're still waiting for a big project to get off the ground. And meanwhile we have been busy with many little ones. Here is a glimpse.

- There are only 4 non-native trees left in our entire garden. They are only there because they either fall under Council's tree preservation act or they are providing shade and shelter for a native tree to grow, and will go once the native is bigger.

- We have established a worm farm. Our only problem is what to do with all the fertilizer they produce. I think we might have to start giving it away to the neighbors.

- Since we abolished plastic bins in the rubbish bin, our weekly garbage bin has is only half full.

- I am now a Wildlife Carer - you can find out more on my new blog http://wildliferescuestories.blogspot.com/

And I have plenty of ideas for small posts. Better start writing ....

Means Tested Solar Rebates

2008-05-16T03:33:00.000-07:00

Earlier this week, the Federal Government (newly elected at the end of last year) announced its first ever budget. Overall, it seems pretty good. But as far as I'm concerned, there are two major flaws with it.

The Government’s decision to means-test rebates for Photovoltaic Cells on household roofs is quite frankly stupid.

We thought long and hard about PV cells. Economically they make little sense. But ideologically, we totally believe in them, and despite the cost, we were planning to install some in the future. It’s not something we could afford now (what with all the other disability related cost we’re facing at the moment). But we felt it’s necessary to “walk the talk” and follow through on your beliefs, even if they cost a bit extra. And hoping that one day a feed-in tariff would surely come into place, we felt it would be our duty.

Well, no more.

Bye bye solar power for us.

You see, a one kilowatt system cost about $20,000 to install. The Government provided a rebate of $8,000 – which meant we were still facing a $12,000 price tag on equipment that would take 20 years to pay itself back. Clearly makes no economic sense (especially since we are on 100% Green Power). But still.

Now, the 8,000 rebate will only be available to households with an annual income under $100,000. Environment Minister Peter Garrett (yes, the one from Midnight Oil fame) said that means testing would ‘ensure the solar rebates go to those who need them most:.

Sorry, but hat’s bulldust.

We can barely afford the things, and I can’t see how anyone on less that 100,000 can really afford to spend 12,000 on solar panels?

Bulldust, Peter.

Oh - and the other issue I have with the new budget? You'll have to check out my other blog...

Poor Laundy

2008-05-11T17:23:00.000-07:00

With three kids, i hang up laundry every day. We run the washing machine on a timer at night (we do the same for the dishwasher) to make the most of our off-peak electricity. In the morning, after i've taken the kids to school and Boo Boo to therapy, i take a dry load off the line and hang a wet one up. Then i fill another machine, turn on the timer, and the next day, the process repeats itself.

It's only when we have weeks of rain or some school uniform emergency that i use the dryer.

Every time i hang up the laundry, i think of this newspaper article i read. Some US organisation did a study and found that most Americans prefer to use a dryer over a laundry line. The most common reason given against the laundry line has nothing to do with the false shame of hanging your underwear on the line, or even the fact that in many housing estates is the US, laundry lines are actually forbidden. The most cited reason not to use a laundry line is:

"Because that's what poor people do".

Yeah, right. Boy, we have a long way to go.

Solar Hot Water Decision - Pending

2008-03-19T19:05:00.000-07:00

Things are never that simple, are they?

Over the summer holidays, we've had many quotes for a solar hot water system. I posted about this before, so you will remember that this was a frustrating experience. Anyway, the long and short of it is that we still haven't come to a decision.

You see, the offer from Origin Energy was pretty good - but we have since talked to some friends who've had it installed, and the one complaint they have is that it doesn't work too well on cloudy days. I'd be OK with that. But then, the evacuated tubes we have on the roof to heat the pool are terribly efficient, they absorb not only sunlight but also radiant heat from the air, and so they even work on warmish, cloudy days.

Now, we have been talking to the company that installed them, Suntrap, about using the same panels to provide our hot water and use a heat exchanger. That means that in winter, when it's too cold outside for our kids to swim, but still sunny, we would use the hot water from the tubes on the roof to warm our house via a heat exchanger which would pump hot air through our air conditioning system. This is not a new idea, but is only just being trialled in domestic settings.

We like the science behind it, love the way we would be able to use our existing panels to heat the house rather than the pool on those days we don't use the pool anyway (so less energy goes to waste). We would love to put our hand up for a trial.

The main contact from the company we've had, an inspiring guy called John, is working on a system for us. He's even contacted Origin Energy, and is trying to get them to come to the party and invest some R&D money into our system as a trial project. Sounds brilliant to me.

Only problem is, it's nearly April now, and we still haven't got any concrete plans and prices, let alone an operating solar hot water system. And we started this in January! I'm getting impatient (yeah, that's me).

I so hope this will happen, it sounds like brilliant technology.

Solar Hot Water Rebate

2008-03-01T17:29:00.000-08:00

The current, relatively new government had made some promising noises about increasing the rebates for solar hot water systems and other sustainable building conversions (solar panels, rainwater tanks etc.).

