Green-Change.com » Electricity

Mitsubishi i-MiEV Electric Car Thoughts

Darren — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 13:29:50 +0000

The Mitsubishi i-MiEV is getting a lot of press lately as the first mass-produced all-electric car to go on sale in Australia, so I thought I’d throw my 2c in. It’s an interesting development, and maybe marks the start of electric vehicles becoming a viable option for the mainstream.

Right now it’s certainly not a cheap option, though – the i-MiEV is currently only available as a $1740/month 3-year lease, giving it an effective cost of over $70,000! A conventional petrol car of similar size and standard would be around the $15,000 mark.

My guess is that the price reflects the scarcity of the cars at the moment. There are only 110 being made available in Australia this year, and it sounds like production numbers are limited by the supply of suitable batteries. As manufacturing picks up in the next couple of years, I’m sure we’ll see the price drop dramatically. This is always the way with new technology.

The key stats of the i-MiEV are:

47 kW electric motor
180 Nm of torque
16 kWh / 330 V Lithium Ion battery
140-160 km range
130 km/h top speed (speed limited)
1080 kg weight
15 Amp trickle charge in 7 hrs (standard household outlet)
Fast charge to 80% in 30 min (special 3 phase 200 V 50 kW outlet, not yet available)

The obvious first question is, how much would this car cost to run?

Assuming electricity costs around 20c/kWh, you’d be looking at 0.2 x 16 = $3.20 to charge from empty. That would drive you 140-160 km. Another way to look at it is that’s about 11.42 kWh and $2.30 per 100 km (assuming 140 km range). Even a very efficient small car using 5 L of petrol per 100 km is costing about $6 per 100 km, assuming petrol prices of $1.20/L.

The maintenance costs for an electric vehicle will be much lower as well. There are no fuel/oil/air filters to replace, no oil to change, and no spark plugs and cables to replace. The transmission is much simpler, there’s no radiator and cooling system, there are less fan/drive belts, no fuel or oil pumps, and no starter motor or ignition system. In fact electric vehicles may may not be popular with dealers at all, since they’ll no longer be able to make such big profits from the maintenance and servicing side of their business.

OK, so the running costs should be much lower than for a conventional car. But what about the environmental effects? What if people just use coal-fired electricity to recharge their cars?

The worst figures in Australia for CO2 emissions per kWh of electricity generated come from Victoria’s brown coal power stations. These results in emissions of 1.25-1.56 kg CO2/kWh (source). Given the figure of 11.42 kWh/100 km above and assuming the worst brown coal emission figure, that’d be causing emissions of 17.8 kg CO2 per 100 km travelled. Converted to grams per km (the usual units used to measure emissions), we’re looking at 178 g CO2 per km travelled. In 2008, the average emission figures for new light vehicles (i.e. equivalent to the i-MiEV) was 222.4 g CO2 per km (source).

So in the worst case (burning Victorian brown coal electricity), driving the i-MiEV is still 20% cleaner than an equivalent new internal combustion car. That figure actually surprises me – I thought it’d be much worse. Of course, if you charged it with green power those emissions would drop to next to nothing!

All these numbers are impressive, but in economic terms they don’t currently make up for the very high purchase cost of an i-MiEV. Buying an equivalent petrol car for $50,000 less would leave you with a lot of money to buy petrol and carbon credits!

It’ll be interesting to see how the electric vehicle market develops over the next few years. As volumes increase and prices drop they’ll become more economically viable, and we could see a lot more of them on the road. Rising petrol prices would see us reach that point even sooner.

The one big issue that concerns me is how we’re going to generate all the extra electricity these cars will demand if they take off. We’re already pushing the limits on our electricity grid’s ageing infrastructure, and I’d hate to see increased demand result in more coal-fired power stations being built. And let’s not even mention the nuclear option!

What do you think? What’s the future of electric vehicles in Australia?

NSW Government Revamps Solar Feed In Tariff Scheme

Darren — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 12:55:29 +0000

Effective midnight tonight, the NSW Government has announced a revamping of the Solar Bonus Scheme. Here’s the official press release.

Under the scheme, NSW households and businesses were paid a gross feed-in tariff of 60c per kWh for solar electricity they generated and supplied to the grid. That was ALL electricity generated, since it was a gross metering scheme.

This was an extremely generous scheme, and made installing solar electricity an extraordinarily good investment for NSW households. Combined with the 5xRECs federal rebate scheme, most systems would pay themselves back completely in under 4 years!

Such a good deal couldn’t last forever.

The scheme has now been wound back to a 20c per kWh gross feed-in tariff. Anyone who had committed to purchase of a system by midnight tonight (e.g. by paying a non-refundable deposit and signing contracts), and who applies to join the program within the next 21 days, will still receive the old 60c per kWh tariff. Many suppliers announced they were staying open to midnight to give customers as much chance as possible to qualify!

