Renew Magazine

But at night and on weekends he becomes a committed and feverish blogger, informing the world and giving practical tips on cheese making, apple growing, chooks, DIY backyard building and many other
sustainability topics.

The father of four, from Melton in Victoria, has been named Australia’s best green blogger after a national competition by ReNew magazine.

He started The Greening of Gavin in 2008 as part of a dramatic change in lifestyle after seeing the documentary, An Inconvenient Truth.

“I was a conspicuous consumer before I saw the movie,” he says. “It was a wake-up call. Why did I not know more about climate change? I decided to do my own research to understand the politics and human side of it all.”

Within months Gavin had bought a hybrid car, converted his hot water system to solar, installed solar panels on the roof of his house and ripped up the lawns to plant vegetables and fruit trees.

He has written more than 1000 blog posts since starting The Greening of Gavin, on subjects as diverse as peak oil, home-made spaghetti, Christmas gift ideas for the anti-consumer, worm
farms and bread making.

“I’m just an ordinary bloke. I try to show what can be done at home, and if I can do it anybody can if they have the space or inclination.”

Jacinta Cleary, the editor of ReNew, congratulated Gavin on his outstanding blog:

“This blog has a lot of heart. It’s not just about the practical changes that Gavin has made at home, it is also about why he has made the sustainability shift in what he describes as a journey of highs and lows.”

Read the full wrap up on ReNew’s Blog of the Year comp here

We wash our clothes at night when the rate’s at 20c per kilowatt-hour, we don’t have a dryer so use the clothes line or, if it’s wet, the clothes horse in front of the fire. We turn everything off at the power point (including microwave) except the fridge and freezer. We don’t usually have the TV on until after 6pm, unless babysitting, but usually have the radio on.

We also power whatever we can using 12 volts from the stand-alone system. This includes 12 volt hand drills (converted cordless drills), fluoros over workbenches, charging cordless phones, charging cordless headphones, charging our Coleman camping lamp, running the CD/tuner, two 12 volt LED downlights and the media player and hard drive (they have voltage regulators built in and will operate from 11.8 to 14.5 volts). We also have a 12 volt to USB adaptor, with various leads to charge ipods and mobile phones.

I have also run a 12 volt feed from the batteries to our patio which powers our patio lights (I’ve removed the transformer) and a CD/tuner, which was a freebie from a mate. We also have a 12 volt pump for watering the garden.

My wife has finally sorted out all the paperwork with our supplier, after they buggered up the last couple of bills, so soon we will be able to see how much we are really saving.
Lee Saville

Panel orientation makes a difference!

I suspect a lot of people overestimate solar PV output for east and west facing panels. I recently recorded some figures when I stayed with friends near Coonabarabran in NSW (latitude 31°S).
On the property are two systems. Both have the same monocrystalline panels, with six panels in each system and no shading from buildings or trees. One system faces north with a 30° panel tilt and the other faces east with the same tilt. Both were connected to the grid in July 2011.

In 72 days, the north-facing panels produced 427kWh while the east-facing panels produced 310kWh, so the output from the east-facing panels was around 27% less.

I plan to compare the figures after they have been feeding into the grid for one year.
Ashley Campbell

Getting the units right

As a subscriber of a few years now, I’d like to congratulate you on the continuing excellence of the magazine. I look forward to its arrival every quarter.

As an engineer, I am continually irritated by people’s misuse of and misunderstanding of symbols and terminology related to energy—but not in your publication I hasten to add. I don’t think I have ever seen such misuse in ReNew except perhaps in readers’ letters.

Things like watts/hr instead of Watt-hours and the like are plentiful in the media, and especially so on the internet. Battery capacity is a particularly badly understood area. While it’s irritating, it is also understandable given that only people who followed the maths/science stream in high school are likely to have been formally taught such things. Unless you really understand the relationships between force, work, power and time it’s difficult to fully engage in discussions about energy.

My suggestion therefore is for an article or perhaps a series of articles explaining the basics of force, pressure, work and power in physical and electrical terms. I think there’s a real need for some basic knowledge to be disseminated. After all, knowledge is power (pun intended).

