Michael Green

Writer and producer

Repair Cafe

In Community development, Environment on

IN October 2009, Martine Postma coordinated the first Repair Café, in Amsterdam. Why? Because we all throw out way too much good stuff. And then we manufacture more not-so-good stuff, so we can throw that out too. And now we have a giant global shit-storm of environmental problems.

What to do? Postma’s idea is to get volunteer repairers together with people who have broken things.

Repair Cafés are now running in dozens of locations in the Netherlands. They’re regular events, she explains, organised by locals, for locals. People bring all kinds of knick-knacks: busted blenders, moth-eaten woolen jumpers and toy cars with loose wheels.

“Many things can be fixed – often it’s not hard and lots of fun,” she says. “We call them ‘cafés’ because they’re not just about repairing, but about meeting people, chatting, learning and getting inspired.

“At the first Repair Café, the atmosphere was so positive it struck me as somewhat unreal – as if we were back in the ’60s, with love and peace. But now I’m used to it.”

The expert repairers range from professional craftspeople to enthusiastic retirees, like one old mechanic who attends the Amsterdam café. “He can repair almost everything,” Postma says. “He’s a genius with electrical appliances, but he can also mend the broken handle of a suitcase, for example. He is precise and takes his time. I think he’s never happier than when he’s working with his tools.”

Postma is a keen fixer herself, and when she’s not too busy she likes to build bookshelves. But these days, she hasn’t the time. She’s devoting all her energy to the revolution: the Repair Café foundation, her project to “spread the idea all over the Netherlands and Europe and the rest of the Western world.”

Fetch your broken toasters.

Published in Smith Journal, Winter 2012.

Thermal imaging camera

In Greener Homes on

Heat sensitive pictures let people see where their homes let in the cold.

LAST year, the Bayside Climate Change Action Group bought a thermal imaging camera, courtesy of a grant from their council. Volunteers have begun using it to provide free thermal efficiency assessments for local residents.

“The images are quite eye-catching and funky,” says Cheryl May, from the group. “It’s one thing to tell somebody there’s probably a draught under their door, and another thing to show them an image where you can actually see it. The colour demonstrates that there is colder air coming in.”

Some of the immediate results were surprising. When one member took a snapshot of his ceiling, it revealed a strange bright spot. “He couldn’t work out what it was,” Ms May says. “It turned out to be a possum.”

Elsewhere, the results have been more instructive – one resident, who had just completed a renovation, requested her builder return to fix the gappy insulation that they discovered with the camera.

“You can really see where the problems are,” Ms May says. “You can point it at the ceiling and see where the insulation is, and where it’s missing. You can see leaks coming from fridge seals. We’re trying to educate people about the way heat loss occurs.”

A thermal imaging camera works best when there’s a big temperature difference between inside and outside. For each snapshot, it produces both a thermal image and a normal one. During winter, draughts, gaps and glazing show up in purplish-blue, contrasted with an orange-yellow glow in places where the building is better insulated.

The Bayside Climate Change Action Group aims to visit 50 local households with the camera before the end of the year. If you live outside the area, you could rent one or hire a professional to conduct your own report.

One of the group’s volunteers, Danielle King, is an experienced sustainability assessor. She says many of the camera’s findings are straightforward – it just helps to communicate common problems, such as the “Swiss cheese–effect” of halogen downlights (which must be clear of insulation, so as to reduce the risk of fire).

“If you get in bed and there are holes in your blanket, it doesn’t keep you warm. It’s exactly the same with ceiling insulation,” she says.

But the camera reveals secrets too; especially about how your insulation has been installed in hard to see places.

“The beauty of the camera is that it can see through the walls, literally,” she says. “You also find a lot of construction gaps, where air leaks through skirting boards. You wouldn’t pick those up otherwise and those heat losses can sometimes be quite high.”

One house Ms King visited recently in Brighton had an average daily use of 40 kWh – well over double the state average.

“They had recently moved homes and their bills had gone up a huge amount in this new house,” she says. Her report detailed many possible remedies, but the first thing she recommended was that they thoroughly seal draughts.

With winter upon us, the same advice applies to every household. And you don’t need a thermal camera to find the gaps. Try holding an incense stick close to window frames, door frames and skirting boards, and watch how the smoke moves. You can use unspooled tape from old cassettes in the same way. 