It will be interesting to see how this plays out for the Australian solar industry. It’s been a mad goldrush in NSW for many months, with solar installers pulling out all stops to sign up as many people as they could while the scheme was in operation. None would claim they didn’t see this day coming, but it’s sure going to put a damper on their businesses. They’ll have a backlog of installations to complete over coming months; after that there won’t be anywhere near the same level of interest.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get in on the action. We bought solar panels for our previous house under the old SHCP rebate scheme, which made us ineligible for the 5xRECs scheme – even though we bought a new house and no longer own the previous one. Bummer.

Shellharbour Solar Expo A Huge Success

Darren — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 11:53:14 +0000

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 and solar hot water suppliers there, displaying their products and giving people quotes. There was also a wind power company and a few other energy-related displays. FutureWorld had the table next to us, which was great as I finally got to meet Meryl who I’ve exchanged plenty of emails with in the past.

We put on talks on solar hot water, solar power, and residential wind power. The talks were so popular that the lecture room was filled to capacity several times, and we had to schedule repeats of the presentations.

We estimate that around 500 people attended on the day, which was way higher than anything we had hoped for! We had to run out and photocopy more of our information sheets a couple of times.

I met and talked with lots of interesting people, and hopefully helped explain some of the mechanics of having solar power and hot water installed, how the government rebates and incentives work, and what it’s like to live in a house with those systems. We also chatted a fair bit about sustainable living in general.

One great couple I met had just been on a four-year tour of Australia by caravan, relying on solar power and bottled gas for all their energy needs. Upon returning they realised it really doesn’t take much energy to meet their requirements, and so they’re working towards taking their house in Wollongong totally off the grid. They’ve already disconnected from the town gas main, and would like to disconnect from the electricity, water and sewerage services as well and handle it all themselves on-site. It’ll be really interesting to see how they go!

Russell Hawkins, my partner in crime for the Jamberoo FutureCare “Home Journeys” documentary, was also there to shoot some footage. It’s great to have that project under way!

A highlight of the day was the raffle – the top prize was a 1.5 kW grid-connected solar power system, fully installed! It was generously donated by GreenSmart Electrical. Other prizes included $1000 towards purchase of a solar power system from Solar Shop Australia, $500 towards purchase of a hot water system from SolaHart Wollongong, a HP mini notebook computer from Bass Electrical Engineering, a $250 energy pack from Pyramid Power, and two solar sun jars from C2C Solar. A huge thanks to all the donors.

Given the success of the day, I’m sure there will be another similar expo held again in the future. So if you missed out, keep an eye on the media for details!

For those who missed out on copies of the Jamberoo FutureCare handouts, here they are:

JFC Solar Hot Water Consumer Guide (578 Kb PDF)
JFC Solar Power Consumer Guide (266 Kb PDF)

CFLs and Mercury

Darren — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 06:00:37 +0000

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 previously published about my own experience of switching from low-voltage halogen downlights to CFL downlights

In the past couple of weeks I’ve had several people express concern to me that the mercury in a CFL poses a serious health risk if it gets broken, or represents a major environmental threat. Rest assured, the mercury concern has been blown out of all proportion by people opposed to the switch.

How often do you break lightbulbs?I can only think of twice in the past 10 years or so that I’ve even been near a broken bulb. If the bulb isn’t broken, no mercury is released.
There’s very little mercury in each bulb.The amount of mercury contained in each globe is very small (about 3-5 milligrams), or enough to cover the tip of a ballpoint pen. A tiny watch battery contains 5 times as much mercury, and we don’t seem too concerned about carrying them around on our wrist all day. Mercury thermometers contain about 100 times that amount (500 milligrams), and again we seem happy to keep using them.
Most of the mercury won’t vaporise.If a CFL bulb is broken most of the mercury remains on the glass and is not actually released into the air. Inhalation of mercury vapour is much worse than skin contact or even ingestion.

If you do happen to accidentally break a CFL globe, make sure you clean it up safely

Interestingly, the amount of coal burned to generate the additional energy used by an incandescent bulb over its lifetime would release 5 times more mercury into the environment than is contained in the CFL bulb that replaced it (source: The Environmental Engineer journal 2006). So even if the worst case happened and CFLs were dumped into landfill and not recycled, the net release of mercury into the environment would be less if we all switched.

Of course, you should dispose of old CFL bulbs properly. Contact your local Council to ask about collection programmes, or refer to the Australian federal Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts web site.

The Australian Conservation Foundation has a pretty good explanation of this topic.

For a very thorough scientific assessment of the risks, see the European Commission’s Scientific Committee on Health And Environmental Risks’ document Opinion on Mercury in Certain Energy-Saving Light Bulbs.

Cleaning Up Broken CFLs

Darren — Sun, 03 Oct 2010 11:00:37 +0000

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 up what to do.

