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joebland
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Joined: 17/04/2009
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Posts: 6

Posted: 06:39am 17 Apr 2009

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We're looking at the energy options for our home in
suburban Melbourne, and hoping the folks here could
suggest a suitable set up, or options.

I think we have a fairly typical Melbourne family home,
as follows.

- 2 adults with 2 kids under 5 years

- Gas heating, hot water and cooking

- House is about 150sqm on 410sqm of land

- Single storey, flat roof, 4 bedrooms, with attached
carport

- North facing yard, with decent solar orientation of
rooms

- 1 x small aircon (not sure of specs)

- All typical things, 1 x PC, dishwasher, washing
machine, clothes drier, TV, DVD

- Hills Hoyst!

Our general attitude is fairly green, using cloth
nappies, composting/worm farm, organic foods etc.

Interested in your thoughts on solar power size/kind,
solar hot water size/kind, and any other things we
may not have thought about to make our home better.

Also, while I'm not calling for spam, any good
businesses that provide relevant services, at reasonable
cost would be interesting to know about.Edited by joebland 2009-04-18

Jarbar
Senior Member

Joined: 03/02/2008
Location: Australia
Posts: 224

Posted: 01:00pm 17 Apr 2009

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Try this link.A friend of mine started this group up 3 weeks ago and has already got 150 plus starters.Seems like a good deal based on my research.

Please contact Lea and Maria at solar.homes@hotmail.com for more information.The company they are dealing with is called solar.homes@hotmail.com

Anthony.Edited by Jarbar 2009-08-17

"Creativity is detirmined by the way you hold your tounge".My Father
"Your generation will have to correct the problems made by mine".My Grandfather.

joebland
Newbie

Joined: 17/04/2009
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Posts: 6

Posted: 01:32pm 18 Apr 2009

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Hey thanks for that Anthony. They look like good offers,
and I think we may qualify for their Bayside Offer. Plus
the website has a quality feel, for what it's worth!

Anyone else with any leads/thoughts/opinions/ideas?Edited by joebland 2009-04-19

KarlJ

Guru

Joined: 19/05/2008
Location: Australia
Posts: 1178

Posted: 05:58am 27 Apr 2009

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try www.nuenergy.com.au
they were offering "free"
1KW solar installations last week (post govt rebate)
+ energy supplier costs to swap to type 5 smartmeter (think $450 bucks)
Probably add a couple of hundred bucks for the flat roof scenario (this is good as you should be able to change the angle winter to summer.

a ripper deal, if you can get in on it before rebate runs out if you are eligible.

Myself big believer in DIY solar with addition of 20-30 evacualted tube collector, can easily be done for $1500, if you have an existing storage system.

good luck

Luck favours the well prepared

joebland
Newbie

Joined: 17/04/2009
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Posts: 6

Posted: 11:49am 27 Apr 2009

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Hey thanks Karl. Can you advise anywhere good to buy or
learn about evacuated tube collectors?

michael
Regular Member

Joined: 06/12/2008
Location: Australia
Posts: 40

Posted: 12:17pm 27 Apr 2009

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nuenergy offer kills renezko. You cant beat it.
joebland, off topic, but disposable nappies from all the latest studies equal cloth in terms off energy used. Detergent, wash machine, water etc etc. The latest Green study said 50/50. And in terms off ease of use we now use disposable and never have nappy rash which is also a bonus.

joebland
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Joined: 17/04/2009
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Posts: 6

Posted: 12:01pm 28 Apr 2009

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@michael, thanks for the opinion on nuenergy. It does
look like a great offer.

Re nappies. I have a feeling we're both going to regret
this by the end of this post, but here goes.

I haven't read any studies in detail, so I can only
share my experience, as follows.

