Natural light can cut your energy bills and brighten your days.

Recently, Caroline Ottinger decided to seek the light. “We live in a semi-detached house in Ascot Vale,” she says. “It’s over 100 years old and was quite dark inside. I really wanted to brighten it up.”

After thorough research, she chose two narrow tubular skylights to fit her corridor. The cost – $1200 installed – has paled in comparison to the effect on her home.

“They’ve transformed our hall,” she says. “People can’t believe it when they come over – they think we’ve got lights on. When it’s sunny they’re magnificent, and even when it’s overcast we never need to use lights during the day.”

Ms Ottinger has found the soft, diffuse daylighting to be more relaxing. “It makes me feel so much happier,” she says. “Because I’ve got a young baby I spend a lot of time in the house. I think light makes a real difference to your mood. It’s been an amazing transformation.”

If you’re considering skylights for your house, she suggests searching for a business that offers a free, no-obligation quote. “But it’s worth doing research yourself first, so you know the prices and the products – that way you’re not going to get ripped off.”

The Skylight Industry Association is a good place to start your investigation. President Robert Cussigh says that broadly, there are three kinds of skylights.

Dome skylights are the most common. They have a plastic, opaque dome in the roof and a square shaft that leads to a diffuser panel in the ceiling. Tubular skylights are similar, but use a round shaft with reflective silver lining that directs the sunlight downwards and into the room. Both kinds cost from around $200 to $900, plus installation.

Roof windows are glass units set directly into the roof, with open plaster shafts so you can see the sky. They usually have timber frames and double-glazing, but can come with all sorts of features, including blinds, rain sensors and remotes for opening and closing. They range in price from $400 to $2000, plus installation.

DIYers will find the smaller, tubular lights the most straightforward to put in, but Mr Cussigh maintains that any kind of skylight can be retrofitted. “They’re easier to install while you’re building the house, but most people tend to put them in after the fact. They realise they’ve got a dark room and skylights solve the problem.”

With an elegant design, they can even be a feature. “Many people are putting in roof windows for the wow-factor,” Mr Cussigh says. “You can really open a room up and make it look spectacular by drawing in natural light.”

Skylights can let in more than three times the light of a same-sized vertical window, according to online sustainable design guide, Your Home. Daylighting is also cooler than artificial sources, which means less added heat inside. Although some warmth can be gained and lost through the skylights themselves (depending on the weather outside), it’s minor in comparison to the effect of standard windows or inadequate insulation.

All things considered, says Mr Cussigh, skylights can significantly improve the energy efficiency of your house. “There’s a huge cost saving in CO₂ emissions by not having to flick a switch every time you want light,” he says.

Eco-friendly cleaning isn’t all about elbow grease.

ANGELA Crocombe hasn’t used commercial cleaning products in her home for years. “I’m amazed by the rows and rows of chemicals available at the supermarket,” she says. “They’re so unnecessary.”

She’s the author of A Lighter Footprint: a practical guide to minimising your impact on the planet. The book details all manner of ways to reduce your use of the world’s resources, including using natural cleaning products.

Ms Crocombe has swapped store-bought cleaners for microfibre cloths and a mix of simple goods: bicarb soda, white vinegar, lemon juice, and tea-tree oil (for a fresh smelling disinfectant). She employs other commonsense tactics such as using old toothbrushes to scrub hard-to-reach places, and it all adds up to a healthy saving. “You can save a fortune – there are so many products you just don’t need anymore.”

As a new mother, Ms Crocombe says she’s become even more determined to stick to her regime. “Sometimes I walk past a café that’s been cleaning with the toxic bleaches and it just stinks. I just don’t want my child to be inhaling that. And I’m also concerned about damaging the animal and plant life in our waterways.”

A risk adverse approach also makes sense to Bridget Gardner, founder of Fresh Green Clean. Her business was previously an eco-cleaning service, but she now consults and educates on green cleaning methods. She’s holding her next workshop for householders at CERES Community Environment Park in East Brunswick on November 7.

“There are a lot of unknowns with chemicals and human toxicity, especially because the chemicals are tested individually, not in the combinations found in finished products,” she says. “The EU is doing an enormous amount of work to tighten chemical regulation – it’s about taking a precautionary stance. For people who are concerned, there are solutions that make cleaning a lot simpler.”

Ms Gardner spruiks a four-step process. “I teach people that water is a fantastic cleaning agent,” she says. “And it’s not about going back to grandma’s recipes and scrubbing hard.”