The best instructions I found were from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) web site. To summarise (this is for hard surfaces, like the garage floor):

Before anything else, air out the room for 15 minutes (easy, I got sidetracked and spent half an hour on the computer answering emails!).
Scoop up the glass pieces using stiff paper and place them in a sealed plastic bag (don’t use a broom or vacuum – you don’t want mercury getting airborne where you can breathe it in).
Use sticky tape to pick up the remaining tiny glass fragments and powder.
Wipe the area clean with damp paper towels.
Place all cleanup materials into the plastic bag, seal it, and then seal the whole lot in a second plastic bag.
Store the sealed bag of waste somewhere safe outside the house until you can dispose of it safely. Kiama area residents can drop it to Council’s Lamp Recycling Program at the Minnamurra Waste Depot. Other areas, contact your local Council to find out how to best dispose of it.
Wash your hands thoroughly after the cleanup.

If the breakage occurs on carpet, rugs, bedding or other soft materials, there are slightly different cleanup steps recommended. Refer to the above web site for full instructions.

So, does this mean that CFLs pose a significant health risk?

I don’t believe so. There are lots of things people use in modern life that can impact our health if not handled correctly, from printer toner to potting mix. As long as you are aware of the hazard, handle the item or substance properly, and know how to deal with a spill safely, then the risk is minimal. More thoughts here: CFLs and Mercury.

(Image credit: http://www.test4mercury.com/BrokenCFL.htm)

The CSIRO Home Energy Saving Handbook

Darren — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 07:00:10 +0000

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 CSIRO named Peter.

We got chatting about hot water and home energy usage, and I mentioned something from the book I’m reading at the moment – The CSIRO Home Energy Saving Handbook. “Oh,” said Peter, “that’s my book.”

Turns out he’s Peter Osman, one of the authors! How often is it you’re chatting to someone and they turn out to be the author of the book you’re currently reading?!

We had a great talk, and Peter was very interested in the playing around I’d done with the solar hot water system. Things like turning off the electric boost through summer and setting the thermostat on the system lower. I’d been keeping almost-daily electricity meter readings as well, and he’s keen to get that data.

One of the things Peter is looking at is how to make solar hot water systems more efficient with a “smart” off-peak boost controller. A big problem with the current setup is that many households use most of their hot water in the afternoon/evening, then the off-peak electric boost heats the water in the tank overnight, so by the time the sun comes up the next day the water is hot and there’s very little work for the sun to do other than merely maintain the temperature. A smart booster could use things like weather forecasts, hot water usage patterns, time of year, etc to decide when and how much to heat the water using electricity, so that the maximum benefit possible is gained from the sun and electricity use is minimised.

We also talked about general home energy savings, and he really liked the concept of the chest fridge I built. It’s still working wonderfully, by the way.

You can read more about Peter’s research into climate change, energy use and sustainability at his web site, EnergyClimate.com.

And definitely check out the CSIRO Home Energy Saving Handbook – it’s available from Kiama Library, among other places. Don’t forget to visit the Handbook web site to get copies of the worksheets, too.

Fridge BuyBack Scheme Pays $35 For Old Fridges

Darren — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 04:46:27 +0000

I’ve had an old second fridge in the garage for a long time now, and I’ve been meaning to try out the Fridge BuyBack scheme to get rid of it. It’s extremely energy-inefficient.

If your fridge meets the requirements (over 10 years old, over 250 litres, working second fridge) and you have less than 6 steps to get the fridge out of your house, the scheme will pick it up, recycle the gas and parts properly, and pay you $35. Nice!

The idea is that old, inefficient fridges can be permanently taken out of use to reduce electricity consumption. The gases can be safely removed, and the rest of the fridge can be properly recycled so it doesn’t end up in landfill.

Because I was going to be home from work yesterday, we booked the pick it for then. Two blokes and a truck arrived about 8:30am, collected the paperwork and heaved the fridge into the back. They were really friendly and efficient – the whole thing only took about 5 minutes!

The cheque should arrive within two weeks.

Now $35 might not sound like much, but to me I just swapped a crappy old space-hogging fridge for a new fruit tree. I didn’t even have to help move the fridge. That’s a swap I’d take anyday!

If you live within the Fridge BuyBack scheme service area, give them a call.

Residential Solar Power: Is The Income Taxable?

Darren — Fri, 14 May 2010 01:23:51 +0000

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 media to scare people and stir up reactionary outrage, but then when the situation turns out to be a little different, the reporters move on to the next football scandal and never bother to clarify the facts for their audience. People are left with the wrong idea, and the misinformation becomes “general knowledge”.

Even the article cited above contains a statement from the ATO that “Generally, no it’s not taxable – if you’re not carrying on a business.” But they don’t make that clear in the article, and still choose to run with the headline “Going solar has a few hidden extras”. Many news reports didn’t even bother to seek clarification from the ATO.

So, is solar power income taxable?

As the ATO spokesperson said, and as has been reported on numerous industry web sites, the income derived from a small solar system installed on an owner-occupied residential dwelling is generally not taxable. I have to cover myself, though, and state that this is not tax advice and you need to obtain your own advice based on your unique situation from your accountant or tax agent.