So I did what we all do, and checked the website. As far as I could tell, nothing much had changed. The rebate still stood at a thousand dollars, and is still means tested ; you can only apply if your family income in the last tax year was under $100,000. That doesn’t’ seem to make a lot of sense to me – surely our climate does not care about someone’s income. Is the aim not to install as many systems as possible to lower our national energy consumption? Anyway, I can live with that. But what really bugged me was the replacement issue.

The government states that ‘[t]o be eligible for the rebate, a hot water system must replace an existing electric storage hot water system (…)’

Did I understand it correctly that I could only apply for a rebate if I chucked my current system out and installed a totally new one? That did not make a lot of environmental sense to me. Our current electric hot water tank is relatively new, and solar convertible. Why would I have to toss this perfectly fine working tank on the scrap heap in order to collect the rebate? That seemed a bit contradictory to me, so I send off an e-mail to the Solar Hot Water Rebate Team of our new government’s Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts.

Here is their reply:

Your understanding is correct. Retrofitted solar hot water systems are not eligible for the Solar Hot Water Rebate.

In order to be eligible for the rebate, a hot water system must be eligible for at least 20 Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs). The Renewable Energy (Electricity) Act 2000 ('the Act')and Regulations state that in order for a solar water heater to be eligible for RECs under the Mandatory Renewable Energy Target (MRET) it must be a newly installed complete system that complies with the relevant Australian standards. A review of the operation of the Act and MRET was conducted in September 2003. The review specifically examined the issue of retrofits of solar water heater panels to existing tanks and concluded that while the retrofit kit may be tested against relevant Australian Standards, residual (possibly ageing) equipment such as the tank was not subject to renewed testing against Australian Standards. The review panel was not confident that the residual equipment had the necessary reliability and durability to warrant RECs deeming.

So, we can fly to the moon but there is no way we can include residual retrofitting equipment to be tested?

Their e-mail ends with a note, typed in green, “Please consider the environment before printing this email”

Sure.

But what about considering the environment before telling hundreds of households to add their electric hot water tanks to the scrap heap?

I think I might pass on the rebate…

Solar Hot Water Confusion

2008-02-26T19:05:00.000-08:00

We decided during the Summer Holidays that the time had come to buy a solar hot water system. We spend most of January getting various quotes. It was an interesting experience.

We had Solar Shop, Solar Harvest, SolaHart, Origin Energy and Suntrap come round for a visit and a quote. They were all completely different.

The first issue concerned the tank.

We have a 340 liter Rheem electric hot water storage tank. It’s relatively new, and in good nick. Most importantly, it’s solar convertible.

So to me, it makes sense to keep the tank and connect it to a solar panel, rather than toss the tank out and install a new one. Some companies will simply not do that. You can only buy their system with a tank, either installed on the roof, or installed on the ground.

And then there is installation and plumbing. All the different quotes contain totally different installation details. Some include all plumbing. Some include a 100 meters worth of pipes, others none at all. That doesn’t make it very easy to compare prices…

After many hours of comparing we concluded that Origin (our current energy supplier) was the best quote for us in terms of solar hot water. We could use our existing tank, and the price was certainly competitive.

I haven’t called them yet, though.

We have a bigger decision to make first.

Ceiling Suckers Photo

2008-02-19T16:56:00.001-08:00

As promised, a photo...

More ceiling work

2008-02-12T17:07:00.000-08:00

With the ceiling nice and clean now, we’ve booked the insulation people to come round early next week. They will place downlight covers over all the remaining downlights (downlights are actually quite a fire hazard since they generate a lot of heat, which may set fire to insulation if too close to the lights), and fill up the ceiling with some nice new insulation.

The new insulation has as a 3.5 R rating, which means is well within the range for the
NSW government’s $300 rebate for installing this stuff. Nice bonus.

We’re then also installing four whirly birds to such excess hot air out of the ceiling cavity. We’ve decided to use see-through polycarbon ones, as another step in deterring the rats from coming back – the critters don’t like light, so we might as well make the ceiling a slightly more unwelcoming place for them.

And just in case you're wondering, here are some pictures of the state of our ceiling before sucking and after. Note the old insulation to the right of the light used as a comfy rats' nest...

Such a Waste

2008-02-04T01:51:00.000-08:00

For about a year now, my thoughts have obsessively returned to rubbish. Kitchen rubbish, in particular.

One of the drawbacks of having a native garden is that they use very little fertiliser. In a way, the poorer the soil the better the plants seem to do. One of our precious Waratahs (not a hybrid but the local variety) is not doing too well. Turns out I should not have added any blood and bone when I planted it, the native soil I put around it is more than adequate food for it. It’s in an otherwise perfect spot, so I live in hope that the plant will pull through.

But the point is, if we collected garden waste and composted it, what would I do with it? I can’t put it in the garden, as it would kill it off. But throwing it out is, well, such a waste.

I wish our local council – Ku-ring-gai – would collect organic waste. Sure, they collect garden waste, but that’s not what I mean. In Belgium, where my folks live, kitchen waste goes in bio-degradable bags and gets collected in the weekly council garbage collection – and is turned into compost, which residents can buy at a good rate from the council. Seems like a brilliant solution to me. In our council area, many people have exotic gardens, and they would surely love the get beautiful compost at a reasonable price for their precious gardenias and azaleas. No hard yakka involved.

