Renew Magazine

Last issue we invited green investment property owners to send a description of what they’ve done to make their investment property more water and energy efficient for tenants.

Entries were judged on the environmental benefit of these retrofits and the initiative shown. There was no doubt that most were full of bright ideas, including the home where tenants put a sign on the garage door indicating if the solar hot water electric boost is on or not. Several indicated that being a Green Landlord doesn’t stop once a house is retrofitted then leased, with one organising a Climate Smart Home Service so tenants could track their energy use and another encouraging tenants to sign up to GreenPower.

While most landlords said they were acting volutarily, making the home more energy and water smart because they believe it is the right thing to do, we want to find out what the incentives and barriers might be for the greening of Australia’s rental homes in years to come. Do rebates help? Are investors receptive to improving their rental properties? And can real estate agents assist? We’ll be looking at this in more detail next issue with the release of an Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute report about sustainable rental housing.

Until then, meet more green landlord entrants as they share their rental retrofits; just follow the links at the end of this post.

Green Landlord winner Shane Merrick says:

My wife and I are very keen to help the environment as much as possible where we can and decided to reduce the footprint of our Hampton investment property for future tenants.

Water saving
We installed a greywater system so the shower water is diverted directly onto the garden bed where it soaks into the sandy soil. This helps to keep all the plants and ferns alive, even during Melbourne’s hot summers. We’ve also diverted the downpipe water into the front garden beds, meaning the front garden is now virtually maintenance free when it comes to watering. Native plants were planted around the house and have survived really well, with the shower and downpipe water being the only water they receive.

A dishwasher was installed to reduce water use as we found out that dishwashers actually use less water than hand washing. Some people are concerned that dishwashers use too much power, so we bought a model with an eco wash cycle that uses considerably less power than the standard cycle. Low-flow shower heads have also been installed.

Insulation
Double insulation was added to the upstairs attic room, with aircell placed under the colorbond sheets as well as polyester batts in the roof and walls. With this amount of insulation, upstairs no longer needs heating in winter, as the heat rising from downstairs is more than enough to keep the place warm. Door seals were added to reduce any drafts.

Solar hot water
A gas boosted solar hot water system was installed, so for about six or more months of the year the tenants have free hot water when the gas boosting is not used. The system uses minimal gas, so much so that the gas company thought the meter must have been faulty and came and replaced it. The meter was not faulty and the tenants continue to enjoy very low gas bills.

Solar air flow
We installed a SolarVenti unit in the lounge room to help warm the house and circulate fresh air, mainly during winter when tenants often have all the doors and windows closed.

Smart lighting
Energy efficient light bulbs have been installed throughout the house. A single light bulb hangs from the centre of the ceiling in each room with an energy efficient fitting; we can turn on all the lights in the entire home and use less than 200 watts of power. I don’t know of any other house in Melbourne that can make that claim.

Another small thing we did was install a clothes line so the tenants don’t need to use a clothes dryer. We stayed in the house while making it more eco friendly, so we could be sure that all the changes were easy to live with and worked properly.

Green Landlord winner Shane Merrick wins two 65 watt, 12 volt solar panels valued at $700. A special thank you to Low Energy Developments for the prize.

ReNew Green Landlord finalists and selected entrants

Sarah Lamshed and Sarah Burrowes

Justin Clareburt (nominated by Ngaire McGaw)

Helena Bender (nominated by her tenant Isabel Guller)

Hartley Press

Gill Read and Mick Robertson

Denise McKenna

Read the article in ReNew 114

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

Green landlords are appearing in greater numbers across Australia, underlining that rental properties need not be neglected when it comes to sustainability.

ReNew is calling on people with green investment properties to contact the magazine and go in the running to win the Green Landlord Award.

To enter send us a description of what you’ve done to make your investment property more water and energy efficient for your tenants and the benefits of these changes. The entries can come directly from landlords, or tenants can nominate landlords to us.

Email entries of less than 300 words to renew@ata.org.au by Friday, November 5.

ReNew’s Green Landlord will win two 65-watt, 12-volt solar panels with a prize value of $700, with the winner announced in ReNew’s issue 114 in December. Thanks to Low Energy Developments for donating the prize.

For more information email renew@ata.org.au.