It sounds like people installing large systems with the intention of making money will be required to pay tax on the income, though. This also means they’ll be able to claim depreciation on the asset and the costs of maintaining their system, just like any other income-producing asset. With rising electricity prices and falling solar panel prices, these systems can be a good investment.

One interesting aspect of the income from solar power systems is that it is counted as income for social security purposes (see section titled “Feed in tariff income and social security”). This may impact pensions and other payments, so if you think you may be affected you should ring Centrelink and ask about it.

Share your solar power stories!

Do you have solar panels on your home? Or business? Are you grid-connected or standalone? What has been your experience so far? Are you having any hassles with utilities in getting your credits/payments?

Please leave your comments below!

Backyard Chickens Soar In Popularity

Darren — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 02:19:30 +0000

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 to those topics or this was a real demographic trend.

As always, it turns out that Google has the answers!

Below is a graph of how the number of searches for the term “backyard chickens” has increased over recent years. Obviously the northern hemisphere is dominating the search patterns, as you can see the strong seasonal variation.

Interest in growing food in the backyard increased a little in 2008, but really took off in 2009 – perhaps due to the increased uncertainty brought on by the global economic crisis? This graph is for the term “growing vegetables“.

And it’s not just that people are spending more time at home and out in the yard – if that were the case then searches for “flower gardens“, “ornamental gardens“, etc would be increasing too. This graph is typical of the trends shown by these types of search terms, decreasing steadily year by year.

There’s also a strong interest in learning about “saving electricity” and “saving water“:

These graphs were all produced using Google Insights for Search. It’s a great way to explore what people are interested in and identifying broad trends. Be warned, though, you might end up spending hours playing around with it!

Generating Electricity vs Saving Electricity

Darren — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 05:00:21 +0000

While putting together notes for my talks over the weekend, I noticed something interesting. The amount of electricity we saved each day by converting 10 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.

The difference is, the 10x GU10 conversion kits and CFL lamps cost us about $120, whereas the solar power system, after government rebates ($8000) and renewable energy certificates (RECs) (~$1500), cost us $2675.

Similarly, replacing our clunky old second fridge with a chest fridge cost $140, and saves us about 2 kWh per day.

In most cases it’s way, way cheaper to reduce your power consumption than it is to generate the equivalent amount of additional power.

And that’s why people living off-grid, generating their own power, are happy to pay big bucks for super-efficient appliances like the Vestfrost range of fridges and freezers.

Converting Halogen Downlights To CFLs

Darren — Sun, 24 May 2009 16:06:51 +0000

After some discussion on power-hungry low-voltage halogen downlights in the comments section of my We Now Have Solar Power post, I thought it was high time I did something about them.

A while ago I measured that our 50W halogen lights are actually drawing 65W each – the extra 15W is lost in the transformer. So a string of 4 lights uses 260 Watts! We have about 30 of these downlights throughout our house. Ouch!

As part of the Sustainable Illawarra Super Challenge we’re participating in, we got $100 worth of vouchers for energy-efficient lighting solutions from Cosmo Lighting (Shop 3/9-11 Princes Hwy, Albion Park Rail ph 4257-9111). Serge (the company director) was really helpful, and spent a lot of time showing me the options for converting halogen downlights to something more efficient.

There are three main options for making halogen downlights more efficient:

Use lower wattage halogen lamps. It’s kind of obvious, but I could have replaced some of the 50W halogen lamps with 35W halogen lamps, and saved 15W per downlight. There are new Infra Red Coated (IRC) lamps that claim to give the same light output at 35W as a normal 50W lamp, so I could have even used 20W IRC lamps for some areas and 35W IRCs where the extra brightness is needed. This is an easy thing to do, since no fittings need to be changed, but the IRC lamps cost more and the energy saving is not huge.
Use LED lamps. You can now get LED lamps that fit into the same fittings as halogen downlights, but use as little as 3W. It sounds great, but most transformers designed for halogen lights work best under a 35-50W load. When run at just 3W, their output voltage increases and they’ll greatly shorten the life of your LED lamps. This is not a good thing, as 3W LEDs (equivalent to 20W halogens) cost around $50 each, and 6.5W LEDs (equivalent to 35W halogens) cost over $100 each! To get around this problem, you need to buy and install new transformers specifically designed for LEDs.
Convert the fittings to 240V and use Compact Fluorescent (CFL) downlights. You can pull out the 12V transformers and wire in GU10 kits, which provide a 240V plug for lamps but use the same downlight fittings to hold the lamp. You can then install 11W or 13W CFL downlights (a 13W CFL is roughly equivalent to a 50W halogen). This option currently gives the best bang for the buck – it uses twice the energy of a 6.5W LED for the same light level, but costs under $10 for the kit plus about $3-10 for the CFL lamp (depending upon brand and brightness).

I was talking to Serge about some of the stuff we’d been doing (and were planning) to reduce our energy consumption, and he really wanted to help me out. In the end he gave me an awesome price on 10x GU10 kits, 6x 11W lamps and 4x 13W lamps.

