GREEN IS GOLD

Whether it’s rates, water, or electricity, utility costs are rocketing. There’s only one truly effective way to turn that around – employ sustainable or green technologies, because aside from containing your own costs, a sustainable home is increasingly a major drawcard for buyers

Updating your home so it looks good and works well, is clearly desirable…but today, with utility costs on an upward trajectory, you need to look at smart, sustainable ways to reconfigure your home’s money guzzlers.

GOING GREENER MAKES CENTS

Yes, it’s the right thing to do for the planet, but that aside, it’s the right thing to do for your pocket…and those of prospective buyers. There are numerous simple ways to begin reducing your consumption of water, electricity and so on, but to really cut costs, you need other means of saving which go beyond low-flow shower heads and taps, and dual flush loos.

“It’s so expensive to install solar panels, etc,” is a common cry, but that’s no longer the case with many of the technologies. They’ve been around longer, the competition is fiercer, the choices are wider, they’re more sophisticated, and the prices have come down.

For a new build home, strict architectural legislation ensures that architects/the homeowner complies with energy efficiencies. Fifty percent of water heating needs must be met with renewable energy, such as a heat pump or solar hot water collector; and insulation is mandatory in new builds. 

It’s more complicated for retrofitted houses, but it’s certainly not impossible or prohibitively expensive. You do what you can afford, and if necessary, phase in elements over time.

ENERGY AUDIT

Did you know there are a number of companies which not only service large commercial concerns, but individual homes? And for no charge. They conduct an ‘energy audit’ on your home - they look at your home, your lifestyle, what you’re using, what you’re wasting, and what you can do to change your energy usage. They’ll do the maths for you too, because return on investment is always a factor.

It’s well worth doing. Realistically, nothing is going to get cheaper. We all know that.

WATER

Rainwater tanks: a good starting point, and if you’re in a sunny area, consider installing a circulation pump to ensure that stratification (odours, algae etc) doesn’t occur.

Grey water: choose a scheme which diverts grey water from showers, washing machines, basins and air conditioners, purifies it, and has it ready for garden use. If you want to use grey water for toilet flushing as well as irrigation, it’s more expensive but worth considering. You can save up to 200 000 litres a year.

HEATING WATER

Solar: you can choose to be fully off grid, or only partially. This might depend on the slope, size and orientation of your roof, but the experts will advise you.  

Hot water: insulate your geyser well; consider installing under-counter boilers for your kitchen and shower areas, to reduce wasted cold water and energy as the water travels from a distance away. This is often relevant when you have staff accommodation, an outside office or a granny flat.

Heat pumps: In conjunction with a highly insulated hot water storage system, a heat pump can cut your home’s electricity costs by half. 

Air water generator: You can buy a few different sizes of air water generators. They’re plug and play, so it’s installed by an electrician, plugged in and switched on. An average two person household uses 60 litres on average, so if you purchase a 120 litre unit, it’ll more than take care of your needs. 

INSULATION

There are some superb eco-friendly products, even recycled materials. Thermal insulation decreases a building’s heat loss in winter, and decreases the heat gain in summer. Effective ceiling insulation can save around 30 percent of your air-conditioning bill. A very effective system is cellulose fibre insulation material (from recycled newspaper) blown into the roof cavity, so it’s not a mat, but rather, a fireproof cloud of material which covers your ceiling 100 percent…with no gaps for incoming or escaping air.

APPLIANCES

About 60% of energy used by a washing machine goes towards water heating, so models that use less water, use less energy. Buy only A or A+ green rated fridges, dishwashers, washing machines, and so on. A dishwasher is far more water efficient than hand washing…

For cooking, consider switching to an induction or gas stove.

LIGHTING

Get smart. Install LED fittings, and only buy quality LED bulbs - CFL, LED and T5 lamps last for a number of years and use a fraction of the energy of incandescent bulbs.

Make sure you use dimmers, and if you’re installing new fittings, consider the really brainy systems…where lights only come on when you walk into a room, and switch off when you exit. All exterior lighting should be solar powered, and/or motion detected/light sensitive, so they come on in the dark, and off when the sun’s up.

FIREPLACES

If you’re in the colder spots of the country, biofuel and biogas fireplaces are a far better option than electricity fired heaters. Consider a closed, pellet-burning stove – they’re costly, but great long-term investments. Wood pellet stoves are available with different heat output levels. The (inexpensive) pellets are made from recycled materials, heavily compressed, so they burn for longer.

SMART TECHNOLOGY

Energy Partners has an Icon Home Energy Hub – this is a mobile, live Energy Monitoring device (App) which allows you, the homeowner to live track energy usage and savings in real time. Impressive.