Shellharbour Solar Expo A Huge Success

I spent most of Sunday helping to staff the Jamberoo FutureCare table at the Shellharbour Solar Expo, at Shellharbour Workers’ Club (who actually have 22 kW of solar panels installed themselves – see photo). The expo was organised by Jamberoo FutureCare, in conjunction with Shellharbour and Kiama Councils. There were a number of solar power … [Read more…]

CFLs and Mercury

Australia, and many other countries around the world, are legislating to phase out the sale of incandescent light bulbs. It is estimated that this initiative will reduce Australia’s annual greenhouse gas emissions by 800,000 tonnes of CO2-e; not bad, but it’s still only 0.14% of our total emissions. That said, any saving is progress. I’ve … [Read more…]

Cleaning Up Broken CFLs

Not long ago I dropped and broke a compact fluorescent lightbulb (CFL) in the garage. D’oh! I had a vague recollection that there’s a procedure you should follow to safely clean up broken CFLs, due to the small amount of mercury inside them. So, geek that I am, I jumped on the computer to look … [Read more…]

The CSIRO Home Energy Saving Handbook

I was interviewed on Monday by a researcher from the University of Wollongong about my experiences with installing solar hot water at our old house. They’re looking into why people choose solar, how they choose the system and supplier, what their experience has been, etc. Sitting in on the interview was an interesting guy from … [Read more…]

Residential Solar Power: Is The Income Taxable?

There has been a bit of a storm in a teacup lately in the Australian press, claiming that all those people who “bought into the hype” and installed solar panels on their homes will now have to pay tax on the income they receive for any electricity generated. Of course it’s very easy for the … [Read more…]

Backyard Chickens Soar In Popularity

I’ve long had the feeling that more and more people are getting into things like growing their own food, keeping chickens, and living sustainably. But then my own interest in these areas has been growing over the past few years too, so I wasn’t sure if it was just that I was paying more attention … [Read more…]

Generating Electricity vs Saving Electricity

While putting together notes for [my talks over the weekend](http://green-change.com/2009/06/14/welcome-super-challengers/), I noticed something interesting. The amount of electricity we saved each day by [converting 10 halogen downlights to CFLs](http://green-change.com/2009/05/25/converting-halogen-downlights-to-cfls/) (4 kWh) is about equal to the amount of electricity we are generating each day (on average) since [installing a 1 kW grid-connect solar power system](http://green-change.com/2009/05/18/we-now-have-solar-power/). … [Read more…]