So today I got up in the roof and changed some fittings over. It’s a pretty simple process, but if you’re not qualified you should get an electrician to do this for you.

I chose our most-used lights for this – 4 in the loungeroom, 4 in the dining room, and 2 in the play room. The dining room is where we need the most light, for when the kids are doing craft etc at the table, so that’s where I put the 13W CFLs. I decided not to change anything in the kitchen for now – even though we use those lights a lot, we want it bright in there so you can see what you’re doing, so I didn’t want to risk it for this first trial.

>Tip: Before you get up in the roof, pull the globes out of the fittings you want to convert. This makes it much easier to find the right ones when you’re up in the roof!

Then I just had to wait for nightfall so I could test them out.

The verdict? We’re pretty happy with them. We made the right decision putting the 13W lamps in the dining room. The 11W ones are a bit dimmer – fine for where we put them, but I think I’ll just buy 13W lamps from now on. Like all CFLs, they take a moment to start and another couple of minutes before they reach full brightness.

Compared to the original 4x 50W lamps (totalling 260 Watts including transformer losses), the 4x 11W CFLs (totalling 44 Watts) use only 17% of the electricity. I can live with a few minor drawbacks for that kind of savings!

I’m hoping that one day in the not-too-distant future I’ll be able to buy LED lamps for the GU10 fittings at a reasonable price and save even more energy. But until then, the CFLs are a workable solution.

It’ll be interesting to see what effect these 10 lights will have on our electricity usage.

Note: CFLs contain mercury, a toxic substance – if you install them, make sure you know the procedure to safely clean up a broken CFL.

My Chest Fridge Conversion

Darren — Fri, 22 May 2009 15:41:14 +0000

I finally got the chance to set up my chest freezer as a fridge a couple of weeks ago, and I’ve been testing it out so I could write up this post.

You may recall I mentioned that we had an old fridge/freezer running in our garage as a second fridge. With three young kids in the house, we go through a lot of milk, juice, yoghurt and wine. Having a second fridge lets us buy larger quantities of these things once a week, instead of needing to go to the shops every day or two.

I measured the energy use of the old clunker with my MS5116 mains power meter, and was surprised to learn that it was using 2.5 kWh of electricity per day. Our total household energy consumption at the time was around 20 kWh per day, so this thing was responsible for 1/8th of that!

A lot of hard-core sustainability geeks around the internet (especially those living off-grid) have toyed with the idea of converting a chest freezer into a fridge. The theory is that it will use a lot less electricity because the horizontal lid doesn’t let the cold air fall out when it’s opened, and it has very thick insulation compared to a fridge. People are claiming some amazing power consumption figures, but would it really work that well?

I bought a 210L chest freezer for $90 second-hand, and ordered a FridgeMate MkII digital temperature controller online for $50.

A little bit of wiring is required to set up the digital temperature controller. It’s basically a temperature sensor that can switch a 240v power supply on or off. The simplest way to install it is to take a short electrical extension cord and cut it in half. You can then strip back the wires and connect them into the back of the FridgeMate according to the supplied wiring diagram. This gives you an extension cord with a temperature controller in the middle. One end of the power cord plugs into your powerpoint, and the freezer plugs into the other end.

The photo below shows how mine is wired up – it should help if you’re having trouble following the schematic wiring diagram. In the photo, the right-hand cord is the end with the male plug (i.e. that plugs into the power point) and the left-hand cord has the female plug (i.e. where the fridge plugs in). The cord in the middle with the red and white wires is the temperature sensor, which needs to sit somewhere inside your freezer but not touching the walls. For safety, the controller should be mounted in a project box so nothing can come in contact with the live wires on the back of it.

The FridgeMate can either cut the power when the temperature rises above the set point (if you’re using it to control a heating mat or belt), or it can cut the power when the temperature drops below the set point (if you’re using it to control a fridge or cooling coil). It has a lot of configurable parameters, and comes with an instruction book on how to modify them all, but the instructions list out the recommended settings for use with a fridge. This makes it very easy to program.

Once it’s all set up, the freezer can be plugged in and the power turned on. It didn’t take long for my little freezer to drop to my set point of 3 degrees C, at which point the FridgeMate cut the power. I then opened the lid for a while, and as the temperature rose the FridgeMate cut back in and cooled it down again. Perfect!

So, how much electricity does my chest fridge use?

Once it was loaded up and stabilised, I left the MS6115 on the chest fridge for 24 hours. When I came back, it was reading a cumulative usage of just 0.2 kWh! Given the limited 1-decimal-place reading, I’m calling that 0.2-0.3 kWh. Not bad at all – it’s around 1/10th of the old fridge (at 2.5 kWh/day).

And how is it in use?

