How does your house rate?
Last week, I was thinking that we should really change all our light bulbs over to compact fluorescent. I’ve been putting it off as it’s such a huge initial cost. We’ve been pretty good with water usage, but really haven’t done enough to reduce our electricity consumption.
On Friday evening, I walked through Belconnen Mall and saw an Enviro Saver stall offering free energy audits. I stopped to see what it was about and asked if they would audit us in Yass. They said absolutely. They were doing the ACT and were just about to move into the country areas. She explained to me that they would come to our house and change over all our light bulbs, and shower heads if we had electric hot water. Then they would audit our energy usage and make suggestion on how we could save. It sounded great so I asked how much. FREE she said. Wow, why? She said it was saving greenhouse gas emission under government policy.
Why Free?
I’ve since read more and it seems to be a win win situation for all.
In 2002, NSW mandated a greenhouse gas emissions trading scheme (GGAS) in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with the production and use of electricity. NSW set greenhouse reduction targets and issues penalties to those who fail to reach the targets. These organisations that are giving away products are producing credits which have value and can be sold. The NSW site on greenhouse gas explains this very well.
What do Home Energy Ratings Mean?
According to the Energy smart site, the star ratings run from 0-5 with 5 being a very energy efficient house. Wouldn’t it be good if we could all obtain that rating? It will be interesting to see how expensive it will be to move the rating of our house closer to the top. The average household rating is 2.5 and a house with a rating of 1 using an awful lot of energy.
I was amazed to read in the Enviro Save Program leaflet (also on their website) that “the average household uses enough energy to produce about eight tonnes of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2) every year.
What can we do to improve?
Changing light bulbs to low energy ones can help; even if these bulbs cost $10-15, they will work out much cheaper over the life of the bulb, counting initial cost and electricity. Choosing the correct amount of wattage for the light that you need for the task is also important. Do you know that a fifty year old needs 6 times as much light as a ten year old to do a task? A sixty year old needs 15 times as much light. Where are those 100 watt light bulbs? I knew I could read a phone book outside in bright sun, but never indoors without glasses…
We could also choose energy efficient appliances as we need to replace the old ones. I know some cost more, but again work out the cost over the life of the appliance, not just the initial cost.
I know our solar hot water system cost oodles when we put it in about 20 years ago, but it has saved us so much over the time.
Manly can, can Yass?
Manly Council has this information on its site already; perhaps Yass will be doing the same. In the meantime, if you’re interested, get your name down. I don’t know what you can lose.
Useful Websites
http://www.energysmart.com.au
http://www.envirosaver.com.au/
www.greenhousegasnsw.gov.au