Anyhow, that’s my ten cents’ worth.
Neil Biggar

Thanks for the suggestion Neil, if other readers would like to see articles like this email us at renew@ata.org.au
Ed

High cost abatement PVs

I read with interest Alan Pears’ report on the concept of high cost abatement PVs (ReNew 116). I have to agree with everything he said.

What he did not cover was the fiscal side of the matter—money for greenPower is a finite resource so should be spent wisely.

Why should we as consumers pay 60c/kWh for domestic PV-generated electricity when we can get the same energy from (for example) large-scale wind for 9c/kWh? Put another way, we can pay a fixed amount per time frame (say $10 a week) and get 17kWh from PVs or 111kWh from wind. Which would you choose?

Productivity commission findings are that the abatement cost for domestic PV systems ranges from $400 to $1000 per tonne, which is very high on a global scale.

From a broad perspective, if as a society we put the same amount of dollars that have been put into domestic PV into large-scale wind, the green energy sent to the grid would have been seven-fold what we have, to say nothing of the night and winter time generation.

I am all for people having their own domestic PV systems, but why should the rest of us pay for this most expensive form of green energy?

Disclosure: I have grid-connected PV systems, for the generous feed-in tariff which all consumers are paying for.
Bruce Jeffery

Renewables better than underground cables

During the 2010 state election campaign in Victoria, the now-Baillieu government promised to implement all 67 Bushfire Royal Commission recommendations. The article in The Age on 12/09/11, Call for underground wires to cut fire risk, identifies issues being considered in relation to Recommendation 27. Instead of 20 tonne excavators digging through the bush and severely impacting fragile environments, a far better approach is to install alternate systems on properties, rather than incredibly expensive underground cabling. The cost of alternate systems could be borne by the government and the electrical transmission companies creating the rarest of outcomes: a win-win-win-win for the government, households, the electrical transmission companies and the environment.

Properties should be supplied with the appropriate systems, such as stand-alone photovoltaic (PV) systems, while others might need hybrid systems of PVs and wind, depending on the geographic location and the needs of each individual property. Residents should be fully supported to learn and manage these systems and not be lumped with a system they can’t manage. These systems should be maintained by an appropriate body for five years before becoming the responsibility of the property owner.

This approach is a far more sensible option, especially in rural/remote areas where the thousands of kilometres of underground cabling to only a few properties seems an outrageous undertaking.
Leon Trembath

We could not agree more. The ATA has been a contributing member of the Bushfire Powerline Safety Taskforce over the last 12 months, which has been considering bushfire mitigation approaches in fringe of electricity grid locations. The ATA has made the case that it will often be far cheaper for households to be provided with a stand-alone power system, under a properly managed service contract, than to pay for undergrounding or insulating of powerlines lines at hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars per kilometre.
Damien Moyse
ATA Energy Policy Manager

Reducing fridge startup current

I recently converted a freezer to a fridge; the conversion was successful, with at least a 60% reduction in energy consumed, although I would expect this to be less during summer months. When I measured the starting current it was a whopping 180 amps from my 12 volt system and at times would drop the battery voltage too low for the inverter to cope. Upon measuring the phase angle between the starting and running currents, they were only displaced by about 15°. I expect this is standard for most small fridge compressor motors, as manufacturers do not consider correcting the phase angle as most of these units are plugged into a 10 amp grid powered outlet.

After doing a bit of research and reading I found that the best angle of displacement to provide maximum torque for the motor to start is 90°. I placed a 500 volt, 6uF capacitor bank in series with the starting winding. This required breaking into the three-pin starting relay attached to the motor, breaking the circuit and drilling a hole in the mechanism to bring out a wire to connect to the capacitor bank. The other end of the capacitor I was able to attach to an external terminal on the starting unit.

This modification reduced the starting current down to 60 amps and gave a far smoother startup in less time. At the moment of starting, my 600 watt inverter did not have any trouble starting the fridge, as the shorter starting time and lower current allowed the battery voltage to remain steady.