The first step is to wipe the surface with a microfibre or textured cloth to remove anything loose. Next, soak to soften. “If there’s something stuck on, just leave it damp a moment. When you wipe it again, it will come off easily,” she says.

Then target any stubborn grime or stains with bicarb soda – add a small amount to a damp cloth to form a paste and rub gently. To remove shower and bathroom scale, Ms Gardner recommends first running the cloth over a bar of soap, then adding the bicarb. “You’re basically making something like Jiff. The soap makes bicarb more effective and easier to wash away afterwards.”

The final step is to dry the surface with a chamois, dry cloth or squeegee. Ms Gardner maintains that this process won’t take any extra time. “You have to be fast in a cleaning business, so I know these steps work.”

Although a growing number of commercial cleaning products are being marketed as ‘green’, it pays to be wary of their claims. Before buying, look for Good Environmental Choice Australia (GECA) certification and make sure the ingredients are listed. “Even if you can’t understand the gobbledygook, someone else can,” Ms Gardner says, “It means they’re not hiding anything.”

For a full list of low-impact cleaners, visit the Safer Solutions website.

It’s easy to turf the grass for a veggie patch.

Under stage 3a water restrictions, we’re banned from watering lawns from the mains. So avoid the dead grass this summer, suggests Adam Grubb from Very Edible Gardens, and convert it “from lawn to lunch”.

You can build a ‘no-dig’ garden without any back-breaking work, by layering brown organic matter (such as pea straw or autumn leaves) and manure (cow, sheep or horse) to form a raised bed.

“It’s like creating a compost where you’re going to grow your veggies,” Mr Grubb says. “No-dig gardens are really well-suited over lawn or weeds, or where the soil is poor.”

Begin by spreading chicken manure or blood and bone over the designated area, then set down wet newspaper to stifle the grass below. Next, layer the manure and organic material to at least 40 centimetres. “It’s sometimes called lasagne gardening, because you alternate those two layer types as you go up,” he says.

To plant your vegetables, make small holes and fill them with compost or rich topsoil. Place seedlings into the soil, rather than the manure.

Leafy greens will thrive in no-dig gardens straight away, but peas, beans and root vegetables like carrots and onions can find the manure too rich for the first few months. “You’ve given your garden such a boost that you won’t need to fertilise for twelve months,” Mr Grubb says, “Its performance will improve in the second year.”

Very Edible Gardens can help you get growing. They provide materials, know-how and permaculture design services (fully installed raised veggie beds start at $750). See their website (below) for a more detailed guide to no-dig gardening.

Matthew Pember, from the Little Veggie Patch Company, also offers backyard food growing expertise, from advice through to garden installation and maintenance. “You can grow almost anything in springtime,” he says. “But it’s important to plant what you are going to eat. It defeats the whole purpose if you don’t eat them!”

Delicious home-grown tomatoes are at the top of the list. Mr Pember’s favourite variety is black Russian. “They’re really tasty to pick off the vine and eat with a pinch of salt,” he says.

You should propagate seeds now, but if you want to plant as seedlings, hold off until early November. “The rule of thumb is to plant tomato seedlings over the Cup weekend,” he says. “Make sure to water regularly and deeply while the plants develop.” Grow basil, chilli, oregano and thyme as well, and you’ll be able to bottle a delicious tomato sauce when you harvest in late summer and autumn.

If you strike pests or other growing pains and decide to search the Internet for advice, remember to stick to southern hemisphere pages that match your climate. In any case, Mr Pember says the best wisdom is usually close at hand. “I live in Thornbury and I’ve got lots of Greek and Italian neighbours. They’re a wealth of information and they’re always happy to share what they know,” he says. “Learn from the people who’ve been doing it for years.”

The first step to reducing your greenhouse emissions is to do the maths.

Last year, Shaun Murray and his neighbours formed the Westside Carbon Rationing Action Group, aiming to reduce the eco-impact of their households. The first step was to estimate their greenhouse emissions.

The members plugged their energy use, flights, petrol purchases, and red meat and dairy consumption into a simple carbon footprint calculator (available on the Carbon Rationing Action Group website).

“It helps you to quantify and compare something that’s otherwise very hard to grasp,” Mr Murray says. “You get to understand the rough equivalencies – what it means if you switch to 100 per cent GreenPower or ride your bike instead of driving.”

The other benefit of these measures, he says, is that they help put our habits into perspective against others around the globe. Risk assessment company Maplecroft recently found that Australia has the world’s highest per capita carbon emissions from energy use, nearly twenty times more than India.

