Top line energy efficiency isn’t just possible; it’s affordable.

NEAR Lexton, in Western Victoria, a small white house looms large on the hill. While governments raise building efficiency standards ever so slowly, John Morgan’s home stands on a different plane.

Inspired by the need to respond rapidly to climate change, the retired schoolteacher and renewable energy installer has designed and built one of Australia’s first 9 Star homes. It needs next to no heating or cooling to stay comfortable.

“I wanted to demonstrate that you could build for a lot less than on the TV shows like World’s Greenest Homes,” Mr Morgan says. “You can get that level of comfort without any high-tech gizmos.”

The neat, two-bedroom house was completed in 2008 for Mr Morgan, his wife Belinda and their cat Millie. The dwelling is small and simple, at just over 100 square metres, including a sunroom and an office, which functions as an entry and air lock. But it doesn’t lack any of the usual conveniences: the washing machine, dishwasher and kitchen appliances, as well as Mr Morgan’s ham radio set up, all run on solar power.

Altogether, it cost about $160,000, including two 20,000-litre water tanks and a 2-kilowatt off-grid solar photovoltaic system.

“This home has no architectural merit,” Mr Morgan admits. “And it was deliberate. I wanted a house that was extremely comfortable and would cost nothing to run.

“I don’t get power or water bills and I don’t have water restrictions. I have a high-flow showerhead. When I have my morning shower the water goes absolutely everywhere and for most of the year it’s heated free of charge by the sun.”

He chose to use reverse brick veneer construction. “It’s a brick house with the bricks inside, not out,” he explains.

The exterior is clad with EcoPly (a non-toxic plywood made from plantation pine). Between the bricks and the cladding there is a 50 millimetre gap, and then reflective foil and batts – making a total insulation value of more than R2.

The ceiling and the slab floor are also highly insulated and the windows are double-glazed. This combination of insulation and thermal mass serves to keep the indoor temperature stable, trapping warmth during winter and protecting against the scorching summer sun.

“It means that in summer, the outside wall doesn’t heat up and stay hot all night,” he says.

The home is well oriented, shaded and draught-proofed, but there are no out-of-reach whiz-bang solutions. “All the books ever written about environmentally sensible design say these things. I’ve just put them all into practice. That’s where the nine stars came from,” he says. For more information about Mr Morgan’s home, there’s a detailed description in ReNew magazine (issue 112).

“My goal was to deal with climate change here to the extent that I can. This is, to all intents and purposes, a zero emissions house,” he says. He sometimes uses a small gas heater, but is planting and tending trees on his property that will more than offset his emissions.

“If anybody else wants to follow this lead they can. Lots of people do it,” he says.

His one indispensable tip is that would-be builders or renovators seek good passive solar design advice ahead of all else. “Talk to someone who knows their facts first. Do it before you write your first cheque.”

Pre-loved interiors change the story of stuff.

THE way you fit out and decorate your home is a matter of style, but also of substance – each purchase contributes to the size of your footprint.

October is the Salvos Stores’ Buy Nothing New Month. The campaign encourages people to buy only their necessities new, and for the rest, to scavenge, swap, or seek out second-hand goods.

Author Clive Hamilton says the campaign is about “spending our time and money more thoughtfully”.

Throughout the month, some Salvos Stores will be showing The Story of Stuff, a short animation on the life cycle impact of goods, from the extraction of raw materials to disposal.

“We usually think of our greenhouse gas emissions being associated with direct energy use, like heating our houses and driving our cars,” Mr Hamilton says. “But a lot of greenhouse gases are embodied in the goods we buy, because so much energy is used in making them.”

He says white goods and furnishings often have relatively high embodied energy. Overall, the indirect emissions of households (through the products and food we buy) are larger than the direct emissions (caused by our energy use).

We tend to spend what we earn, either now or later. “This is why high-income households always buy more stuff, generate more greenhouse gas emissions and produce more waste,” he says.

But that consumption is a matter of choice. “Changing what we consume can reduce our emissions in the same way as driving less or turning the thermostat down,” he says.