For 1 child in nappies we do 1 regular, cold nappy wash,
per week, using HALF the amount of detergent specified.
They are line dried in sunlight. No soaking, no super-
cycle wash, no boiling, no bleach, no drier. Having
professional experience in the paper industry, there is
no way that this comes close to the energy, chemicals
and water used to produce the paper needed for the same
disposables. Let alone those jelly things, and the
plastics.

If you have a rain tank and solar electricity, even
better. Don't count on Kimberley Clarke investing in
these to make their disposables.

We use organic hemp and bamboo nappies, and have used
the same set for 2 kids, so no arguments about the
resources used in the production of cloth nappies,
please!

Our first child was out of nappies up to 1 year ahead of
her disposable-only friends, and our second is ahead of
the curve and well on the way.

With regards to nappy rash, you have a valid point, and
we have experienced this. However, for cloth users nappy
rash promotes more nappy-off time, leading to quicker
toilet training (IMHO), and less nappy use.

There are the 'eco'-whatever disposables, and we have
some on stand by for emergencies only. I am very
disappointed with these: at first they appear to be more
green (seeming to use alt fibres, or recycled content)
but when you read the fine print they're just greened-
wrapped Huggies. And expensive.

I could go on to discredit studies that may be biased by
funding, and may be undertaken in a warm-wash-machine-
dry culture, but I am even boring myself now!

I know that for many [most] people cloth nappies seem
too hard when they have a young baby. We're all giving
our kids the very best that we can and I would not
criticise anyone for their choice of nappy.

My point is that cloth nappies ARE a little more work to
wash, hang out and fold, but that they really ARE worth
it. Please don't believe something just because it's in
a study, and if you want to be green, you'll need to be
passionate about your cloth nappies to make it happen.

I know that's overkill, and may derail my question in
this forum, but where else could I mouth off like this?!

My original question re: sustainable home, is still out
there! Comments welcome!

Edited by joebland 2009-04-29

petanque don
Senior Member

Joined: 02/08/2006
Location: Australia
Posts: 212

Posted: 02:30am 29 Apr 2009

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If you look at the nu energy offer carefully it suggests that it will cost no more than $2500 there is no mention if what is a standard installation.

It may be possible that the flat roof is $1500 extra but a pitched roof has safety implications and so is $1500 extra.

But even if it costs the full maximum of $2500 it is still a competitive price.

On the nappies if you have the time to scrape through the brown stuff good on you.

Personally I made the lifestyle decision that it was more important to spend time sleeping and spending time with my family.

Perhaps we should discus the environmental issues involve with drinking alcohol?

Or driving cars?

Or owning a computer?

joebland
Newbie

Joined: 17/04/2009
Location:
Posts: 6

Posted: 02:50am 29 Apr 2009

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I appreciate your analysis of the fine print over at
nuenergy, and take your point there.

Can we please drop the nappies, though!? I've laid out
my opinion and experience on this, and I've tried to
indicate some respect for other people's choices. This
is something that there are very many different opinions
on.

I encourage the use of cloth nappies, and would like to
just leave it at that.

petanque don
Senior Member

Joined: 02/08/2006
Location: Australia
Posts: 212

Posted: 06:49am 30 Apr 2009

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On refection Nu energy�s business plan: Take lots of $2500 deposits. Use this money to fund the bulk purchase of some of the gear. Install these systems get the profit and then use the profit to purchase more gear.

The $2500 deposit could be an interest free way to establish working capital.

After all 4000 respondents for a free system is $1,000,000 interest free.

Potentially a cheap way to fund a business.

Or just get money interest free even if you give back the deposit in 12 to 24 months.

As long as they can actually make a sensible profit at $8,000 per system it should work.

Bolty

Regular Member

Joined: 03/04/2008
Location: Australia
Posts: 81

Posted: 01:53pm 30 Apr 2009

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Hi Joebland.