I thought it was fine, but the true test of the usability of the chest fridge was what Megan thought. After a week or so of use, she’s quite happy with it. We’re keeping all the bottles of milk, juice and wine on the bottom of the fridge. Smaller bottles (beer, ginger beer, etc) go on the step, and items like yoghurt, butter, etc go in the basket. Megan actually finds it easier to lift and rearrange the bottles from above than to slide everything in and out on a normal fridge shelf. You have very easy access to everything in the fridge without having to move stuff around.

Someone asked me what the ambient temperature was when I did these power tests. I didn’t actually measure it at the time, but it would have been around 20 degrees C during the day in the spot where the fridge sits. It probably dropped to about 10-12 degrees C overnight, I’d guess.

We Now Have Solar Power!

Darren — Sun, 17 May 2009 22:26:31 +0000

OK, our solar power system actually got installed a week ago, but I wanted some photos so I had to wait until the weekend.

Anyway, we now have solar power!

We got a 1 kW grid-connected solar power system from Earth Utility. Once again (we previously got solar hot water from them), their service was great and the finished job looks very neat and professional. The electrician who did the installation was very knowledgeable and friendly.

WARNING: Earth Utility appears to be in trouble (updated 28-04-2010).

The system consists of 6 photovoltaic panels on the northern side of the roof, and a Sunny Boy 1100 inverter (with a 1.1 kW rating) mounted next to the meter box. You can see the panels and inverter in these photos:

The Sunny Boy inverter has a display on the front that shows total cumulative power produced, daily power produced, hours of operation, and instantaneous power and voltage. My only criticism of it is that you can only view those figures while the sun is out. If you come home after dark and want to see how much power was produced during the day, you can’t.

So how much electricity does the system generate? One the clearest, brightest day we had this week it generated 4.3 kWh. That’s pretty good, considering we’re only about 5 weeks from the winter solstice (the sun’s lowest path across the sky). It’ll be interesting to see how it performs over summer.

Because our block slopes up from the road and we have a roof over our front deck, none of our solar stuff is visible from the street. It’s kind of a shame, as I’d really like people to see that normal houses can be retrofitted with this kind of technology.

If you’re at all interested in getting solar power, start making enquiries now. The current rebate scheme will end on June 31, and is going to be replaced with an inferior one. The only upside is that the new scheme will not be means tested. There’s still time to get the ball rolling – you just have to get your rebate application in before June 31, and then you’ll have 9 months from the date of approval in which to install your system.

Progress On The Chest Fridge

Darren — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 11:57:14 +0000

My FridgeMate Mk II digital temperature controller arrived in the post today.

If you are thinking of a similar project, or just looking for home brew supplies, I highly recommend MashMaster.

I left a question about the FridgeMate for them via their web site, and they answered it within a few hours (and this was outside of business hours). That’s always an early sign of great customer service. They answered my questions about the product very clearly, and even gave me some tips on using it for a chest fridge.

The parcel arrived within two days, well packaged and in perfect condition. They even threw in a free bottle opener!

Now I just need to find a little free time to set up the fridge. That might not be until Sunday, but I’ll write a post about it when I do.

According to the Fridge Buyback Scheme people:

Forty percent of free standing Australian houses have a second fridge that is switched on and using energy. These old fridges are big energy users, consuming up to three times the energy of new fridges. Running a second fridge adds an average of $190 a year to the household energy bill and puts 1 tonne of greenhouse gases into the environment each year.

Now that’s some motivation to get this thing going!

The Great Chest Fridge Conversion Project Begins!

Darren — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 04:34:57 +0000

One of the big energy hogs in our house is our clunky old second fridge in the garage. I measured its energy consumption with the MS6115 power meter, and it uses a whopping 2.5 kWh/day!

Many Aussie houses have one of these beasts, which is a big reason why the NSW State Government is now offering money to people to hand them in for recycling.

Simply getting rid of the fridge is difficult, though. We have three young children, and so go through a lot of milk, yoghurt, and juice (and, truth be told, wine!). If we turned off the second fridge and only used our main one, we’d have to shop for milk and juice every couple of days. The second fridge gives us the space to store a weeks’ worth at a time.

A while ago I read in Renew, the magazine of the Australian Alternative Technology Association, a story about hacking a chest freezer to operate as a chest fridge. The author has posted about his chest fridge on his Mt Best web site.

The concept is actually very simple. You take a chest freezer, plug it into a temperature controller, and place the controller’s temperature probe inside the freezer. The device then just turns the freezer on and off at the wall depending upon the temperature inside it. If you set it to about 3 degrees C, it works as a fridge.

An alternative approach is to simply swap the freezer’s thermostat for a fridge one. Although technically reversible, this is a little more of a permanent hack. A very good article about it was recently published on the Aussies Living Simply web site.

Why would you want to do that?

Because chest freezers have great insulation (2-3 times thicker than a fridge) and open from the top (so you don’t lose all the cold air when opening them), this makes for an incredibly efficient fridge. Various people around the net are claiming they use just 0.1 to 0.3 kWh/day. That’s 1/10th of what my clunker of a fridge uses!