Artist and interior designer Christo Gillard argues that buying pre-loved not only reduces materials consumption and saves money, but also adds pizazz.

“Recycled things are fantastic because they hold a lot of character that other stuff doesn’t have. They’ve got instant personality,” he says. “As far as interiors and houses are concerned, recycling isn’t a new thing. Antique stores are emporiums of recycled products.”

There are many ways to avoid buying new. You can ‘up-cycle’: fix, re-furbish or re-upholster existing things to give them new life.

“Textiles generally don’t outlast the framework of furnishings,” Mr Gillard says. “You can re-glue and re-upholster an amazing, rickety old chair. Spend a day’s work and it’ll last another 50 years.” When re-upholstering, choose the fabrics for durability and enquire about eco-friendly adhesives and foams.

The same goes for lampshades, because there are few craftspeople making high-quality ones. “If you’re lucky enough to find one in an opshop and re-cover it, you’ll have something intensely unique.”

You can also seek out pre-used materials. Mr Gillard has drawn drapes from old cinemas and lit upon French louvers in council collection piles. He especially recommends reclaimed carpets, floorboards and tiles.

“Recycled tiles are marvellous. One time I found a load of tiles for $150 and gave them to a client. I saw someone else who found similar tiles new and paid $8000 for them,” he says.

You can save on everything, from taps and fittings to kitchenware, and even hifi equipment such as record players. “The internet is a bottomless place to find stuff,” Mr Gillard says.

“Visit places like Camberwell market, trash-and-treasure stores and opshops. Garage sales are the greatest things in the world. There’s so much available from houses, shops and buildings that are being demolished. It’s all about how you mix and match it.”

Governments and councils are planning for fossil fuel–free cities.

OVER the last two decades, ‘sustainability’ lodged itself in our lexicon. Now, there’s a new concept to digest: ‘resilience’.

Peter Newman, professor of sustainability at Curtin University, says the two concepts come from “the same tribe”, but resilience shines a spotlight on how we “deal with the resource constraints that confront us”.

In his latest book, Resilient Cities: Responding to Peak Oil and Climate Change, he explores those constraints, and many of the innovative responses emerging from cities around the world.

Peak oil refers to the point in time when oil production is at its highest, and beyond which, begins to decline. Most predictions suggest that the global peak is coming soon, or has already passed.

Professor Newman says the recent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico demonstrates the greater difficulties companies now face drilling for oil. “Nobody disagrees that oil is getting harder and harder to find, and we’ve got to do more and more risky things to get it.”

He argues that this fact, along with the need to reduce carbon emissions, means that our cities will need to halve their oil consumption by mid-century.

“Both climate change and peak oil force us to think about different kinds of cities that are able to cope with less fossil fuels,” he says. “We’ve built our civilisation around the cheapness and easy availability of fossil fuels. That era is ending.”

A CSIRO report, Fuel for Thought, released in 2008, estimated that petrol could cost as much as $8 per litre by 2018.

Elliot Fishman, from the Institute for Sensible Transport, modelled the impact of CSIRO’s estimate and found that people living on the city fringe are the most vulnerable.

“It would mean that someone in Cardinia, in Melbourne’s outer east, would spend about 15 per cent of their total income on petrol if they maintained their current travel patterns,” he says.

It’s a troubling finding, especially in light of the state government’s recent expansion of the urban growth boundary. “We’re still developing outer suburban land into cheap housing where people have no options other than the car,” Mr Fishman says. “Where you live has a major impact on your transport costs.”

But buyers and renters are now catching on. “Real estate agents say that more people are asking about public transport availability,” he says.

To reduce car dependence, he recommends householders opt to live close to work and public transport, if possible. You can also cut fuel consumption by working from home one or two days a week, and riding a bike or walking for short trips.

Governments are also beginning to take the issue seriously, especially at the local level. Maribyrnong and Darebin Councils both released peak oil adaptation plans last year. The Queensland Government has produced a series of reports into peak oil since 2005.

