Buyers guides
The key to thermal performance: Insulation buyers guide
Is your home hot in summer and freezing in winter? It probably has little or no insulation. Lance Turner takes a look at how insulation can help.
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Buyers guides
Hot water savings: Efficient hot water buyers guide
If your old hot water system has seen better days, maybe it’s time for an efficient replacement. We show you how solar and heat pump hot water systems work, what’s available and how to choose one to best suit your needs.
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Efficient homes
Sub-tropical build: bringing nature back
Richard Proudfoot and his partner have brought nature in to their suburban block, at the same time as reducing energy and water use. He describes their house and garden build, and the satisfying birdsong-filled results.
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Buyers guides
Keep your cool: External shading buyers guide
With summers getting hotter in many parts of Australia, keeping the sun off your windows and out of your home is becoming even more important. Anna Cumming looks at the options for external shading, for both new builds and retrofits.
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DIY
Straight up: Vertical garden lessons
The last thing you want is to spend a lot of money on a vertical garden system and then have it fail. Jenny and Bevan Bates provide advice and inspiration from their own living walls—five years old and growing strong!
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Hot water
Questions for hot water system suppliers
It’s best to sound out an installer to check their reliability before buying a hot water system. Have they successfully installed this particular hot water system before? What happens if they go out of business? Here are some key questions to get you started.
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Hot water
Getting into hot water: water heating ways
Five reader stories and five different systems that illustrate there’s more than one way to get into hot water!
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Building materials
A roof over your head: Choosing the right roofing materials
There are many different roofing materials to choose from, but what are the advantages and disadvantages of each, and how sustainable are they?
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Solar & batteries
PV and hydro powered Tassie off-grid home
Given their distance from the nearest power pole, it made sense financially as well as philosophically for this Sydney couple to go off-grid in their new home in Tasmania. Peter Tuft describes how they went about it.
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Reuse & recycling
Recycling analysis – Options for lithium batteries
In a research study at ANU, Matthew Doolan and Anna Boyden considered the full life cycle of lithium ion batteries and their recycling options to assess environmental pluses and minuses. They present a summary here.
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Solar & batteries
Off-grid in WA: Riding the trail to sustainable living
Jai Thomas describes his parents' journey to off-grid living.
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