To complement ReNew’s call for green landlords, Green Moves is offering a half price listing for any suitable rental property that is listed on their website between now and 31 March 2011. If you’re a landlord and you have a ‘green’ rental property coming available, contact Danie at Green Moves on (03) 9024 5515 and take advantage of this great offer. Or if you have a rental property but it’s not that ‘green’, give Green Moves a call anyway and they’ll help you ‘go green’.

Want more information on green renting or being a greener landlord? Try these:

• ATA’s Sustainability rebates page gives details of federal and state government water, solar hot water and photovoltaic rebates available in your state
• Tax deductions for energy efficiency improvements in rental properties
• ATA’s Renters’ Guide to Sustainable Living (free PDF download)
• The Victorian Green Renters’ Guide: Sustainable living tips for renters, produced by Environment Victoria (free download or printed copy)
• Green Renters: an online resource for those who wish to live sustainably in rental property
• Just Change: giving renters and landlords the tools they need to access the many energy efficiency schemes available in Victoria
• “What about tenants?” Article in ReNew 102
• “Just change for tenants” Article in ReNew 108
  

Visit Murrnong photo gallery

ReNew’s Open House Day was a resounding hit with locals and out-of-towners, nearly 400 of whom visited the open houses in Castlemaine in Central Victoria. But it was Murrnong, with its singular combination of architect-designed houses, sustainable features and co-operative living, that was arguably the scene-stealer of the day.

Legend has it that the queues to get into Murrnong were so long that punters had brought picnic baskets. Carolyn Neilson, who lives at Lot 2 at Murrnong, laughs at this. “It was great to have so much interest. It really validated what we’re doing. And it was wonderful for the kids to see that much enthusiasm about their home.”
Bought in 2003, Murrnong—which means yam daisy in an indigenous language—is a modest housing development of four individual blocks on 10 acres of partly-cleared bushland within walking distance of Castlemaine town centre. It operates under a registered body corporate plan which provides a framework for the community to evolve, and offers useful lessons to those interested in striking out in a similar direction.

Read the full article in ReNew 113

John Morgan joined the ATA in its first year in 1980 and has been a member ever since. While that involvement has spanned three decades, John says his interest in renewable technology has been more like 50 years, first triggered by an article in Radio Television and Hobbies magazine in 1960 (price two and six pence) about a home-made solar hot water system. John, completely taken by the article called ‘The solar heater, how to build it’ showed it to a friend in Fremantle where he was living at the time. His mate built the system, having previously heated his water with a wood heater. This experience triggered John’s interest in all things renewable: “Fifty years ago we didn’t have systems like this,” he says.

Pioneer
John describes himself as an “electronic hobbyist since the year dot.” Another apt description might be that John is ahead of his time, a pioneer of sorts, for solar power.

John’s first career was as a teacher, starting with a primary school class of 73 students in 1956 and then moving on to secondary schools, specialising as a physics teacher. In 1976 he devised a major project on solar power for his Year 11 physics class, with students building solar-powered appliances such as solar ovens and water heaters, using parabolic dishes as solar collectors. The students roasted a chicken in their very own solar oven and the project was repeated in years to come. John continued to lead the way on sustainability education, incorporating climate change topics into his classes from the mid-1980s. “Kids would go home, read the meter and report back,” he says. “My main point (back then) was that when students got married and went to build a house, that they would build a sensible house.”

Future-proof housing
John’s own passion for a low impact future shows through three homes he has designed, two of which he built. While there is renewed interest in buried pipe cooling systems today, John installed a simple buried pipe system under his new home in 1982. The Morgans were rebuilding after their Dandenongs home was destroyed in a house fire. When the drainage contractor was digging a trench for the new home John saw an opportunity to lay some interesting pipe work. “Do me a favour and dig that thing a foot deeper than usual,” he said to the contractor. John lay some 90mm PVC pipe in the trench. The contractor came back the next day to install the drainage pipes on top and filled it in with dirt. John’s PVC pipes came up through the slab floor and vented cool air into the house. “It was an idea I had in mind for years,” he says. “It worked well enough but was soon abandoned as the house was able to manage to stay cool itself.”