Professor Newman argues that once there’s a critical mass, our cities can be transformed rapidly.

He points at the Vauban neighbourhood in the German city of Freiburg, which exhibits many markers of resilience: efficient buildings, walk-ability, good public transport, local renewable energy and a strong sense of place.

“In Vauban, you can see the future and it’s better,” he says. “It is carbon-free, car-free, more local and far more environmentally friendly. It’s much more community oriented and a lot more fun for the kids growing up there.”

Bulk buying can help you fit into a smaller household footprint.

WHEN Wendy Branagan puts out her rubbish bin, she takes note of the date. “I mark it on the calendar so I can keep track. I can normally stretch it out to once every two months,” she says.

The Blackburn resident has been unwrapping herself from packaging waste for over a decade. She has established relationships with local shopkeepers who are happy for her to bring reusable bags and containers. “I found a container at the opshop that fits two loaves of bread perfectly, so I take that to the bakery every time,” she says.

Nevertheless, Ms Branagan acknowledges the “embarrassment factor” of bringing your own bags and rebutting supposed health concerns. “Sometimes, even after all these years, I have to really take a deep breath and do it anyway,” she says. “People are normally very encouraging.”

According to Sustainability Victoria’s ResourceSmart website, Australians use about 71 kilograms of plastic every year, on average. Our manufacturing industries may have declined, but our rubbish production is booming – per head, we rank second only to the USA.

Ms Branagan is motivated by the link between household waste and broader environmental concerns. “Packaging contributes to land clearing, mining and water use,” she says. “There’s a connection between the packaging we accept at home, the giant pool of plastic accumulating in the Pacific Ocean, and climate change.”

Among other waste-minimising habits, Ms Branagan always prepares a shopping list, doesn’t buy too much food at a time and tries to cook from scratch rather than using more highly packaged processed goods. For more tips, she recommends the Simple Savings website. “I’m amazed at how much money I save by shopping this way and not wasting food.”

Nick Ray, from the Ethical Consumer Group, says that while many people make an effort to minimise packaging, we tend to take a certain level of waste for granted, rather than change our habits.

And while he advocates recycling wherever possible, he notes that it’s still the third preference in the “reduce, reuse, recycle” hierarchy.

“There’s a myth that we can recycle plastic – it’s really a process of down-cycling,” he says. “Food-grade plastic isn’t recycled into food-grade plastic. So if we can avoid it in the first place, that’s something I’m keen to do.”

Mr Ray and his family are part of the Western Organic Collective. They purchase a box of veggies once a week directly from the wholesale market, and order dry goods, including flours, nuts, dried fruit and honey, every few months. “The collective buys in bulk and we take our own sealable containers along and divide it all,” he says.

The Ethical Consumer Group’s website has a list of commercial outlets where you can buy in bulk without packaging, as well as more information about how to start and run a buying collective.

More broadly, Mr Ray argues that we need to recognise the significance of our shopping habits in our overall household impact.

The Australian Conservation Foundation’s Consumption Atlas measures the greenhouse gas pollution, water use and land footprint of Australian households. “It turns out that food component is very high,” he says. “In Victoria, it’s about one quarter of household greenhouse gas emissions. And there’s another third behind the other products we buy.”

Learn from people who’ve shrunk their footprint.

IN the last three years, Alan Cuthbertson has halved his family’s consumption of electricity, water and gas. Next weekend, he’ll open his door to the public at large, and reveal the tips and tactics that have made all the difference.

The family’s Lower Plenty home will be part of Sustainable House Day on Sunday, September 12.

It will be one of about 180 houses on show throughout Australia for the free event, including 50 in Victoria and 12 in Melbourne. The homes will be open from 10 am to 4 pm.

The event’s coordinator, Judy Celmins, says the residences range from those with simple, low-cost alterations, right through to new dwellings complete with every imaginable innovation. Details of the homes are available on both the Sustainable House Day and shmeco websites.

Ms Celmins says visitors find it invaluable to see first hand the way people have altered their homes, and ask them how they did it. “Whatever stage you’re at, you can learn something,” she says. “It’s our ninth year and even the people who come every year say they always learn something new.”