This simple idea has played on my mind for over a year now. So this weekend I began my own Chest Fridge Conversion Project.

First step was to obtain the freezer. I’ve been keeping an eye on eBay, newspaper classifieds, notice boards, etc for a while now. Finally, I discovered a guy around the corner from me selling a Westinghouse 210L chest freezer. Perfect! Twenty minutes and $90 later, I had a working chest freezer.

The thermostat used and sold by Mt Best is a little pricey for my project at $150, although it looks very good. I found an alternative temperature controller that works the same way at a home brew supply shop for just $50. Home brewing people use these with old fridges to maintain a constant temperature for optimum fermentation – exactly what I want to do (hopefully without the fermentation, though).

So I’ve ordered the FridgeMate Mk II digital temperature controller, and am eagerly awaiting its delivery. Stay tuned for an update!

Free Energy Monitoring Trial For Kiama Residents

Darren — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 11:31:49 +0000

If you want to reduce your energy bills, you need to know what it is in your house that’s using all the electricity. An Efergy energy meter is a great way to do that.

The Efergy meter is installed inside your electricity meter box, and transmits real-time energy usage information to a display panel inside your house. You can then go around the house turning lights and appliances on and off, and see the effect they have on your electricity usage. It can also add up your electricity usage over time, so you can get a picture of your daily or weekly usage patterns.

These electricity monitoring devices normally cost around $100, but Kiama Council is planning to install a whole bunch of them free of charge in residents’ homes. All the participants have to do is record their electricity usage over the 12 months of the trial, and compare it to the previous year’s electricity bills.

The idea is to install these meters in a variety of households around the municipality, from small one-bedroom units to large six-bedroom houses. Council is planning to gather both hard data and anecdotal stories from participants, and will use this information to assist the wider community to reduce energy consumption, help the environment, and save money.

If you’d like to participate, contact Byron Robinson on 4232 0465. It’s open to all residents of the Kiama Municipality – Foxground, Gerroa, Gerringong, Kiama, Jamberoo, Minamurra and surrounds. The closing date for applications is 30 April 2009.

This program is funded through the NSW Government’s Environmental Trust.

This is one of the first initiatives that has come through the Kiama Sustainability Advisory Committee that I’m a member of, and I’m really keen to see it get started. I’ve had an Efergy meter installed in my house for the past couple of months, and it’s an extremely useful tool in helping you (and your slightly-less-motivated family members!) monitor and reduce electricity wastage.

Fridge Buyback Scheme Comes To The Illawarra

Darren — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 10:15:04 +0000

The NSW Government has been trialling their Fridge Buyback Scheme in Sydney for a while now, and starting next month the scheme will be broadened to include the Illawarra. At this stage it will only encompass the Wollongong and Shellharbour Council areas, but hopefully it will extend to Kiama in the near future.

The scheme aims to encourage people get rid of their big, old spare fridges (larger than 250 litres and older than 10 years), by paying owners $35 for them. These old clunkers cost on average $190 a year to run, resulting in 1 ton of greenhouse gas emissions annually. Experienced removalists will come to your house to pick up the fridge; the refrigerant gasses are removed and safely disposed of and the rest of the parts are recycled.

So far the program has collected over 7,000 old fridges, and it is estimated that there are 27,000 qualifying second fridges in the Wollongong and Shellharbour areas. That could save the region up to 27,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions and $5 million in energy bills per year!

If you’re interested, check out the Fridge Buyback Scheme web site or phone 1800 708 401.

This project is being funded by the NSW Government’s Climate Change Fund.

Solar Power Information Nights – Jamberoo and Kiama

Darren — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 11:04:09 +0000

Are you interested in learning more about getting grid-connected solar power for your home?

You may be able to take advantage of the $8000 means-tested Government rebate which ends 30th June 2009, or the new non-means-tested solar credit scheme starting from 1st July 2009!

Jamberoo FutureCare will be hosting two information sessions, in association with Solar Shop Australia. The presentation will explain the technology, existing government rebates and the new solar credit scheme.

Full information is contained in the Jamberoo FutureCare Solar Power Information Sessions Flyer.

JFC is organising a discounted group purchase through Solar Shop Australia, and you can register your interest on the night. This will not be a hard-sell session, though – you’re welcome to attend even if you intend to purchase through someone else, or don’t intend to purchase at all but just want to learn more about how it all works.

Everyone is welcome, and these events are completely free of charge.

Jamberoo Solar Power Information Session

Tuesday 31 March 2009
Jamberoo Bowling Club
6:30 pm (bistro meals available)

Kiama Solar Power Information Session

Wednesday 1 April 2009
Kiama Community Centre, Hindmarsh Park
6:30 pm

The presentation by Solar Shop Australia will commence at 7:00 pm for both venues.

Solar Hot Water Installed!

Darren — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 12:50:21 +0000

We had our solar hot water system installed about 4 weeks ago now. I wanted to wait a little while for it to settle in before writing up our experiences.