Read this article at The Age online

Illustration by Robin Cowcher

Energy monitors

In Greener Homes on

Put your energy into measuring electricity consumption

EVERY time you press down on your toaster, it costs you money. But how much? And how does that compare to your second fridge? Or the air conditioner?

Something’s been missing in between our power points and our utility bills. Most of us don’t know how much electricity we’re consuming, let alone which of our gadgets take most of the load.

Five years ago, Sam Sabey started tinkering with a way to show electricity consumption in real time, working on the principle that we can’t change what we don’t measure. The project began at the Melbourne HackerSpace, a weekly gathering for tech hardware enthusiasts.

Mr Sabey’s hobby has now become a business, called Smart Energy Groups. His product – the SEGmeter – is a set of current sensors that detect the electricity flowing through the different circuits in your home. It sends the information to a web platform, which displays it in all manner of graphs and charts.

“It’s the ultimate energy saving gadget,” he says. “The data tells a story – it’s a wonderful tool to help make the invisible visible.”

Earlier this year, Mr Sabey and his family moved house. With the SEGmeter, he discovered that their new home was consuming 400 watts in the middle of the night. One of the main culprits was the air conditioner, which drew 60 watts, even when it was switched off.

“It’s about understanding when and where we’re using electricity,” he says. “Every house is different and they don’t come with an energy efficiency manual.”

A SEGmeter for householders with 6 different channels, costs about $1000, including installation. Mr Sabey says it’s best suited for big electricity users who want to reduce their bills, and also for houses with solar panels, because it reveals the split between production and consumption.

They’re also good for the curious-minded. Peter Reefman, from Energised Homes, has set up a similar system, using the Current Cost EnviR monitor. He’s developing his own set of online data displays.

Some of his findings are quirky: “I now know that when my wife cooks herself bacon and eggs for breakfast on our induction stovetop it costs 6 cents,” he says.

Others are more significant: his solar hot water booster was running too long during the night, because the temperature setting was unnecessarily high.

“It’s a really good way to show you where your energy blackspots are – things such as my hot water unit. Some of them will be really low-hanging fruit, but they can be difficult to find without ongoing monitoring,” he says. “It’s also a gentle reminder to check how you’re going, because behaviours can improve and they can also slip back.”

Mr Reefman says that while the expensive meters will help households save money in the long run, there are cheaper alternatives. Simple in-home displays are available from electronics stores and eco-retailers for around $100.

Until now, smart meters haven’t delivered useful information to householders, but that seems set to change. Electricity distributor Jemena is trialling a web portal that will display its customers’ electricity data online. But, like the simple in-home displays, it will show total consumption, not a breakdown of what uses what.

If you want to measure individual appliances, you can try a Power-Mate, an Australian-made gizmo that plugs in between the socket and an appliance and tells you exactly how much juice it’s guzzling.

Read this article at The Age online

Illustration by Robin Cowcher

Switching to solar

In Architecture and building, Environment on

As electricity prices increase, more people are turning to solar power to reduce their reliance on the electricity grid. For those who want to make the switch, here are the basics of solar PV.

THERE’S a basic fact that a surprisingly large number of people haven’t yet grasped about solar energy. “We still get queries from people who get solar photovoltaics mixed up with solar water heating,” says Mick Harris, managing director of eco-retailer EnviroGroup. “It’s really a matter of understanding what you want.”

It’s a simple point, but it underscores the most important thing prospective panel purchasers need to do – research well.

Your deliberations will be detailed, from the technology and rebates to installation issues and variable electricity charges. But don’t be put off – once the panels are in place, maintenance is minimal. For at least 20 years, you’ll be able to sit back and enjoy the sunshine.

Technology

There are three common types of solar PV panels: monocrystalline, polycrystalline and thin film. Most of the panels sold in Australia are of the mono and poly kind. Thin film is much less efficient – it needs nearly double the roof space of other panels – but requires far less silicon to make and has less embodied energy. Lance Turner of the Alternative Technology Association adds that there is also a hybrid panel made by Sanyo which is a combination of crystalline and thin film technologies. “These perform particularly well,” he says, “but at a price premium.”

As well as the panels on the roof your system will need an inverter, which converts the DC (direct current) electricity produced by the panels to AC (alternating current) and feeds any excess electricity into the grid.

‘Building-integrated’ photovoltaic systems such as tiles, facades or glazing are uncommon. Susan Neill, from engineering consultancy Global Sustainable Energy Solutions, says those systems are much more expensive: “It tends to be driven by airports or iconic buildings that want to make a statement by putting it in.”