Mr Cuthbertson and his family have been living in the same house for two decades, but only began retrofitting in the last few years – prompted by their daughter, who was then completing her engineering degree.

“We had lots of discussions about climate change and it convinced me that we should be doing something,” he says.

His message for visitors is that it’s not difficult to make improvements. “It’s not something you do overnight, but you just keep working on it.”

The Cuthbertsons have ticked off all the usual retrofitting measures, such as thorough ceiling insulation and draught sealing around windows and doors. They’ve also stopped the gaps left inside the kitchen cabinetry and around skylights.

By way of big-ticket technology, they’ve installed solar photovoltaic panels, a solar hot water system and a large water tank that fills from a collection point in the stormwater drain.

When their old central heating system needed to be replaced, they paid an extra $2000 for an efficient model that could heat in zones. “We only heat the core of the house and turn on the other rooms as we need them. That’s made a big difference,” he says.

Mr Cuthbertson is a computer programmer, and a tinkerer, so visitors will also be privy to a number of his nifty innovations, including a mirror that reflects sunlight inside during winter and a retractable blind over the clothesline that lets the washing dry on rainy days.

He’s also done some DIY double-glazing, and fitted cardboard pelmets that rest between the curtain rail and the architrave. “It’s a nice solution – they’re effective and a lot cheaper than putting on proper pelmets,” he says. “I’ve been concentrating on things that don’t cost a lot but give a reasonable return.”

A series of eight temperature sensors around the home feeds data into Mr Cuthbertson’s computer, informing him about the efficacy of the changes he’s made.

“I’ve put in a bit of effort and achieved a fifty per cent reduction in energy and water use, so I feel the politicians are selling us short on climate change,” he says. “There’s nothing special about what we’ve done. It’s all applicable to other homes.”

Meet the eco-housing standard that demands attention to detail.

HOUSEHOLD energy use accounts for nearly one-fifth of the Victoria’s greenhouse gas emissions. And while our residential efficiency standard will rise to six stars next year, we’re still lagging behind many parts of the US and Europe.

If you want your home to stand above the rest, you could take your cues from one of the most rigorous standards of all: passive house.

Founded in Germany and Sweden in the 1990s, passivhaus (in the original German) is a voluntary standard for building energy efficiency. It aims to create homes that don’t need any conventional heating – even in the bitterly cold winters of northern Europe.

Christoph Begert, from eco-consultancy Sustainable Built Environments, has studied the way passive house principles apply to Australian homes. He’s speaking this week at RMIT’s Green Building and Design Conference.

The concepts involved are nothing new: they include all the usual suspects of passive solar design, such as good orientation and shading. But they’re combined without compromise. “The rigor of the requirements is what makes passive houses successful,” he says. “They effectively decouple the internal climate from the external climate.”

Mr Begert, originally from Germany, says the criteria are such that the power of a hair dryer is sufficient to heat a 100-square-metre home. “The houses often end up not requiring any heating system at all, because a few people and electrical appliances produce more heat than a hair dryer does.”

There are three crucial elements of a passive house. Firstly, the homes are ‘super-insulated’ to two or three times the level required here. Windows are usually triple glazed.

Secondly, they’re sealed like a snap-lock bag. Gaps and cracks must be comprehensively stopped, to the point where the air change rate is less than 0.6 of the volume of the house per hour. That’s up to 30 times less than the rate in a typical Victorian home when a strong wind is blowing.

Finally, to make sure there’s plenty of fresh air inside, passive houses have mechanical ventilation systems. They often use a heat exchanger, which captures the heat from exhaust air to keep the temperature constant inside.

The result, according to Mr Begert, are homes that rate beyond nine stars.

He has examined the performance of passive houses in Spain and Italy and compared them to conditions here. “From our analysis, we found that Melbourne has a very good climate for passive houses,” he says.