There are many other carbon footprint calculators available online that can help you decipher which aspects of your house and lifestyle have the most impact. The EPA’s Greenhouse Calculator is a comprehensive tool created by CSIRO (complete with teachers’ resources), while the Australian Conservation Foundation’s Eco-calculator takes account of water use and spending habits, as well as energy consumption.

Meanwhile, Mr Murray has reduced his carbon footprint to less than one-tenth of what it was. “I think that for a lot of people, it’s possible to make massive reductions in emissions,” he says.

Jeff Angel, executive director of the Total Environment Centre, agrees. “Do as much as you can by reducing your energy consumption and buying GreenPower,” he says. “After all those steps, you can make yourself carbon neutral by buying good offsets.”

Last year, the Total Environment Centre (together with Choice and the Institute for Sustainable Futures) founded Carbon Offset Watch, an independent ranking of Australian offset providers. “We set it up because there was serious public confusion about carbon offsets and major doubts about their veracity, accreditation and transparency,” Mr Angel says.

So which offsets will truly reduce your footprint? According to Carbon Offset Watch, the most effective projects change the underlying activities that create greenhouse gases. They include energy efficiency schemes, renewable energy funds, waste prevention and the protection of existing forests.

“The longer you have to wait for the carbon offset to mature, the greater chance risk that it may not eventuate – like tree planting,” Mr Angel says. “But if you are helping to pay for energy efficiency, those benefits are immediate when the new technology is put in.”

Climate Friendly was rated the best among the 20 offset providers that took part in the survey.

But there’s another catch. Under the Federal Government’s proposed emissions trading legislation, if an individual cuts their carbon footprint there’s no corresponding cut to the national target. Any voluntary cuts you make will just permit someone else to pollute more.

“Unless voluntary carbon abatement is ‘additional’ to the CPRS target, it becomes a feel-good exercise – it simply gives the big polluters an easier task,” Mr Angel says.

Carbon Offset Watch believes that although carbon offsetting is worthwhile, its future is in doubt if the flaw remains. “We’re campaigning for the Rudd government to solve the problem,” Mr Angel says. “The next two months will determine the success of the campaign.”

Gardens can thrive despite the drought.

It’s never too late to ready your garden for summer, says Anna Thirkell-Johnston, from Bulleen Art and Garden nursery, “but you’ve got to get onto it as soon as you can.” On October 15, she’s hosting a seminar on drought-proofing your backyard.

A number of tactics have begun to seep into common knowledge. Water tanks offer some independence from the mains: the larger the capacity, the better. Recycling greywater also boosts your supply, but it requires careful research and implementation.

When it comes to watering, it’s best to use a drip irrigation system and cover your garden beds with about ten centimetres of mulch – both steps will reduce evaporation and wastage.

But above all, Ms Thirkell-Johnston says, it’s important that people understand that soil is their biggest water storage device. “Organic matter is like a sponge in the soil,” she says. “Soils that have high organic matter hold a heck of a lot more water than those that don’t.”

She recommends gardeners build up their soil by adding compost and mulch to create humus – that’s the rich, dark and fertile soil that absorbs extra water. Moisture retention products such as crystals and wetting agents can be effective, she adds, but only if used correctly. Most people tend to use them too much.

On plant selection, Ms Thirkell-Johnston says there’s no substitute for study – search plant encyclopaedias or Google to find out what conditions suit the plant you’re considering.

Cam Wilson from Forest Edge Permaculture says a garden can be water-smart and productive. “A well-mulched backyard garden uses about one-fifth the water that a market gardener needs to grow the same amount of food.”

He recommends digging basins and trenches (about thirty centimetres deep) on the upper side of trees and shrubs. “If it’s been hot and dry, the soil doesn’t receive water very well. When you have a downpour, it rushes off the surface of your property,” he says. “The basins will intercept the runoff and hold the water, giving it time to infiltrate the soil.”

To avoid your yard “looking like a motocross track”, fill the trenches with mulch. “A tree-lopper can often drop off quite a large load of chips for $80 or $100.”

Drought-solutions can be attractive features. For a recent project, Mr Wilson created a dry creek bed, feeding from a shed downpipe. “It’s got disguised infiltration basins on the way down to water fruit trees, and they overflow into a frog-pond.”

He says it’s also crucial to shelter your garden beds from the hot western sun and from dry north winds. Try growing a grape on a trellis to the west – its deciduous leaves will offer summer shade.

To the north, he suggests planting a windbreak. “It reduces evaporation by a huge amount. I often recommend planting an Acacia hedge, which can be chopped back hard after summer to allow winter light. The prunings make an excellent mulch under fruit trees.”