But Ku-ring-gai does not offer this service – yet.

I am going to start a campaign to convince them to take the idea on board – The City of Melbourne is doing it, Woollahra Council is trialling it. Come on Ku-ring-gai!

Anyway, back to my waste problem.

I have no choice but to toss it out.

But the absurdity of buying bags to throw out rubbish has long bothered me, especially as I cannot find bio-degradable bags in my supermarket. Why don’t they stock big paper bags, you know, like the ones you see handed out in American supermarkets in the movies.

So I’ve gone back to my granny’s old system. A cupboard lined with newspaper collects “wet” kitchen waste. Once I have collected a bit, generally about twice a day, I roll the newspaper around it and toss it in the kitchen bin. Dry waste goes straight into the bin, and I tip out the whole lot in the big bin for curb side collection.

This is what it looks like:

The kitchen cupboard with a pile of newspapers to collect rubbish. To the left you can just see two blue containers, they collect paper and tins and plastics (numbers 1 to 6) for curbside recycling collection.

A pile of food scraps, teabags etc ready for wrapping. Because i don't want to attract little critters, i wrap them up about two/three times a day. It wraps up in a neat little package, like so:

And then, in the bin it goes. When the kichen bin is full, i toss the whole lot straight into the big grey bin for curbside collection.

Simple, really.

Sure, I use paper to wrap the waste. But at least, it’s from a newspaper (I find the Financial Review the perfect size) which I would otherwise toss in the paper recycling bin or use for weeding in the garden. And I can’t say it’s any more smelly than the plastic bags, in fact, I think because the waste can “breathe” a bit more, the smell is less. There are no more dripping bin bags either (you know, when the smallest trear in your plastic bag leaves a smelly trail of wet drops) since the whole kitchen bin gets taken to the garbage bin.And just in case you’re wondering about the extra water use to clean the bin – I take the kitchen bin into the shower with me in the mornings, and wash out the big one every so often with the hose on the plants and grass on the nature strip- that little bit of fertilizer should be ok.

How many people can honestly say they share a shower with their bin?

Anyway, I’d better go and write our Council a letter.

Sustainability as a new Status Symbol

2008-02-03T16:54:00.000-08:00

Andreas Sederof, director of Sunpower Design, had some interesting things to say in a recent piece in the Sydney Morning Herald’s Essential Home supplement (see also previous post on the Politics of Gardening).

“There is a massive thirst out there for people who want to make their homes energy efficient” he says. ‘But it’s a question of values and priorities: do you value a $20,000 granite benchtop more than an underground rainwater tank? (…) An LSD screen [TV] costs as much as a solar hot water heater – so which is it going to be?”

We may laugh at this comparison, but we should not dismiss it too easily. Let’s take my sister in law for example. She’s a climate change campaigner. Her husband is a TV director. She wants to install a solar hot water system. He wants an LCD screen – watching movies is part of his work, and he wants to save his eyesight and sense of enjoyment with a better quality TV. They have a mortgage and two kids, and are on a budget. What to buy first?

We hate the bricks our house is made of. They are quite a bright red (which is ok) with blue/grey spots in them (not a bad colour in itself) – the combination making them quite ghastly in our eyes. It doesn’t help that some parts of the house had work done to it in a slightly different brick, and wit a different mortar. From when we bought the house, we had said that one day we’d cement render it, and lift it into this century.

But then, we started investigating solar hot water. The company that supplied the solar hot water for our swimming pool uses evacuated tubes, which are incredibly effective. So we contacted them) and they came back with a very exiting solution which would use the existing solar panels to heat our hot water, our pool, and our house. Problem is, it is also a far more expensive solution that your ordinary solar hot water system (keep an eye out in the next few weeks for a post on solar hot water). What to do? Go for a “standard” solar hot water option and render the house? Or go for this more exciting and more sustainable solution?

As Andreas Sederof points out, we are often our own worst enemies when it comes to creating eco-conscious homes.

“The real problem is our aspirational society. We do know what we need to do but have to get our values straight. It’s really a psychological-vale judgement problem.”

We want it all.

We chose size over substance. We chose for the latest fashions and gizmos. We want the big house, the plasma TV, the stainless steel kitchen appliances, the 4W Drive.

Until sustainable products become the next “must have” item, we won’t see great changes in the way we kit out our houses.

A lot of this will have to do with price.

But most of it will have to do with how society, especially trendsetters, value things.

According to Sederof, it all about educating people. But I’m not so sure. I think people need no (more) education to work out that a solar hot water system would be better than a flatscreen TV. Better for the environment, better for their wallets.

The point is, “everyone” is buying fancy TVs. The celebrities have it. The neighbours have it. I need to have it.

When will a rainwater tank gain this status?

Remember how smoking became a social no-no? We need to come to the point where being the only one in the street without a rainwater tank makes you a social outcast.

Open a home renovation magazine, watch a home renovation television programme, and you find wall mounted plasma TVs, Caesar stone kitchen bench tops with oversized taps, stand-alone luxury baths. If you’re lucky, there is a token item on sustainability – maybe on recycled timbers used in a nice home renno.

This is where we need the biggest change.

The question is: how do we make sustainability sexy?

