Comments | goatsfoot: Your more sustainable home

goatsfoot

Your more sustainable home

Mar 29, 2009 11:55

For those in Australia who own their own homes:
The Federal Government is giving out rebates for environmentally responsibly initiatives in the home. Even though Rudd's government is wussing out on their promises before the election, they are still a lot better than Howard's lot.

If you don't have effective insulation:You can get $1,600 off the ( Read more... )

Comments 12

nixwilliams March 29 2009, 08:13:21 UTC

*sigh* i wish there was more that we could do in an apartment. we have talked to the body corporate about getting tanks, though, so that's good!

goatsfoot March 30 2009, 09:51:50 UTC

I'm in an apartment with a body corporate too. Are you homeowners? So the body corporate would install tanks for you? In my place the body corporate handled installation of solar hot water but not maintenance. We don't think it'd be a problem if we installed solar electricity.

nixwilliams March 30 2009, 09:57:15 UTC

we're homeowners, yay. the tanks are way down on the list of priorities, but at least they're there now. the problem is that it will cost everyone extra in our bodycorp rates to install them, so we have to get enough people to an agm to agree to do it. *sigh*

where would you install solar panels? our bodycorp management would probably not do that, or allow it.

goatsfoot March 30 2009, 11:13:38 UTC

they wouldn't? bec the homeowner here is pretty confident she wouldn't even need to ask permission, just do it. i don't think they can reasonably refuse you adding them onto your own home.

.......ahhhhhhh! do you have your own roof? if you don't then yes, that might be a problem.

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darkentropy March 30 2009, 03:15:56 UTC

Do you know anything about paying tax to the government if you're using a water tank for particular purposes?

I heard that you have to install a meter and pay per litre or some nonsense.

goatsfoot March 30 2009, 09:53:58 UTC

I don't know! Paying for rain?? Crazier things have happened! I've never heard of a tax on personal household water tanks, and I used to work at a shop that sold them. But bigger ones in industry/farming??

ilikerivers March 30 2009, 07:47:56 UTC

I wish there was such a thing as having solar with back-up grid electricity rather than having to feed the power back in. Or an opt-in/out version of something similar. A little switch to put mains on when you haven't generated enough of your own. And I wish you could run more things on just solar! I have visions of living off the grid and I'm battling with the need for gas fridges, washing machines and the unreliability of computer power plus I need to run my cpap machine all night. Can you help me with any ideas for this stuff? Are there souped up versions of solar panels (off the grid) that can keep up with my modern conveniences ie computer/internet? (and needs for cpap and a possible microwave for heat packs?)

goatsfoot March 30 2009, 10:20:46 UTC

As far as I know, what you're describing with back-up grid is what is current - you feed excess power back in when you're not using it, and then you get excess power off the grid when your solar generation isn't covering it (such as at night). So the TOTAL AMOUNT your house uses MINUS the TOTAL AMOUNT your solar panels generate is the amount on your bill from the electricity company.

So if you use 1500kWh of electricity in a quarter, and 1000kWh is generated in a quarter from your solar panels, then you end up only having to pay for 500kWh worth from the electricity company.

If you use 1500kWh of electricity in a quarter, and 1800kWh is generated in a quarter from your solar panels, then you will receive payment from the electricity company for 300kWh worth ( ... )

goatsfoot March 30 2009, 10:21:05 UTC

continued from last comment...

You can visit D*ck Sm*th and J*yc*r and even auto accessories/caravan/camping places for heaps of 12V appliances such as light globes, and also transformers so that you could do things like rewire you mobile charger so that it can run on 12V (or batteries strung together to make up a custom voltage which are charged from 12V). Because a lot of caravans use 12V power, they are a good place to look for household appliances.

Just a start! I am interested in this too! So let's keep on talking about it!

goatsfoot March 30 2009, 10:23:05 UTC

Oh and I've also seen pedal power as another way to feed into the mini power station. Not that you'd want to do that personally! A stationary bike set up with a load attached that generates power. (You can generate power by making magnets spin, which is how coal stations do it.)

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