John’s next house was at Musk near Daylesford. It was built during the recession in 1992 so a combination of friends helping with the build and using recycled materials kept the costs down. John and Belinda installed a RAPS system on this home, a 2kW photovoltaic system, and have been living off the grid ever since. The property featured a micro hydro turbine until it was decommissioned in 2004 when rainfall dropped substantially. The reverse brick veneer house was the site for the first Sustainable Living Fair in 1998 (now known as the annual Sustainable Living Festival) when 6000 people visited over two days. The organisers expected around 600 people. Nevertheless John was more or less the perfect host, showing as many groups around the property as was humanly possible.

While the design for his current home, completed in 2008, was going through the planning process, it achieved a home energy rating of 9 Stars according to the FirstRate software. “It’s probably at least 9.5 or 10 Stars now with these drapes I’ve added.” I tell him that I haven’t come across any other Australian homes with such a high rating (a new compulsory 6 Star rating is only just being introduced in all states). “No I haven’t either,” he says casually, quite comfortable to be ahead of the pack.

The house looks to the future both in name and intention. It’s named Galaxy Hill because the local area has good skies for star gazing; he hopes to build an observatory at home one day. “It’s a climate changed house,” he says. “I’ve designed it to take on board changes in the climate.” The house has views of the 129 turbine Waubra wind farm just fifteen kilometres to the east. A few kilometres to the south of his property, possibly visible above the treetops, will be a smaller 29 turbine windfarm. It’s fitting that John’s retirement property will end up with views of wind turbines on two sides, although he chose the site because of its excellent solar and wind power potential.

Read the full article in ReNew 112.

It’s a combination of rainwater, greywater and a little bit of mains water than keeps this suburban garden absolutely thriving. Keeping a garden alive in dry periods is one thing, but taking it to the next step and growing healthy produce with minimal water requires some planning.

Household greywater is used every day in this garden and has made a big difference. Karen specialises in designing and installing edible gardens and importantly, helping people learn how to grow and maintain their own veggies, fruit and herbs. Her philosophy on gardening is very much tied in with sustainability and the fact that sourcing food locally can help the planet by reducing transport emissions. Through years of experimentation she can judge just how much water is needed for an abundant crop of fruit and veg.

Karen and partner John had enough hands-on expertise to design and construct their own greywater system. Greywater can’t be stored longer than 24 hours, so the system is only big enough to hold a day’s worth of water. The header tank holds between 180 and 200 litres, with an overflow going to the sewerage system. Karen keeps track of how much water has gone into the header tank each day to ensure a minimum of wastage from overflow.

Sourcing water
The first problem was water. There wasn’t any. Six hundred metres from the house there is an old well and a water tank but they are both dry. Our neighbour, who lived here as a child, told us that when she was little the well could fill the tank (approximately 20,000 litres) in 24 hours. “What happened?” I asked. “It stopped raining” came the reply.

So the next step was to choose which options to take to get water here. Option one was to apply for permission to dig a bore hole. Now, after three and a half years of living in Spain, I know from first hand experience that bureaucracy here is a profound form of social cohesion, it binds and glues society together rendering them unable to move. So the prospect of getting permission for a bore hole was slight and distant. Besides, something told me that this wasn’t the best ecological solution.

We decided to harvest rainwater from the roof. A search on the internet turned up an excellent document called Rainwater Tanks, their selection and maintenance by the Department for Environment Heritage and Aboriginal Affairs, Government of South Australia. It helped us to calculate our potential water consumption and it guided us on how to calculate our average rainfall over the last ten years multiplied by the area of roof surfaces we had to utilise. Then we could work out our tank size.

Hot water

Hot water is produced in two ways. Firstly, to maximise the potential of the climate, we installed a solar evacuated tube system which produces 600 litres of hot water a day without any problem most of the year. In our short winter it still heats this body of water by 30%.

As a backup and to heat the house (winters at this altitude can be very cold), we installed two giant bio-mass wood burners. We could have saved ourselves a lot of effort and opted for pellet burners, but after the hike in the price of fuel last year we didn’t want to be at the behest of market forces. Plus, for the capacity we needed we would have to store huge quantities in an unsightly hopper outside. We are surrounded by acres of pine and almond which we thin and prune, and the Ferroli TL19 wood burners can take lengths of wood up to a metre which reduces the need to cut and chop fuel. These boilers operate an underfloor heating system which is fantastic. In winter I can burn less than a cubic metre of wood and the house stays warm for 24 hours. We also cook on a wood burning range that contributes to the heating system.