And in case you’re wondering, my brother in law got his TV first, an early Christmas present. My sister in law decided to wait with her solar hot water system – she had a sense we might get a new government, and they had promised higher rebates for solar hot water systems. She is currently investigating which is the best system for them to buy. We have decided not to render the house and learn to live with the ugly bricks. We will incorporate the blue/grey colour into the colour scheme of the house, one day changing our tiled roof into a corrugated iron roof (and matching gutters) of that same colour. We are looking at the heat exchange system, and if we like what we see, we’ll go ahead with that in the next few weeks.

The Politics of Gardening

2008-01-31T01:22:00.001-08:00

Want to be a real enironmental rebel?

How about you take up gardening. But not just any old gardening. Native gardening.

One of the first things we did when we bought the house was to cut down some of the bigger weeds. In our eyes, every plant that grows out of its native habitat qualifies as a weed. And so, while we quite enjoy Gardenias in India, and Japanese Maples in Japan, we consider them weeds in our garden – especially since we back onto a nature reserve, and any non-local plants we have spill over into this piece of protected bushland.

So to the horror of our neighbours, we cut down some large Privet trees, some Azaleas and Rhododendrons, lots of Star Jasmine, and some large Gardenias. Now we are systematically ripping out all the smaller bushes.

In a recent piece in the Sydney Morning Herald’s Essential Home supplement, landscape designer Wendy Clarke of Dirtscape Dreaming, laments the current trend to dirt free, sterile gardens. As she is quoted in the piece:

…“if you get a garden that is designed well, and the planting is right [taking into account the micro climate and the soil in your suburb], it’s going to be low maintenance. And there’s a whole eco-system that develops when you plant the right things’ she says of the animal and insect life that finds its way there. “it’s such a joy in winter to see life out there!” She rails against the current interpretation of low-maintenance “gardens” which are concreted, paved or decked affairs.

But I’d take that one step further. Why do we have to stick our gardens full of exotic plants and trees. Sure, they are beautiful. But so are our native plants. And they are so much better for our local wildlife.

“As a society, we’re ready to give back to nature and gardening is a god, sustainable way to do this” says Clarke – exactly how we see it. For us, this means using local, native plants.

So come on, leave the cultural cringe behind. Be brave. Rip out the Camelia’s and plant some natives.

Here are some pictures of the garden when we bought the house. They will be followed soon by some pictures of the same spots now - as we are working on them.

A row of camelias - gone!

The front of the house - Camelia's, a Japanese Maple, a Magnolia and a Jacaranda, all completely overgrown with Ivy, Star Jasmine, and some other weed I don't know the name of.

The back of the house

Ceiling Suckers

2008-01-30T01:19:00.001-08:00

Next week, we’re having our ceiling sucked. If you are wondering why, you should have a look at the pictures on the Ceiling Suckers website.

Thing is, we’ve had a bit of a rat problem. And the ceiling shows it. Lots of debris, dirt, dust. And a couple of dead smelly rats. The old insulation is patchy, and full of soot from the old fireplace, and in terrible condition.

So we figured it was time to do something about it.

25% of an average electricity bill is generated by heating and cooling. We live in s typical Aussie brick veneer house, so the wall insulation ain’t too great. We have one large wall of mainly windows to the North side of the house, which lets in loads of light and warmth in winter. When we started the renovations, we had to replace all the doors and windows on that side, and inquired double glazing. With the price of double glazing being extraordinary high and the walls of the house being super thin, it just wasn’t worth the effort. But decent ceiling insulation is one thing that would make a big difference.

Which is why we’re having the ceiling cleaned next week. They guys from ceiling suckers will come, take a few tiles off the roof, and put a mighty big industrial style vacuum cleaner through the hole and suck all the dirt, dust, old insulation and dead rats out of our house. They will then disinfect the inside of the ceiling with tea tree oil (what with all the rat piss and poo) and we will let the place settle and air out for a week or so.

EnviroSaver not so free after all

2008-01-29T01:46:00.000-08:00

In my previous post, I mentioned the EnviroSaver programe. There’s a few of these companies around.

They offer a useful service. They come to your house and replace all the incandescant light bulbs for CFL lights and install water saving shower heads in every shower.

For free.

They way the business makes money is that they collect the RECs and make money off them.
Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) are an electronic form of currency initiated by the Renewable Energy (Electricity) Act 2000. RECs are created ‘by eligible parties for each megawatt-hour of eligible renewable electricity generated or deemed to have generated’ (for more details on how you can generate and sell your own RECs check out the website of the Australian Government’s Office of the Renewable Energy Regulator.

When the friendly EnviroSaver installer is done, they’ll get you to sign away the RECs you generated by changing the lights and saving the water to them, and they will trade on this electronic currency.

It’s not a bad deal. Sure, you could go and just change all your light bulbs. That costs money, and so you might not get around to doing it in a hurry. Most people would change a light bulb at the earliest when the old one blows, and even then, you’d be tempted to put an old style bulb in because you can’t find the right size or type (try finding small bayonet fitting CFL lights! It’s a true treasure hunt). You could work out the RECs you’ve generated by every light bulb switch, but let’s be honest, who wants to do that fiddly work? And then, you need to register as a RECs trading agent, and there is another whole effort.