Because of our warmer climate, the insulation need not be so extreme and windows only double-glazed. Good shading is compulsory to avoid baking in the hotter months. “Passive houses perform extremely well during winter, but you have to be sure you don’t make an oven during summer,” he says.

In Europe, homeowners have found that building a passive house costs between 10 and 15 per cent more than a standard home. But with little or no heating and cooling, ongoing expenses are low.

The theme of the RMIT conference is “Greening the Existing Building Stock”. Mr Begert argues that the passive house principles can be applied to renovations as well as new homes.

“You don’t renovate your house very often. When you go to that effort, it’s worthwhile getting it right. You’ll spend a bit more money, but you get really good value for it.”

The early gardener attracts the worms.

IF you want to rest easy with a comfy crop of home-grown vegies this summer, now’s the time to make your beds.

Helen Tuton, from Sustainable Gardening Australia, recommends backyard farmers pamper their soil. “Soil is just so important,” she says. “It’s the medium that feeds plants and gives them all the nutrients they need. Vegie patches are really hungry, because annual crops are very nutrient intensive.”

The first step is to clear the patch. Ms Tuton warns that we mustn’t be sentimental about our flagging winter crops. “People are always reluctant to pull them out, but you need to get ruthless,” she says.

Then, to prepare the soil for planting, aerate it lightly with a garden fork, add a layer of good organic compost and chook-poo fertiliser pellets, and mulch to a depth of about six centimetres. “If you don’t mulch, your compost and soil dries out and loses a bit of its vigour and vitality,” she says.

Water occasionally, but otherwise, leave the bed alone for a few weeks. “By the time you come to plant in September or October, it’ll be rich and full of worms,” Ms Tuton says. “If you’ve got good soil management practices in your vegie patch, 95 per cent of the hard work is done.”

Typically, Australian topsoils are shallow, clayey and ill-equipped for fast-growing annual crops. That means if you’re growing vegies, you can never add too much organic matter.

But to get the best results, it’s also worth taking a close look at the chemistry of your backyard, according to Adam Grubb from Very Edible Gardens (VEG).

“When you get the balance of the minerals in your soil right, your soil structure improves, your plants get a lot healthier and the food that you eat is more nutritionally dense,” he says.

VEG offers soil tests and interpretive reports with a focus on organic solutions, from $160.

Mr Grubb says there are three main soil types in suburban Melbourne (they change again when you reach the Dandenongs).

The eastern suburbs lie on ancient ground, grey-yellow clays dating from the Silurian period about 440 million years ago. “They tend to be leached, nutrient poor and have really bad structure,” he says.

All the soils he’s tested in the region have been lacking in calcium, boron and manganese – deficiencies remedied by adding lime (not dolomite), basalt rock dust and micro-nutrients.

The second area, south of the Monash Freeway and towards Frankston, has sandy soils that dry out quickly. For vegie gardens there, Mr Grubb prescribes regular applications of organic matter and mulch.

The third area, he says, is the volcanic plains that start in Northcote and go west, almost to South Australia. They’re the third-largest volcanic plains in the world.

“Volcanic soils are rich and much more nutritious. But the ones we have here are heavy clays, so you need to work in organic matter and calcium, like gypsum or lime.”

City soils can also sometimes bear pollutants, such as lead. “Where you’re near a major road or you’ve had flaking paint, there’s a potential for lead contamination,” Mr Grubb says.

Again, it’s always prudent to add organic matter, because well-composted soil reduces the lead uptake in plants. “There are some days I think compost can fix anything outside the marital bed,” he says.

Existing structures can become affordable, eco-friendly homes.

FOR people searching for low-cost housing, there’s one modern pursuit akin to alchemy: transforming steel shipping containers into homes.

There are over seventeen million containers around the world, many of which languish in ports with nothing to do but rust, while yet more are fabricated and sent to sea.

“China is the major exporting nation in the world,” says architect Matthew Grace. “The containers sit at wharves because it’s not economically viable to send them back empty.”

Overseas, the crates have been successfully stacked into student housing and temporary accommodation. There have been eye-catching projects in London, including the Container City apartments and a 120-room Travelodge hotel.

