Michael Green

Freelance Journalist

  • Home
  • About
  • Features
  • Book
  • Podcast
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • RSS

Green Loans Program

In Greener Homes on July 5, 2009

Eco-makeovers just became much more affordable.

The Federal Government’s newest household retrofitting scheme – the Green Loans Program – began on July 1. “It’s about trying to help people live more sustainably and also save a lot of money,” says home energy assessor Keith Loveridge. “To be quite honest, I think it’s fabulous.”

The scheme has two parts. In the first, 360,000 households will receive free home sustainability assessments. You can sign up through the government’s website or directly with authorised assessor. Applicants must earn less than $250,000 to qualify.

Then, an eco-assessor will spend about an hour and a half locating the water and energy savings that can be made around your home. You’ll receive a report detailing their findings.

“Typically, heating and cooling consumes about 40 per cent of the home’s energy; appliances, about 30 per cent; and water heating, about 23 per cent,” Mr Loveridge says. “We’re identifying which changes will have the biggest impact. For instance, if you’ve got an old washing machine that chugs away six hours a day, that’ll be one of the biggest energy users in your house.”

Once you home has been assessed, you’ll be eligible – though not obliged – to take up the scheme’s second measure: a four-year interest free loan for up to $10,000 to help pay for the measures recommended in the report. There will be funding to cover about 75,000 cheap loans and they’ll be available through participating financial institutions.

“I’ve been around the environment game for a long time and I think this is one of the best things that the government has put out,” Mr Loveridge says. Depending on your circumstances, “you can almost pay for that loan just by the savings you make.”

The Green Loans scheme is slated to finish in mid-2012, or whenever the money runs out. Given the early demise of the subsidy on solar photovoltaics, the best bet is to get in early.

www.environment.gov.au/greenloans, www.ecoassessment.com.au

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Reddit

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Articles

    • ►Features
      • ►Environment
      • ►Architecture and building
      • ►Social justice
      • ►Community development
      • ►The Age
      • ►The Big Issue
      • ►Arts
      • ►Nature Climate Change
      • ►Nature Energy
      • ►Overland Journal
    • ▼Greener Homes
      • Cooking without gas
      • Community wind
      • Fair Food Week
      • Shouting from the rooftops
      • Kulin calendar
      • Food Know How
      • Energy use portals
      • Waves of change
      • Breaking the gridlock
      • The right kind of urban growth
      • Regenerating after the bushfire
      • Local investing
      • Superannuation's carbon footprint
      • The story of change
      • Zero emissions in Yarra
      • Ready for disaster?
      • Better Block
      • Peak demand
      • Corporate greenwash
      • Distributed infrastructure
      • National recycling week
      • Owner-builder
      • Smart Living Ballarat
      • Retrofitting the suburbs
      • Effective speed
      • The New Joneses
      • Mining the nature strip
      • Power information for the people
      • Connecting backyard innovators
      • Electric bikes
      • How green are renovations?
      • Laundering
      • Fix it
      • Dog poo biogas digester
      • Comfort creep
      • The power of social norms
      • Breaking habits
      • Significant behaviour change
      • Carbon tax and voluntary abatement
      • Thermal imaging camera
      • Energy monitors
      • House relocation
      • Simple living
      • One Planet developers
      • Community-funded solar
      • Greening of Gavin
      • Garage sale trail
      • Composting coffee grinds
      • Fridges
      • Fungi
      • Sustainable Chippendale
      • Local harvest
      • Heyfield's flags
      • Seed saving
      • Green Town
      • Cape Paterson ecovillage
      • Car sharing
      • Heritage fruit trees
      • Buy Nothing Christmas
      • Edible weeds
      • State of Australian Cities
      • Mandatory disclosure
      • Backyard ponds
      • Climate change in Victoria
      • Bugs in the garden
      • Household solar energy
      • Backyard aquaponics
      • Over-consumption
      • ClimateWatch
      • Indoor plants
      • Ten per cent challenge
      • Backyard biodiversity
      • Condensation
      • Bottled water
      • Food-sensitive cities
      • Carbon tax and households
      • Repair
      • Lifetime affordable housing
      • Greenhouse calculator
      • Design for long life
      • Pocket neighbourhoods
      • Commuting by bike
      • Light pollution
      • Flying
      • Home occupancy
      • Smart garden watering
      • Solar panel rebate update
      • Home composting
      • The electronics life cycle
      • Cool roofs
      • Walking
      • Sharing websites
      • Reincarnated McMansion
      • Urban harvest food swaps
      • Urban stormwater
      • Recycling in apartments
      • Wicking beds
      • Earthships
      • Onsite wastewater treatment
      • Bottling with Fowlers Vacola
      • Build it back green
      • Beekeeping
      • Wastewater recycling
      • Transition Towns
      • Cross-ventilation
      • No impact November
      • Planning for sustainability
      • Place making
      • Hepburn Wind
      • Concrete and paving
      • The nine-star house
      • Recycled interiors
      • Resilient cities
      • Packaging waste
      • Sustainable House Day 2010
      • Passive house
      • Soil preparation
      • Container housing
      • Urban orchards
      • Replacing halogen downlights
      • Residential stormwater
      • Sustainable housing developments
      • Retrofitting older homes
      • Solar energy bulk purchase schemes
      • Embodied energy and life cycle assessment
      • Community-supported agriculture
      • Green renovation advice
      • Community composting
      • Straw bale construction
      • Small houses
      • Wall and floor insulation
      • Community gardens
      • Sustainable prefab
      • Household energy ratings
      • Compost toilets
      • Rebate update
      • Cohousing
      • Permaculture
      • Thermal mass
      • Reducing building waste
      • Preserving
      • Indoor air quality
      • Low-energy lighting
      • Sustainable Living Festival
      • Cooling your home
      • New parents and babies
      • Water restrictions
      • Green Christmas
      • Smart meters and power-mates
      • Useful home sustainability websites
      • Shading your home
      • Recycling e-waste
      • Skylights
      • Household cleaning
      • No-dig veggie garden
      • Carbon calculators and offsets
      • Drought-proofing your garden
      • Reducing household waste
      • Green roofs
      • Greywater
      • The new solar panel rebate
      • Balcony gardens
      • Solar hot water
      • Earth building
      • Window coverings and retrofitted double-glazing
      • Landlords and renters
      • GreenPower
      • Sustainable timber
      • Green Loans Program
      • Kerbside recycling
      • Heating systems
      • Appliances
      • Draught-proofing
      • Eco paints
      • Keeping chickens
      • Composting
      • Solar photovoltaics
      • Ceiling insulation
      • Glazing
      • Rainwater tanks
    • ►Blog

Recent Articles

  • Contested territory
  • The agents of racism
  • Community power
  • Victoria Police ban racial profiling
  • The last drop of water in Broken Hill
  • Unhappy feet

Topics

  • Articles (385)
    • Features (146)
      • Environment (81)
      • Architecture and building (39)
      • Social justice (45)
      • Community development (37)
      • The Age (74)
      • The Big Issue (19)
      • Arts (11)
      • Nature Climate Change (1)
      • Nature Energy (1)
      • Overland Journal (1)
    • Greener Homes (180)
    • Blog (60)
Tweets by @michaelbgreen

© Copyright 2017 Michael Green · All Rights Reserved