Rebate madness

For the solar PV industry in Australia and for households it’s been the best of times and the worst of times. Let’s start with the worst: changes to government rebates.

The Federal Government’s cash-back rebate is based on the trading value of ‘small-scale technology certificates’ (STCs, formerly known as RECs), which are created when renewable energy systems are installed. Right now, eligible householders receive a credit of three times the certificate price, which fluctuates according to market demand. From July 1, the credit will be reduced to two, meaning the rebate for householders will fall by one-third.

Most of the incentives offered by state governments have also been cut. These feed-in tariff schemes pay people according to how much energy a household supplies to the grid. Queensland’s feed-in tariff is the last one intact – elsewhere they’ve been reduced, phased out or abolished overnight.

Tim Sonnreich, policy manager at the Clean Energy Council, says that despite these cuts there is good news for household solar PV that shouldn’t be overlooked. Overall the price hasn’t increased significantly, thanks to lower production costs and the high Australian dollar. A 1.5kW grid-connect system can cost from $1500 to $6000 installed (including the federal rebate).

“The price of solar technology has come down dramatically over the last few years,” he says. “Even five years ago, buying solar was a major financial decision, like buying a car. But now it’s in the ballpark of $2000, people put it on their credit card and get on with their lives. The market has changed dramatically.”

What size system should I get?

The answer to the all-important question of size, says Mick Harris, will become clear when you ask three additional questions. “Firstly, how much room have you got? That’s going to limit how much you can put on your house,” he explains. “Secondly, how much of your energy bill do you want to get rid of? And thirdly, what is your budget?”

Shade is death for solar panels, especially the mono and polycrystalline kind. Even a small amount of shading significantly reduces the efficiency of the whole system, so there’s no point buying one if you have a mighty big tree blocking the sun. Ideally, for a small system, you’ll need at least 10 square metres of roof space facing north.

Next, take a good look at your electricity bill and make note of how much you use. The average Australian household consumes 18 kilowatt-hours (kWh) a day, according to the Clean Energy Council. The output of panels varies throughout the country, but a 1.5kW system will offset roughly a third of the average daily consumption.

At this point in the research process, it’s wise to think more broadly about where you use the electricity you consume. If you have an electric hot water service, it probably accounts for about a quarter of your bill, Sonnreich says. “Hot water is a major expense, so if you don’t have much rooftop space, solar hot water might give you a better return than PV.”

Installation

Up to half the cost of your solar electricity system will go towards its installation, and as with any job around the house, you’ll want to make sure it’s done well.

The output of your panels will vary significantly according to their orientation, access to full sun, and whether they’re angled appropriately for your latitude. With that in mind, quiz your solar company about all these requirements, and about their installers’ experience.

To be eligible for the rebates and feed-in tariffs, you must use an installer accredited by the Clean Energy Council. “You must use an accredited installer in order to be able to access the upfront discount provided by the Small Technology Certificates (STCs) that are traded back through the renewable energy market,” says Damien Moyse from the ATA. He adds that when choosing a system and an installer, it’s best not to just choose the cheapest one. “Solar, like any other technology, depends on quality for performance, and you want a system that will generate for at least 20 to 30 years. Consider the warranties closely and be prepared to pay a little more upfront for a good-quality system that will provide you plenty of savings on your electricity bill over time.”

Susan Neill suggests that before buying you should request an indication of the panels’ performance. “Ask for a performance guarantee that the system will produce a certain number of kilowatt-hours per year, on average, for your location,” she says. “Then you’ll have the knowledge to check it yourself.” Likewise, seek a long-term warranty (up to 25 years) and make sure you keep hold of the documentation.

Energy retailers and distributors

You need to let your energy retailer know if you’re going to install a solar PV system. Many retailers will offer you a premium for the electricity you export to the electricity grid, but don’t be bamboozled by that rate alone: make sure you find out what your new tariff and fee structure will be.

“You have to ask the whole question – how much is it really going to change your bill?” Sonnreich says. “You might get a better rate for the power you export, but you might pay more for the power you import. Do the sums on everything.”

And while you’re speaking to the energy companies, ask them about your new meter – who will supply it, how will it work and how much will it cost?

Off-grid systems

Stand-alone renewable energy systems are much more expensive upfront than grid-connected systems. As well as the panels, you’ll need batteries, a regulator to manage the way they charge and possibly a backup generator.