This way, it’s all over and done with in half an hour, and doesn’t cost you a cent. You get your lights and water saving shower head for free, a nice guy or gal gets an easy job, the company makes money, and the environment benefits. Beaut.

It’s just that, in our case, the EnviroSaver prorgrame wasn’t so free.

We originally had a booking for the morning. But around the time the guy was due at the house, he rang to ask if he could change the appointment time to the afternoon. Some other jobs in our suburb and surrounding suburbs had come in, and it would make more sense to re-arrange them together.

Fine by me. We were still renovating the house and not living in it, so a few hours here or there make no difference to me.

Turned out they did.

I was feeding the baby while the man went to work, and by the time he was done, our new house was kitted out in cold CFL lights. Terrible! Ghastly.

You see, by the guy the very friendly man came round at 4 in the afternoon, he had been to quite a few houses already. He had run out of warm light bulbs. Had only cold white light left. Of the 18 lights he changed, 4 were white lights. The rest were cold.

He was very apologetic. I was a bit peeved but remained friendly.

I am not unhappy wit the service. I would, and do, recommend EnviroSaver to friends. But I do insist they only accept an early morning appointment, before the warm lights run out.
One by one, we changed all the cold lights in the rooms we actually use. We have a large collection of them left for use in the garage and laundry. Probably enough to last us a life time.

Down with the downlights

2008-01-26T13:54:00.000-08:00

One of the first things we did when we bought the house, before we even started the other renovations, was to change from incandescent to energy efficient compact fluorescent (CFL) globes. They last 6-10 times longer and use 80% less energy than standard globes. We got most of the lights replaced for free by EnviroSaver – although unfortunately they gave us mainly cold white light bulbs. While this was fine while the house was being renovated, we quickly went round and replaced them with warm white lights – so that wasn’t so “free” for us after all…

When we bought this house, it had 23 downlights. Just a bit over the top. I mean, they give a nice enough light but were designed to spot-light a particular area, and not for lighting up a room. They are just too wasteful,

The halogen lights used in downlights turn 80% of the power they use into heat, using only 20% to make light. This means that not only are they consuming vast amounts of energy that doesn't produce light, they make your air-condition work harder as they heat up the ceiling. Most downlights will hold a 50w halogen – while that may seem ok, with our 23 downlights this would add up to 1150w used only on lighting. Granted, you don’t have them all on at the same time, but it still seems a bit over the top.

So in a first step, we went through the house and thought about which downlights we really needed, and disconnected the ones we though we could do without. We disconnected two out of four in our bedroom, one in the kids’ hallway, and another five in the kitchen/dining/living area, bringing us down to 15 downlights all over the house, which takes us to 750w. We physically removed the lights and had a plasterer fill the gaps in the ceiling. When the kids are back at school, we’ll have the ceilings (and some other areas of the house that need it) re-painted.

The next step is to install more energy efficient halogen lights in the remaining downlights. We’re currently trialling some energy efficient 20w halogen downlights that use 40% of the electricity of a 50w halogen and provide about 80% of the light output. The 20w down light is the perfect energy efficient low voltage lighting solution. The downlight lasts 4 times longer than a normal halogen. And at 15 lights remaining, this would take us to 300w to turn them all on. Definitely better on that count!

Mind, these lights do not give 1:1 replacement light for a 50W Halogen light. They provide about 85-90% of the light output of a 50W Halogen, and the beam spread is 36 degrees as opposed to 60 degrees by most 50W halogens. This means they are very bright directly underneath, but their beam is not as wide. Still, seeing that we use most of these lights to spot-light the paintings on our wall (which is after all what downlights were originally designed for) that’s just fine by us.
Another option we’re trialling are LED lights.

The Luxeon LED down light use less than 6% of the energy (and heat output) of a standard halogen globe. These globes are dimmable and provide light similar to a 20W halogen globe. The 3W Warm Luxeon LED down light is designed to be a socket drop-in replacement for the traditional halogen lamps. Again, these lights do not give 1:1 replacement light for a 50W Halogen light. They provide about 50% of the light output of a 50W Halogen and the beam spread is about 35 degrees as opposed to 60 degrees by most 50W halogens. But then, at only 3w (for the warm light ones, you can get 1w cold white lights, but this is where I draw the line) our 15 lights would come down to a staggering 45w.

You can find more information - and order both these lights - on Todae, a company that provides a range of ecologically sustainable products and services from soap to solar panels!)
So we have ordered some energy efficient halogens, and some LEDs, and we will see which ones we like most. Stay tuned…

Working List

2008-01-25T13:36:00.000-08:00

I’ve been silent on this blog – because we’ve been working hard at some sustainability issues over these Summer Holidays.

We’ve made a list of ten things we can do to make the house more sustainable. In doing this, the pie chart from SolarHarvest (see previous post called Green Power) has been very useful for us to determine the most important issues.