I believe this conversion will allow people with small to medium solar energy systems and inverters to be able to use standard off-the-shelf fridges. I would be happy to forward a schematic diagram to any ReNew readers who may need to reduce the starting current and increase the torque of any induction motor which has a start-run winding.

Out of interest, my system is a 720 watt capacity photovoltaic system with a 12 volt, 800Ah (C/10) battery bank and 600 watt continuous, 1200 watt surge capacity inverter.

Peter Rusanow, electenergy@yahoo.com.au

Peter’s modification is a good example of adapting off-the-shelf equipment to be a bit more efficient and much easier to run on smaller renewable energy systems. Unfortunately, most manufacturers don’t consider the use of their equipment on renewable energy systems when they design it, preferring to keep designs simple to keep costs down (which is fair enough, as most devices will never be used on small renewable energy systems).

We should state here though that this sort of modification can be dangerous if done incorrectly and that you absolutely must have a good understanding of electrical theory and practical applications before attempting any such modifications. These modifications will, of course, void any warranty on your fridge and should such modifications cause a fire, don’t expect your insurance company to pay up!

Lance Turner

With televisions being thrown out with the rollout of digital transmission, the Federal Government has announced plans to approve a National Television Recycling Scheme by the end of the year. But is it a case of too little too late?

The Total Environment Centre estimates that over 840,000 televisions have been dumped since the digital switchover has been promoted. This is where ReNew readers come into the picture, providing some novel ideas to prevent further e-waste.

Animal boxes?

It seems that old televisions and animals go hand in hand, although only if all the toxic components have been removed. Tamra Greeson Schardl says that an old television can be used as a nest of sorts.

“One of the cleverest uses I have seen is to recycle the glass and metal ‘guts’ then use the empty case for animal beds/nests. They sit upright securely on a shelf and can be fastened down if need be. Cats enjoy sitting in the draught-free box looking out at the world in a sunny window, and hens can use them for nests.”

Entrant Jo Cutten agrees. “I think they would make great chicken laying boxes. I’m not sure what to do with the electrical innards though.”

Paul Judd had quite a special idea, and one that could take off with the right type of support.

“A friend of mine wants to send them to third world countries that still use the analogue system. I guess we have to work out saved embodied energy loss versus transportation costs.”

Fish tanks thanks

It seems the most popular use for an old television set is to transform it into a fish tank, and rightly so.

“This involves hollowing out the insides of the TV and inserting a glass fish tank within the shell. I have done this with an old TV of mine and it’s worked perfectly and has become a feature of my lounge room! This can also be done with old computer screens,” writes Michelle Brownie.

“I used my old television to make a fish tank. It works quite well actually, I even wired up the old power button for the TV to turn on the fish tank light. I’m not sure how many televisions you can save this way, but it’s a start,” writes Shane Merrick (also our Green Landlord winner see ReNew 114.) Spike Pickstock has more DIY tips.

“For fish tanks, gut the inside of any large box TV and use an environmentally friendly sealant to make the structure watertight. A hole can be put in the top to supply water, oxygen and food.”
Spike also suggests making a picture frame or a diorama frame from an old set.

Recycling

Barrie Castle gave some insights into the actual recycling of televisions and what the components are worth.

“Old TV sets can be stripped down to their component metals and be taken to scrap metal recycling centres all around Australia. They can be separated into copper (the top grade pays $7.15/kg now), aluminium (pays about $2.50/kg), PVC coated wiring (pays about $3/kg), brass (pays over $4/kg) and most of the rest, including circuit boards, goes into their steel bin ($0.20/kg). Those centres paying the most are run by volunteers, like the Scout Clubs here in Adelaide. If you’re good with tools, you too will have yourself an excellent pocket money earner whilst helping the planet.”

Art piece

Finally, one of the most imaginative ideas came from Kaylene O’Neill.

“In Melbourne a new sculpture could replace the Yellow Peril. I see a giant metal man made of old TV sets, with each screen reflecting back scenes of consumerism, landfill sites and extreme weather events. I call it Ozymandias Reborn.”

Winner—plans for a solar thermal power station

Damien Blackwell proposed a solar thermal power station be made from old TV components, and created a model to illustrate his idea, along with a poem.