After the Victorian bushfires in 2010, the ATA commissioned research into the cost of off-grid systems compared to grid infrastructure.

“The capital cost is high compared with grid connect,” says Damien Moyse, “but if you have an efficiently operating house, then you can set up one of these systems for $20,000 to $30,000 and it’s going to generate electricity for at least 20 years and longer.”

Is there any cause to go off-grid in the city? Smart meters now allow retailers to set time-of-use tariffs that incorporate high rates for peak time energy use. “If you are a household that cannot avoid consuming energy during these peak times, the long-term cost of installing batteries and electricity backup may become an attractive option,” Moyse says. “However, in most circumstances this will not yet be the case and a grid-connect system will still offer plenty of opportunity to avoid peak rates.”

Ask lots of questions

Some local councils or community sustainability groups still coordinate bulk purchases, though they’re less common than they once were. If you haven’t the time or the head for research, these schemes are a good source of information.

Even so, start your research with the Clean Energy Council’s consumer guide to buying solar panels. It contains a comprehensive list of questions to ask, but the legwork is up to you. “Shop around. Don’t make a snap decision,” Sonnreich suggests. “Find a company that is prepared to talk the issues through with you.”

Mick Harris also recommends some sleuthing. “There’s a mixture of players out there in the market – some of them are good and some are not so good,” he says.

If you google a solar retailer, together with the words ‘problems’ or complaints, you’ll soon find out which is which. It’s also worth checking the popular forums on the Whirlpool and ATA websites. “You can protect yourself from the worst of the companies by doing some homework online,” Harris says.

This article was published in Sanctuary Magazine.

House relocation

In Greener Homes on

There are good reasons to buy your home off the back of a truck.

WHEN Andrew and Tilley Govanstone first saw their house, it was in Vermont, in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs.

“It was ideal,” Mr Govanstone recalls. “It was a classic 1950s Australian home. It had a lot of glass down one side – but it was all facing east.”

But the house’s poor orientation didn’t matter. A few months later, it was delivered to their vacant block in Portland, in four parts. There, it landed on new stumps, with the glass oriented north to best catch the sun.

That was 15 years ago. It cost $40,000 to purchase and move the home, plus rewiring, plumbing and re-plastering costs. “For $50,000 we got a fantastic split-level house. Every day we wake up in there is a pleasure,” he says.

Before they decided to recycle an old house, the couple had drawn up plans for a brand new dwelling. They had previously lived in a passive-solar designed home and become hooked on the comfort, natural light and cheap bills.

They wanted one of their own. “But the reality was that it was going to cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and we didn’t want to spend that sort of money,” Mr Govanstone says.

Illustration by Robin Cowcher

By relocating a house they could get the orientation right, at least. And it gave them another kind of comfort too.

“We were able to pay it off very quickly,” he says. “We know other people who’ve made the same decision and have been very happy, because they’re not paying for it with their lives: they’re not locked into significant mortgages. It is extremely liberating.”

But it’s not without pitfalls – a lot can go wrong if the dwelling isn’t transported with care. Mr Govanstone suggests asking the moving contractor for the details of recent customers. Likewise, it’s smart to check your council’s rules before you invest too much time.

Under the building regulations, relocated houses are expected to meet the six-star rules, but surveyors have discretion to allow partial compliance where that’s not possible.

If that’s the case, is it still a good environmental choice? Ralph Horne, director of the centre for design at RMIT, says the life cycle benefits of reusing materials are significant. Unless you’re moving it a very long distance, the transport impact will be small in comparison.

For ongoing performance, consider whether the design suits the climate zone in the new location (for example, a Queenslander won’t cope well in Castlemaine) and the appropriateness of the orientation.

“Our studies of new housing in Victoria show you can lose a star of energy rating performance – and pay higher bills – if you point the house in the wrong direction,” Mr Horne says.

Relocated houses usually need to be re-plastered, and that’s a perfect chance to install insulation.

“The costs of the second-hand dwelling are much lower than a new one, and some of the savings should be ploughed into upgrades: adding insulation, sealing gaps and cracks, and adding double-glazing or shading according to the local climate,” he says.

As well as re-orienting their house, the Govanstones laid insulation in the ceiling and walls. They’ve since invested in a 5-kilowatt solar array and begun to replace the old windows with double-glazing. The next items on their list are solar hot water and underfloor insulation.

“With every passing year the microclimate within the house gets better,” he says.

Read this article at The Age online