Here is our list, not in order of importance:

- Install solar hot water system
- Install an (underground) rainwater tank
- Connect a heat/cold converter to solar hot water and rainwater tank
- Reduce number of downlights and install LED downlights
- Insulate roof
- Install whirly birds on the roof
- Install PV cells on the roof
- Seal the floorboards
- Convert our pool to a natural swimming pool
- Made garden as native as possible, but allow for a (contained) vegetable garden and compost

During these holidays, we’ve made some significant progress on about half of these issues. I will write about them in the next few days.

More on Nappies

2007-11-27T15:18:00.000-08:00

Yes, it really never is that simple.

After asking my Moltex nappy supplier some questions yesterday, I got a call from them this morning. They dispute the "100% biodegradable" claim from the Safeties Nappies - stating that they use the same tabs as the Moltex, and they are simply not degradable. It is interesting that the Safeties website does recommend to take the tabs off... If this is true, Safeties are more like 95% degradable and the 100% claim is, strictly speaking, a lie.

Secondly, while Safeties are an Australian nappy in the sense that they were invented and developed here, the lady from my Moltex supplier insisted that the Safeties are actually made in China. Hmm, that changes things a bit for me. I am pretty sure working conditions (both environmentally and socially) are better in Germany than China.

I have asked Safeties to clarify these questions. I will let you know when I hear back from them.

Biodegradable disposable nappies

2007-11-27T03:06:00.000-08:00

The impact of disposable nappies on the environment is significant. Australians use around 800 million nappies per year. Australians use Two thousand disposables and pull-ups every two minutes. Consequently, nappies are the third most common item found in landfill.

Bit of a shocking idea, isn’t it.

I’m not particularly proud of it, but after using cloth nappies for my first two kids I reluctantly gave up when baby number three came along. I was drowning in laundry, and a pile of smelly nappies was simply too much to cope with.

Thankfully, I could ease my conscience by buying Moltex eco-nappies. They are more expensive than the bog-standard ones, but that was ok. Conveniently, eco-direct home-delivers, so apart from the extra cost, it was a win-win situation all round. To give you an idea of the price, Moltex Maxi Nappies (7-18kgs) - 126 nappies per box retail at $ 86.85 – and there is a discount for bulk orders.

The Moltex have a breathable backsheet is made from 100% biodegradable material, and 20% of the absorbent granules in the core of the nappy has been replaced by specially developed environmental granules based on maize starch.

Moltex Eco Nappies are compostable; the inner contents of the nappy have proven to breakdown to make excellent compost within 8-10 weeks in a wormery (for further details see ‘Composting of Eco Nappies’ ).

But then, the Safeties Nature Nappy has hit the market – they are 100% biodegradable and Australian made.

The Safeties Nature Nappy was developed by an Australian mother (you may remember seeing her and her nappies on the ABC TV programme “New Inventors”). It is a fabric-based nappy (not paper-based), a unique approach that makes this disposable nappy 100% biodegradable (according to the webiste, it breaks down within six to eight months, depending on soil conditions). I like the idea that it’s fibre based nappy, as I have always found the cloth nappies so much softer and more comfortable.

They can be ordered via the Nature’s Child website and be bought in (most) IGA supermarekets.

Although I have been a loyal “Moltex mother” I have just ordered my first box of Safeties. I am impressed by the Safeties’ – 100% biodegradable is unique, as far as I can tell, and off course, the nappy is Australian rather than German – nothing personal, but I’m going on the assumption that there are less transport miles involved in getting the Aussie nappy to me, and is therefore the more environmental one to buy.

Unfortunately, I can’t quite be sure. The Moltex is the only disposable nappy (so far) which has been licensed by GECA to carry the Good Environmental Choice Ecolabel - the only environmental labelling program which indicates the environmental performance of a product from a whole product life perspective.

So far, the Safeties Nature Nappy’s respective materials have been tested by various international organisations and obtained:

- The Certificate for use of the ‘OK COMPOST' conformity mark by AIB Vincotte International
- Granted the AFSI seal of approval for sustainable agriculture
- Certified by the Organic Materials Accreditation Society in 2006

I don’t know if those labels look the whole product life cycle, and if any of them take into account air-miles. Why are these comparisons always so tricky?

toilet paper

2007-11-19T03:26:00.000-08:00

My sister-in-law sent me this interesting post on toilet paper. Yes, toilet paper. It might only be the stuff you wipe your bottom with, but the paper you chose is a very serious environmental issue.

Surely we don’t need to cut down forests for toilet paper. And does the stuff really need to be bleached pure white?

Having travelled in India, I have tried the water bottle. It’s definitely more hygienic, and probably less wasteful. But I have to admit that I’m just not comfortable feeling vaguely wet after each toilet visit. I tried having a towel next to the toot, but that seemed to cancel out the hygiene gains.

So we’ve been buying SAFE recycled toilet paper since we arrived in Australia. I’ve been pretty happy with it. I know there is another one called Naturale, but our local supermarket doesn’t stock it.

But what I don’t get is this – why is the SAFE 100% recycled toilet paper packaged in plastic, while their 30% recycled one comes packed in paper. Does that make sense to you? I don’t understand, so I’ve emailed the company to ask them. I’ll let you know if I get a reply.

Feral Friends

2007-11-05T15:58:00.000-08:00

I'm pleased to be able to report that pest companies have become far more "green" and animal friendly.