“It’s about time that obsolete, gigajoule guzzling CRT TVs gave some energy back to the grid. My proposal and images explain how!

“With reference to the model solar thermal concentrator: in keeping with the ‘reuse’ theme I’ve incorporated cardboard (cores from foil, egg cartons, tissue boxes), plastics (cream and sauce containers), newsprint and ice cream sticks into the power plant. Other materials you’re likely to note include straws, paper clips, foil and black poly pipe. It’s now the centre of activity for my four-year-old son Oliver, who loves removing the ‘funnel glass mirrors’ and installing them on a private residence nearby. It’s also proving a handy tool to explain electricity generation.”

Beyond Zero Emissions says it’s doable
At just $8 per household per week
To power our country, completely renewable
Solar Thermal Concentrators will manage load at peak

In every idiot box a CRT
With a shiny outside surface
A lens to focus the sun’s energy
Heliostats-funnel glass’s new found purpose

Funnel glass will reflect sunrays
To the Power Tower
Molten salts result by days
Powering steam turbines hour on hour

Every other part will find its niche
In a STC near you
After all 12 are proposed between Carnarvon and Longreach
Giving metals, plastics and glass a chance to ReNew
poem by Damien Blackwell

With thanks

Thank you to everyone who entered the competition, and a special thank you to Enviro Shop who supported the competition by donating a $200 voucher to the winner listed opposite.

More info

If your council doesn’t recycle TVs, look elsewhere. Visit Planet Ark’s Recycling Near You website (www.recyclingnearyou.com.au) and enter your state and product type to find out the options in your area. Get your TVs, fridges and more safely recycled.

Measure power use for a day

I measured the current drawn by each piece of 12 volt equipment (all the appliances and van fixtures that would be used while we are camping away from 240 volt power). This can be measured with either a clip-on ammeter or by inserting an ammeter temporarily into the circuit (most cheap multimeters have a 10 amp DC range). Or you can simply calculate the current by using the wattage marked on the 12 volt appliance or light globe i.e. current = power in watts divided by 12 volts, e.g. the current drawn by a 24 watt light globe connected to a 12 volt battery is 2 amps.

I estimated how long (in hours) each of these appliances will be used each day and entered it in a table. Minutes can be converted into fractions of an hour by dividing them by 60,  e.g. 10 minutes = 10/60 = 0.17 hours. To calculate the amp-hour (Ah) usage for each item listed, multiply the current drawn by each appliance by the hours (or fractions of an hour) you expect to use the appliance each day. Finally, add up the ‘Approx Amp-hours usage each Day’ column to give the estimated total daily amp-hour usage figure for each day.

In the sample table (p 25), the ‘Total daily Ah usage’ came to 29Ah per day, which is rounded up to 30Ah per day. The total power required for a 14 day stay would be 30Ah x 14 days = 420Ah. In a domestic caravan it would be impractical to try and carry enough batteries to last that long because of the weight and the cost.

Finding power when bush camping

The best option was to solar power my caravan. There are some down sides to solar; most caravan systems aren’t large enough to run a microwave oven or air conditioner, so you must ask yourself ‘Can I live without those items?’ You also need a back-up system very occasionally for long stretches of cloudy or rainy days.

Knowing that we needed 30Ah per day I selected a 12 volt, 80 watt solar panel, which will supply us with around 30Ah per day (i.e. approx 5 amps x 6 hours = 30Ah) and a bit more on good sunny days. To harvest this much power from an 80 watt solar panel I found that I needed to track the sun rather than just sit the panel in one position and have the sun pass over it daily. I manually move the panel three to four times per day to maximise the power output from the panel. (For an automatic solution, check out www.campatracka.com—Ed.)

If your choice is to use a fixed panel then you may need to buy a higher wattage solar panel than I used or otherwise reduce your daily power usage. My BP 80 watt panel cost approximately $800 a few years ago, although prices have possibly come down now. Discuss what will best suit your application with the solar panel supplier.

Cloudy and no sun?