I am not in Melbourne (Fleurieu Peninsula SA) but I travel to Melbourne a lot to see my 2 daughters. I have fitted a 30 evacuated tube hot water heater to an existing 450 litre hot water service. I was not interested in going for the government rebates, because that necessitates replacing the hot water service. My HWS is 25 years old and is going strong and is connected to a wet pack on a slow combustion fireplace. It was a very simple matter to coneect the evacuated tubes to the HWS. I used a thermo siphoning system to avoid the need for circulating pumps.

I have been absolutely delighted with this sytem since fitting it last year. I have used zero electrical power so far. During the last few weeks we have had some very overcast days, but we have still not needed to supplement the heater with electric power. I am hopeful that with the wet pack, we will get through a whole year and use only about $10 of power to heat the water in winter.

I bought my tubes from Stuart Jonas in Fairfield (suburb of Melbourne)

He can be contacted at

stuart.jonas@gmail.com

The price was very reasonable and was much cheaper than those available from other outlets.

I am a retiree and have no business associations with anybody!

Hope this helps!

joebland
Newbie

Joined: 17/04/2009
Location:
Posts: 6

Posted: 11:08pm 30 Apr 2009

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Bolty, that's great information, just the sort of thing
I was after. I will follow up Stuart.

And Don, I think your thinking is spot on, and really
shows how careful we need to be in this market. There
are a lot of special offers, and it takes some research
to figure out what is actually on offer.

Jarbar
Senior Member

Joined: 03/02/2008
Location: Australia
Posts: 224

Posted: 09:03am 01 May 2009

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To whom it may concern,

Come along and help fix the Solar Feed-In Tariff!
When: Wednesday 6th May
Time: 1pm
Where: Steps of Parliament House, top of Bourke St, Melbourne
Who: Anyone who wants a better feed-in tariff for Victoria. Remember to wear a green shirt.

ATA, along with Environment Victoria and a number of other interest groups, are organising a public rally to protest against the Victorian Government's proposed solar feed-in tariff.

As many members would be aware, the Victorian Government is currently proposing the weakest feed-in tariff scheme of any currently in operation around the country.

The proposed scheme:
- has the lowest cap size on system eligibility;
- prevents small business, community or even rural organisations from taking part;
- ensures that solar PV owners will not actually be 'paid' what they are owed from electricity retailers;
- will not drive any significant increase in uptake of solar PV in Victoria.

The proposed legislation is due to be debated in the Upper House next week. In response, a protest rally is being held on Wednesday May 6 on the steps of Parliament House. See the flyer for more details of the event.

ATA is calling for members to come along and support the rally and show Victorian politicians that we want stronger laws to increase renewable energy in this State!

Also, for members in the Western District of Victoria, your State MP Peter Kavanaugh may end up with a considerable vote on this Bill. It would be fantastic if he heard from any ATA members in the course of the coming days as to how important this issue really is!

Please feel free to contact Damien Moyse at damien@ata.org.au should you wish to discuss any aspect of the proposed legislation.

Organised by Environment Victoria, the Alternative Technology Association, the Moreland Energy Foundation and Friends of the Earth Australia.

------------------------------------------------------------ --------------------

"Creativity is detirmined by the way you hold your tounge".My Father
"Your generation will have to correct the problems made by mine".My Grandfather.

Jarbar
Senior Member

Joined: 03/02/2008
Location: Australia
Posts: 224

Posted: 11:29am 01 May 2009

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Just thinking through how it could be best displayed the inadequacy of the Victorian Govt feed in tariff.What simple working model could be used to get the medias attention.ie a PV solar panel powering a Van der Graaf generator.When the sun shines visible out put is evident from arching.Any other input welcome that may attract cameras of the waiting media??? Solar powered windmill???
Electric fence??? Solar Race vehicle??? Solar panels built into a chimney stack with smoke belching out the top????Just something that makes an obvious point of contradiction.
Hope this makes sense.

Anthony.Edited by Jarbar 2009-05-02

"Creativity is detirmined by the way you hold your tounge".My Father
"Your generation will have to correct the problems made by mine".My Grandfather.

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