We've got some issues at the moment with furry visitors.

There are some critters with small scratchy feet living above our bedroom - probably rats, possibly some possums as well. The pest control guy came round the other day, and put in a very fast working rat poison - not very nice for the rats, but hey, at least it goes fast. He also told us what to do to keep the creatures out and prevent the problem. So I'm clearing the weedy mess at the side of the house, and the builder is coming round to give the roof the once over and seal any gaps. Thing is, the poison hasn't done a thing, which makes me wonder if it isn't some other animal in there - a possum, or possibly the water dragon? I don't know if they go into roof spaces, but I can't see why not.

We're also installing a termite prevention system that sets a circle of baits around the house and traps the termites before they get into the building. That way, we can hopefully prevent having to use nasty chemicals to keep the house free of white ants.

But the biggest improvement seems to be in catching snakes.

This is one of those "be careful what you wish for" stories.

When the rodent catcher came round on Wednesday, I half-jokingly asked him if he didn't have a nice Diamond Python for us to re-locate into our roof. You see, they are native snakes, they are not poisonous, and just love eating rodents. They are the absolutely best way to rat and mice proof your house. Unfortunately, they are a protected species, and you can't just go and pick one up from somewhere. Mind you, if he had to catch one as part of his job and re-locate one, I'd volunteer to house it. Still, Buckley's chance.

So on Thursday morning, I'm scooping some leaves out of the pool, and spot a shedded snake skin on the wood chips by the side of the pool. I figure I'd better pick it up to try and find out what type of snake it is - and off course my youngest son wants to take the skin to preschool for "Show and Tell". As I grab it, the bottom part breaks off and slides under the pool. Right.

Unfortunately, I didn't get a glimpse of the colour of the snake - and this is quite important. Had it been black, we would have a Red Bellied Black Snake, which is fine. But if it's brown, we could have a Whip Snake, which is OK, or a Brown Snake, which is definitely not OK- it's the most dangerous and aggressive snake in our area. They don't like woody areas very much, so the chances are small, but still. With my kids running around that area, I'm not going to take any chances.

So I got the pest control guy to tell me how to best catch a snake. In the olden days (and probably still so on many a property out in the bush, you put some milk in a half opened tin can (with the lid pushed it). The snake will crawl in the tin, but not manage to get out. Problem is, no one else will get it out either (not without cutting it) and you have to kill the animal. That's not quite what I had in mind. So the pest control guy send round the feral animal catcher, who set a nice, full body snake trap next to my pool today. He'll be back in about three days from now to come and check on the mouse, and see if we've caught a snake. We can then have a good look for identification, and then decide if it's safe to keep or not. But the best thing is, the mouse is perfectly fine. The snake can't actually get to it. The mouse has a cage within the cage. It's got bedding, water, food - and even a some rolled up piece of linoleum over it to keep it dry. The mouse will get replaced with another one in three days - it's like an indoor and outdoor play time schedule for mice. They look after their mice, these feral animal catchers. They need them again. Isn't that nice to know?

Here is to animal-friendly snake catching!

So here is a pic of the snake skin (it broke into 3 pieces) and the New! Improved! view from our bedroom window - towards the snake trap.

Green Power

2007-11-02T03:26:00.000-07:00

I’ve started to religiously turning everything off at the power point. You see, as of today, we’re on Green Power. We chose to go with Origin’s Green Earth Solar, which sources 100% photovoltaic energy. We’ve been comparing the various green power schemes on performance and price – and despite the significant extra cost – 6.13 cents a kilowatt hour and no off peak! – we recon it’s the way to go. We have been comparing energy retailers’ corporate environmental performance and the position of their Green Power products – and the various Green Power prices.

Origin perform best on the Electricity Retailers’ Corporate Environmental Performance and their Green Earth Solar (100% solar) and Plus (100% wind) are market leaders on 100% new green energy to replace 100% of our energy use. Australian Inland score well on the performance, but their top rated product is a combination between wind and photovoltaic – nice, but seeing that we live in sunny Australia, we prefer solar – plenty of availability and no issues with birds and fan style sun shading. So in the end, we decided on purely environmental reasons, and will have to adapt our lifestyle accordingly to deal with the cost.

Going on Green Earth Solar means our electricity bills will about triple in size. That makes you think twice about wasting energy. So from now on, it’s everything off at the power point when not in use – this is where these on/off switches on power points are so handy. I don’t know why we didn’t have them in Europe when I grew up. Timers where possible – especially on energy guzzling appliances such as the pool filter.

It’s also the incentive to deal with our hot water – the most expensive electricity using item – and get a solar hot water system. Here – courtesy of Solar Harvest – is why:

Energy consumption %’s in a typical home

Mind you, doing that probably means a new roof. You see, before installing another hot water system on the roof (we have one for the pool heating) it might be wise to put a new roof on. The tiles on the roof are tired, and we know we’ll need a new roof (we’ll go white metal – but that’s another story) in the next 5 to ten years. So we need to look at doing that sooner than later. We also need to decide which type to use – a thermosiphon panel and tank on the roof is nice, because it uses gravity rather than a pump to transport the hot water from the roof to the tap - but then a pumped system would allow us to continue to use our current tank, which is solar convertible. It would be a shame to throw away a perfectly fine and relatively new tank. And then, if there is space left on the roof and the price is not too extravagant, I’d like to install some photovoltaic panels to run thepool filter and pump – and that’s another set of issues to consider, and a post for another day!