I chose a 130Ah battery. It weighs 30 kilograms, which is light enough to carry around and lasts me 4.3 days using 30Ah per day before the battery  fully discharges—normally enough time for the sun to return. I typically only rely on my battery for two days and then I reduce our daily power consumption because discharging batteries below 50% of their capacity shortens their life. To cut back on power usage we don’t use anything powered by the inverter (unless essential), don’t read so long in bed and don’t use the laptop or television as much. By following these simple steps we can easily halve our daily usage.

If it’s still cloudy after three days then I charge the caravan battery from my tow vehicle. I have installed a 12 volt MotorMate charger in my caravan next to the battery and it delivers 13.8 volts at 20 amps directly into the van battery. By running my tow vehicle motor for 30 minutes I can put another 10Ah back into the van battery, giving us enough power to last almost another day on our reduced power rations. In nearly 200 nights that we have bush camped with this set-up, I’ve only had to use this method of charging four times.

This 12 volt charging system does require quite heavy cabling and Anderson plugs between the vehicle alternator and the van charger. This is because currents of over 30amps can be required, although voltage drops aren’t very important as the charger will work with input voltages as low as 8 volts. I spent a lot of time researching this subject because I wanted to know it would work before  spending $240 on a charger.

Sharehood www.thesharehood.org
Imagine you live in a rental property with no lawn except the nature strip. You don’t own a lawn mower and can’t see yourself ever buying one. So what’s the best way to solve the dilemma of an overgrown lawn? Well Theo Kitchener had a similar problem—he didn’t own a washing machine. On the way to the local laundromat in Melbourne he wondered how many of the houses he passed would have a washing machine they would be happy to lend him. He set about letterboxing his local area to see if there was any interest in a local sharing network. He developed a website and The Sharehood was born. Theo’s solution means there is an easy solution to my lawn mower problem. I recently joined my local Sharehood at www.thesharehood.org to see what’s on offer.

Sharehood started in Australia over two years ago, is slowing spreading worldwide and is proving to be a great way to access goods and services while helping to build a local community spirit. There is even a thriving Sharehood in Cambridge in the United Kingdom. Sharing resources means less production, packaging, waste and transportation, resulting in less greenhouse gases produced and less landfill.

To learn more about this initiative I spoke to Michael Green, Sharehood volunteer and a founding member of his active and happening local Sharehood. Michael explained that The Sharehood has two main aims; building community and reducing consumption. It almost gives you an excuse to get to know your neighbours, and many benefits can flow from this. As Michael says: “Having a sense of belonging to the place where you live is profound—it can have a big impact on wellbeing”. His local share-hood holds regular events such as movie nights (where they set up a projector in a park for their own moonlight cinema), soccer games and, of course, sharing of resources.

For reasons I am unsure about, the church was moved in 1941 or 1942 by bullock dray to a small timber town called Brooweena, where it served as a Methodist church and the main place of worship. When the timber in the area began to deplete and there were only two parishioners left, the church was sold for removal and became part of Utopia Environmental Reserve, where it was used as a residence. The new owner carried out some minor alterations to the altar area which became a very basic kitchen and added a half-finished mezzanine floor above the kitchen area.

When we first looked at the church back in 2001 we realised it was going to take a lot of work, dedication and cash to get it to how we wanted it to be. One of the first hurdles we had to overcome was electricity as there was none connected and the nearest grid mains supply was about six kilometres away. As some of the other residences on the reserve had solar power, it became obvious that was the only way to go.

One of the first tasks was the installation of a dam on the three hectare site. In hindsight it was a great decision as it is now used for watering the garden and ensuring the veggie garden keeps producing, with lots of capacity to spare. Later we installed a solar pump on the dam to push the water up to a tank at the rear of the church. This was powered by a 12 volt pressure pump, the same as the ones used in yachts and other small boats. It did not deliver huge volumes of water but it was constant so long as the sun was shining. The overall setup was powered by two smaller solar panels with the use of a 12 amp maximiser kit—a great investment as it eliminated the need for batteries.

A new job meant I had to work overseas, so we closed up the place and headed off, dreaming of our new purchase and making plans for the refurbishment. On one of our annual leave return trips we decided to complete the mezzanine floor, which would eventually become our bedroom, and install a stair case which I purchased in kit form from a South Australian company.