To date, few similar developments have landed in Australia, but Mr Grace’s resPOD designs might change that. The dwellings, which comprise up to four containers, cost between about $30,000 and $185,000, fitted out. He has set up a factory in Benalla, and the first orders for family homes will soon be delivered to Hurstbridge and Wandin North.

“It’s not about living in a shipping container, but rather, using the steel structure of the container in lieu of a standard timber frame,” Mr Grace says. “It’s a sustainable kind of architecture, and it’s cheaper to build.”

If you’re trawling for crate ideas, try the Fabprefab website. It has a page devoted to container housing projects, together with links to technical resources and books.

However, bear in mind that a recycled building frame alone doesn’t equate to a sustainable home. To set sail for the highest possible star rating, the dwelling must also be well oriented and insulated.

And shipping containers aren’t the only structures waiting to be re-enrolled. When Abbie Heathcote travelled to Melbourne from her home in Castlemaine, she always noticed a playground of disused portable classrooms by the freeway.

“I wanted to build something fairly quickly and I didn’t have a lot of money,” she says. “I like recycling and I’d often thought it was a shame to waste those classrooms.”

So Ms Heathcote, an artist and writer, bought one for $3000 and spent just 13 weeks converting it into a home, with the help of a builder. (See a detailed article about her home in ReNew magazine, Issue 112.)

“The classroom has solid metal bearers and the roof and external cladding were fine. But the floor wasn’t structurally sound so we had to put joists on top of it and install a new one,” she says.

They insulated the floor, walls and ceiling and added internal walls. Ms Heathcote hunted down fittings and furnishings at garage sales, and cut costs by doing much of the work herself. “I did all the light labour: tiling, plastering, floor finishing and fiddle-diddling around,” she says.

She oriented the dwelling to the sun, and removed one of the windows to the south. “I can’t bear to live in houses without windows to the north,” she says. “During the day the slightest bit of sun warms the whole place up.”

The old schoolroom now comprises two bedrooms, a kitchen, a living and dining area and a bathroom and laundry. Ms Heathcote also constructed a broad verandah and enclosed an extra room – making it about 80 square metres in total.

Altogether, the project has cost just over $50,000. “My friends have been amazed at how attractive it is,” she says. “It’s extremely pleasant and comfortable to live in.”

A new housing development will have residents eating the suburbs.

OUR public spaces need not only be ornamental, according to Andrew Partos from state property developer VicUrban. “Streets can be productive as well as aesthetic, and fruit trees are often very beautiful to grow,” he says

In its Meridian housing development in Dandenong, VicUrban is putting nutrition into the nature strip. The streets will be lined with a mix of about 20 kinds of productive trees, including apricots, apples, pears, figs, mulberries, lemons, olives and hazelnuts.

“There are also urban orchards in the public open space, and an area set aside for community gardens,” Mr Partos says. The first two stages of the development have sold out and the third is scheduled for release later this year.

A residents’ association will manage and harvest the trees, together with interested local groups and schools, if necessary. The approach was modelled on similar schemes in Europe and North America.

Here, many councils have long been opposed to public fruit trees, for fear of maintenance bills or litigation should something go wrong. “Those arguments can be addressed,” Mr Partos says. “Some areas of California have had productive landscapes in their streets for a long time, with community organisations set up to manage and run them.”

As well as the edible trees, Meridian includes liveable street design, where slow moving cars must share the paths with pedestrians. The stormwater runoff flows into green landscaped edges, where it waters the plants directly.

Unfortunately, there’ll be a delay before the trees bear fruit, because the first planting was damaged during the construction process.

It will be worth the wait. “Productive landscapes deal with a number of sustainability issues. If you can provide locally sourced fruit you remove a lot of the oil used in fertilising, harvesting, transporting and purchasing it,” Mr Partos says. “But we’ve found that the even greater benefit of all this is the creation of strong neighbourhoods and communities.”

Kirsten Larsen, from the Victorian Eco-Innovation Lab at the University of Melbourne, says it’s crucial we understand that food is a major part of our household footprint.