But in the meantime I’m looking for a power extension cord with an on/off switch, you know, like on the wall-mounted power points. You see, I’d love to be able to turn off the oven and microwave at the power point, seeing that they’re more often unused than not, and I really don’t need their little clock. But these appliances are built-in, and there is no way I can reach the power point. But if there was an extension cord with an on/off switch half way, I could manage to pull that forward through the gap between the microwave and the cupboard and turn it off after use. Just haven’t’ managed to find one. A gap in the market maybe? That’s what I thought, trudging through my local hardware stores. But don’t you just love the internet. Guess what – someone has invented just the thing I’m looking for. It’s called an eco-switch and I’m buying one! Pity the website doesn’t list a price or has online ordering, though – unlike another nifty gadget I came across called a Power Genie, which at $60 seems a good buy.

While we’re on the issue of power points, let me tell you about this great find – a four point power board with individually timable sockets. Apart from the complicated instructions it’s a brilliant thing, especially for the TV corner. One power socket is programmed to switch on from 5am to 12 midnight. It runs the radio, without which I cannot live. The other three are timed to run between 4pm and 12 midnight only, and they hold the TV, the DVD and the Hard Drive recorder. Not only does this save money and hassle (although off course the timer uses some energy) it very effectively deals with the kids’ requests for the TV. It either works – and then they are allowed to watch – or it doesn’t – in which case no amount of whining can turn the TV. It makes my life endlessly easier!

We had a visitor this afternoon

2007-10-26T03:26:00.001-07:00

And isn't it a beauty? I'd never seen this Kookaburra so close to the house before. We had some spectacular storms this afternoon, and this little fella came to shelter under the eaves of the house. At one point a Currawong came to challenge the Kookaburra, but I'm pleased to say that he won and the Currawong cleared off. I love these birds and I hope it will come and visit us again.

Pondering Oranges

2007-10-26T03:06:00.000-07:00

I was standing at the fruit shop this afternoon, pondering oranges.

On the left were the imported ones from the US. The label didn't say which region, but I assume either Florida or California. The ones on the left were proudly advertised as “Australian grown”.

Both looked beautiful in those pyramids only green grocers seem to be able to balance. Their price was the same. I’m sure the tasted pretty much the same.

But which ones to buy?

Taking into account food miles of the American oranges, and the precarious situation our Aussie farmers find themselves in with the current drought, I should do the patriotic thing and chose the home grown ones. But then, there is a bigger question here. Should I really support a very water-intensive industry in this dry country? Should we really be growing oranges in Australia? Would we be better off to pay our farmers in dry areas to re-vegetate their farms with native bushland and harvest and sell native foods and run native animals (the export market in Emu and Kangaroo meat seems viable enough, judging from the freezers I saw on my last visit to Europe). Not that I can see Aussies going totally native in their food consumption…

Even so, if we went along that route the land space for growing our food significantly decreases – and aside from the political vulnerability that would expose us to, importing all our food can’t be environmentally sensible or sustainable either. We’re too far away from everywhere, and the energy needed to bring this food to Australia (transport, packaging, refrigeration, etc.) must be enormous.

So there I am, letting these thoughts run through my head standing in front of the oranges.

Which ones to buy?

In the end, I chose the Ozzie ones. Do you think I made the right decision?

A whole new blog, a whole new set of issues

2007-10-22T17:18:00.000-07:00

Yes, I've started another blog. I've been looking for a blog in which someone like me describes the daily dilemmas of trying to live a more sustainable life. I haven't found one, so the logical conclusion is to write my own.

What I've been looking for is a record of the little things in life, the little decisions that make a difference, and the choices we have to make. Sometimes the answer is not that clear-cut, and I was hoping for some guidance and ideas. Let me explain what I mean.

When I had my first child, I was adamant that he would go in cloth nappies. It was the environmental thing to do. I only ever used the odd disposable one when traveling. With number two I was probably even more righteous, basking in the glory that the second one was able to use the same nappies, and that I've been such a good girl seeing this commitment through. By then, questions had started to surface, looking at the whole life-cycle of a nappy, and the cloth suddenly wasn't the clear winner anymore (what with energy and water use for growing cotton and washing factored in). Still, I persisted. Then number three came along, and with mountains of laundry already, I gave up. My guilt was appeased by the fact that the total life-cycle analysis had come out even on the cloth vs. disposable debate, with lots of additional questions. Cotton or bamboo? Bleached or un-bleached? Organic? And what about air-miles?

So I sold the cloth nappies and now use bio-degradable unbleached disposables. Sure, they cost more than your average supermarket variety. But they are good, handy, and I could toss them on the compost heap if I had one (and there you have a whole other dilemma, which will feature soon).

This is the sort of stuff I'd like to write about, with links to various organisations, products, and debates - and maybe someone will find it helpful to make up their mind. Here's to greenie blogging.