Solar from India

We purchased our solar power system while living in India on a two-year work assignment. I wanted to purchase a system that would comfortably cover just about all the needs of a normal house, so I eventually purchased a system that was capable of a 3.6kW output. The system included fourteen 114 watt panels, a charge controller and a Latronics inverter. At the time, the Indian government had little or no sales tax on solar power equipment to encourage people to purchase systems, as their power generating infrastructure was inadequate to cope with the demand on the grid. We put our new solar system into storage for eighteen months until I came home to retire in March 2008.

There are two main problems. Firstly, heat is lost by direct radiation—warm objects inside the room radiate heat, which passes straight through the window glass to the outside.

Secondly, warm air is rapidly cooled against the glass, falling to the floor to be replaced by more warm air. This is called a convective current and it can literally suck heat out of a room as fast as you can add it. For example, if you have ducted heating, the outlets are often directly under or above the windows—this dramatically increases heat loss by increasing the temperature differential and breaking up the air layer on the inside of the window. Installing deflectors on the heating vents (around $10 each) deflects the hot air away from the window, saving up to 20% on heating costs.

Insulate those windows
Windows can be insulated in a number of ways. Covering them with thick curtains or using roller or vertical blinds is a good place to start, but they must have pelmets at the top to prevent convective currents circulating, otherwise they will do very little. However, this means that the windows are only insulated when you can’t see out of them, so you can have a well-insulated house, or enjoy your view, but not both. If you find pelmets ugly or impractical, then you may be able to fit a strip of wood or other material between the top of the window frame and the curtain rail or track.

Pleated blinds (such as the double layered Luxaflex Duettes) can seal well at the top because they can be mounted against the window frame.
External roller shutters are an alternative to curtains or blinds, but they also have the problem that once in place, they let in no light.

The ideal solution is to improve the insulating properties of the glass itself.

Having read your magazine for the last two years I have been impressed with the many good ideas that have been passed onto your readers and the ideas that reading ReNew has given me.

An idea I would like to pass onto your readers  is very simple in design and application for anybody who has a hot northern facing wall of their house or building that is heating up due to the effects of the sun (especially in summer). This of course causes the inside of the house in that room to become hot, placing an extra load on the property’s cooling system.

I started by growing lettuce in the garden bed at the bottom of the wall as this garden bed had sun all day due to its North facing position. These offered no useable shade but a very good supplement to the family dinner table.

Next we tried tomatoes, these grew very well and covered half the wall in shade giving some cooling effect and plenty of tomatoes.

Then we grew corn as they are taller, the shade was higher up the wall but the shade was not as dense as the tomatoes. The corn and tomatoes where good food crops for summer.

The best of all we found was growing climbing beans (Purple King) as I planted the beans at 10 to 20 cm intervals along the wall with bamboo garden stakes to support their growth. They soon out grew their bamboo stakes. To give them extra height I attached an aluminium angle with holes drilled at 10cm centres to the bottom of the facia directly above the length of the garden bed. From the bamboo stakes I attached garden twine and then attached the other end to the corresponding holes in the angle above. The beans have now grown to the angle and beyond, covering the wall with 100% shade. The room is now cool and not needing any additional cooling and the beans also benefit our dinner table with their produce.

This system would work all year round depending on your climate eg. Queensland all year round and during spring to summer in Victoria and can be grown in pots or garden beds, so this system could be utilised to cool any area with a north facing aspect from houses to apartment balconies and offer a great healthy supplement to the family diet.

M.McKernan, Queensland

The reason goes back to basic school physics of course—black (or dark coloured) surfaces absorb a great deal more heat energy than do white (or light coloured). Indeed, it’s not unrealistic for a black roof to reach 80°C on a hot day.

The real problem though comes from the fact that the under surface of the roof re-radiates this heat into the roof cavity of the home. Unless the home has very high levels of insulation, this heat rapidly migrates into the living spaces through the ceiling. This can be felt on hot days by touching the ceiling. It’s not unusual for the ceiling of a poorly insulated home to reach 50°C on a very hot day.