“When we talk about reducing environmental impact, we often don’t include food. But it is our biggest source of water use, half our waste to landfill, and nearly 30 per cent of our household greenhouse gas emissions.”

She says the planning model for urban areas must change. “We suck resources into our cities, use some of them and waste a whole lot. We need to think about our cities as productive, as well as consumptive spaces. We have the resources here that we need: water, nutrients, space and sunlight.

“Growing some of our food helps close energy, water and nutrient cycles. It cuts the need for transport, encourages healthy eating, and can create green spaces, cooler urban areas and jobs.”

The Eco-Innovation Lab developed an online ‘food map’ detailing locations of food production across the city. Ms Larsen says interest in city food growing has been “exploding”, with guerrilla gardeners, backyard produce swaps, and people grafting fruiting varieties onto existing ornamental trees.

In that spirit, Yarra Urban Harvest is about to plant a community orchard on private land in Collingwood. The group also encourages people to plant productive trees on nature strips and traffic islands – especially in Yarra, where the council hasn’t been removing public gardens set up by residents.

There’s a big upside to removing halogen downlights.

THE federal government has banned the sale of most incandescent light globes, but one kind is still available: halogen downlights. Unfortunately, they’re still marching two-by-two throughout the nation’s homes.

“As light sources, halogens make really good heaters,” says Lance Turner, from sustainable technology magazine, ReNew. “Like all incandescent globes, they’re really inefficient. Less than ten per cent of the power they use turns into light. The rest is turned into heat.”

That excess heat poses a significant fire risk when debris or insulation strays too close. It’s one of the problems that caused the demise of the federal government’s insulation rebate.

But while shonky installation jobs have rightly been condemned, the real problem lies with the halogens themselves. Not only do they run hot and gobble too much electricity, but the necessary gaps in insulation also fatten our heating and cooling bills. “They can cost hundreds of dollars a year to run and they don’t even light rooms very well,” Mr Turner says.

When Cameron Munro and his wife Karin moved into their house in Malvern, the ceiling was spotted with 23 halogen downlights; their insulation “looked like a Swiss cheese”.

In the process of retrofitting the home, they removed nearly all of them. In the lounge room they replaced five halogens with a single compact fluoro bulb, slashing the electricity demand from 250 to 15 watts. “We only kept downlights where they were appropriate – for task lighting over the kitchen sink and in the reading area,” Mr Munro says.

In those spots, they switched the halogen bulbs with LEDs. They placed protective covers over the fittings in the ceiling and filled up the insulation cheese holes.

“With the covers we can run the insulation much closer and effectively eliminate the fire risk,” he says. Downlight protectors, such as the Tenmat or Isolite, are available at hardware stores for less than $20.

According to Mr Turner, the best light fittings are those for which you don’t need to punch a big hole in the ceiling. He argues there are many better options, from classic pendant or oyster fittings, to new products such as disc-style puck lights or strips of LED lighting that can be hidden along pelmets.

If you want downlights, there are a few ways to replace halogen bulbs. Low-energy ‘infra-red’ halogens are cheap and easy, but don’t make much difference. “The low-energy halogen replacement for a 50 watt bulb is still 35 watts,” Mr Turner says.

You can also directly exchange them with LED downlight bulbs, but Mr Turner argues that without appropriate fittings, they bulbs are unlikely to last their full lifespan. To replace fittings you’ll need an electrician, but it’s a quick job.

For a recent ReNew case study, Mr Turner opted for Crompton CFL downlight fittings (Edison screw, about $10 each) with LED bulbs purchased online from the US (US$25 to $50).

“Generally the ones available in Australia are more expensive because they’re not sold in large quantities,” he says, noting that it’s important to assess the quality and standards compliance of overseas products. For a local supplier of complete fittings, he suggests Brightgreen.

Although the cost of fittings and LEDs varies widely, the expense is worthwhile. “If you upgrade to an energy efficient fitting the payback period is never longer than about five years.”