Now, all this is pretty obvious, but the reason so many homes in Australia suffer from this problem is less so. After doing some research, it became clear that there are at least three main factors in the black roof issue.

The first is that many people prefer the look of a dark roof because, as mentioned earlier, it blends into the surrounds better, although this depends on the surrounds of course. However, as can be seen in the photo above, in areas with lots of greenery, darker roofs do indeed stand out less.

The second factor seems to be the building industry. Unfortunately, the industry does tend to set trends based on what they perceive the customer wants (which is not always what they actually want or need). A great example of this is halogen downlights. Builders install these environmental disasters because they are cheap to buy and because they believe customers want a flush-fitting trendy light. The fact that they increase the running cost of the average house by hundreds of dollars a year doesn’t enter the equation.

Dark roofs come about from the same beliefs. Builders install them because they think customers want them, and customers want them because ‘the building industry always uses dark roofs, so they must be the best option’. Unfortunately, not many people put much thought into such decision processes.

The third factor is local government. Many councils have restrictions on how light a colour you can use on a roof. The main reason for this seems to be that the majority of the housing stock already has a dark coloured roof, so new buildings have to blend in to some degree.

The lack of foresight is plain to see—if no-one changes the equation, we will be stuck with dark-roofed, thermally inefficient houses for evermore.

This article first appeared in ReNew 110. Click here to read the full article including DIY options for a cool roof.

For most renters, even for those who could afford it, investing in a retrofit of their home is not viable. Spending money on another’s property without secure tenure doesn’t make much sense. Leases in Australia are typically six to twelve months long—often not enough for savings in bills to pay back an investment in energy or water saving measures.

If you rent, however, as well as approaching the landlord to request improvements, you can do some things yourself. Any alteration to the property must have the owner’s permission, and many property owners may be open to energy and water efficient improvements.

Adopting a co-operative, non-adversarial approach in negotiating with your landlord is more likely to succeed. To strengthen your argument, you can point out the benefits to the landlord, let them know of any rebates or grants available to them and possibly offer to share costs.

Five best actions tenants can take on energy

GreenPower: If paying for utilities like electricity and gas, elect to switch to accredited GreenPower. For every kilowatt-hour consumed, the company must buy or produce that amount from accredited renewable sources. The more households switching to GreenPower, the more investment in renewable technologies there will be.

Reduce energy use:

• Turn off electrical devices at the power point
• Where possible, close off the living space for winter heating and open it up for air circulation in summer. Set thermostats for optimum performance (heaters to 18-21°C and air conditioners to 25-27°C).
• Shade windows externally from summer sun.
• Change lighting to low energy options.
• Insulate your hot water pipes using lagging (available at plumbing suppliers), a thick, foam rubber tubing with a lengthways slit.

Draught-proof:

• Close gaps using door sausages or draught stoppers, weather stripping around doors and windows and caulking to seal cracks between walls, window frames and doors.
• Reduce heat transfer through windows by using heavy and/or lined, close-fitting curtains or blinds that hang to the floor, with closed pelmets at the top.
• Cover permanently open ventilation outlets
• Cover your ceiling extractor fans
• Fit a damper to functional fireplaces, or block the chimney if the fireplace is still functional

Insulate: Insulation of the walls, ceiling and floor, plus draught-proofing, will make a huge difference to your energy usage. Without insulation, your house is ‘naked’: no coat to stay warm in winter and no protection from the sun’s heat in summer. Where the landlord will not invest in insulation, tenants may have to improvise.

Double-glaze (well, sort of): DIY bubble wrap ‘double glazing’, or transparent membrane ‘double-glazing’. This latter is a tough, clear membrane that attaches to the existing inside window frame using double-sided, clear adhesive tape, and then is shrunk to be taut and smooth with a hair dryer. It is a cheap, do-it-yourself solution with instructions provided (for more information go to www.clearcomfort.com.au). According to the manufacturers, you will have 11% more efficient cooling and 17% more efficient heating when correctly installed.

Read the full article in ReNew 102