We got a Chromagen system – they’ve been around for a long time, and seem pretty well-made and reliable. We bought through Earth Utility, one of the sponsors of the Sustainable Illawarra program we’re participating in. Note that we didn’t get any special deals or anything; we were just another regular customer to them. The service and price were both excellent.

WARNING: Earth Utility appears to be in trouble (updated 28-04-2010).

There are two general options with solar hot water: flat panels and evacuated tubes. We went for flat-panel, since evacuated tube was more expensive and we have good direct sun all day. The tubes are apparently more efficient, with a profile of good heat production throughout the day, which makes them great for areas with less sun than us (Tasmania, Snowy Mountains, etc).

We chose a system with a 300L tank, since our 300L electric off-peak tank had never run out on us – that seems to be the right size for our family. Also, we had the old tank turned down to about 60 degrees (minimum temperature), whereas solar systems heat the water to 70-90 degrees, so we’re actually getting more hot water than before anyway (or the same amount of hotter water, which goes further when mixed with cold for showers).

Since the old tank was off-peak 1 (night-only off peak, the cheapest rate), we kept that as the boost for the solar hot water system. The boost for the solar system uses 3 kWh/day, whereas we were using 8-9 kWh/day for electric off-peak, so it’s quite a good energy saving. I’ve now turned the boost off completely and we’re just using solar for heating, so our energy consumption is now zero. Most people around here suggest only turning the boost on during winter or if we get a few days in a row of heavy cloud. The extra capacity should carry us through a day or two of cloudy weather.

I was originally wanting to get a thermosiphon system (tank on the roof at the top of the panels) because that’s the most efficient configuration (no pump is required). It turned out that installation would be very expensive for us, though, since our driveway is too steep for a normal crane to lift the tank onto the roof. So we changed to a split system with the water tank in the back of the garage where the old one was. It’ll probably last longer, being inside instead of on the roof.

Also, in NSW you have to install a tempering valve (temperature regulator) to ensure the water going to bathrooms is kept to no more than 50 degrees. It’s supposed to stop children and other unsuspecting people from burning themselves, since solar hot water can get as hot as 90 degrees. Some people run additional pipes to get the untempered hot water to the kitchen and laundry, but we just got the valve installed straight on the outlet of the hot water system. Hot water at 50 degrees is fine in the kitchen or laundry, and I’d rather keep everything safe for the kids.

We were really happy with the work done by the Earth Utility installers. They routed the pipes really neatly around the hot water unit and up the outside wall, and made sure everything was insulated properly (important for both safety and efficiency). They needed to get electricity to the pump (used to move the water up to the roof and back), so they installed a new double powerpoint near the tank at no extra cost. We didn’t ask for that, they just decided it would be a good idea. How often does a tradesman do that these days?! It’ll come in really handy, since there wasn’t power in that corner of the garage previously.

Overall, we’re really pleased with our new solar hot water system. Purchase and installation were quick and easy, it looks great, and it’s working perfectly. We wouldn’t even notice it was there except for the reduced electricity bills!

Green Retrofits For Free?

Darren — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 11:51:37 +0000

If you live in Australia, did you know that you can now access green retrofits for your house for free?

Check out all the sustainable retrofit rebates available here in Australia. Make sure you scroll to the bottom and find your state ones, too.

You could get a rainwater tank, a solar hot water system, solar electricity, roof insulation or a number of other items.

OK, maybe I’m a bit cheeky calling this stuff ‘free’. Some certainly is (like the free roof insulation), but some you will still have to pay something for after collecting the rebates. But with Rudd’s latest stimulus package just being passed, most Australians will be receiving enough cash to cover those remaining costs!

Or you could spend the money on some fruit trees, or on setting up a vegetable garden, or even just use it to fund a switch to green energy for a decade or so.

None of us were budgeting for these handouts a fortnight ago, so why not spend it on something to reduce the running costs of your home, enhance its resale value, increase your quality of life, and reduce your environmental footprint? Surely that’s a great way to spend a bunch of money that just fell into our collective laps?!

How are you going to spend your Rudd bonus? Share your ideas in the comments!

Photo by Ed Bacchus.

Know Your Government Rebates!

Darren — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 21:43:32 +0000

You may have noticed that I’ve just added a new page to the menu bar above these posts, Australian Rebates.

I’ve tried to collect all the information I could find on Australian federal rebate programs, as well as all the different rebate schemes for the various states. There are a lot of good opportunities in there if you’re thinking of retrofitting some sustainable modifications to your house, so check them out and make sure you claim back what you’re entitled to!

The state-specific pages are: NSW, Victoria, Queensland, Tasmania, South Australia, Western Australia, with NT and ACT to come when I finish the research.

If you know of any rebates that I’ve missed in all this, please leave a comment below and I’ll update the pages.

Gross Solar Feed In Tariff Petition For Australia

Darren — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 20:37:25 +0000

The Australian government is waffling on the issue of a nationalised renewable energy feed-in tariff for homes. Recent announcements seem to indicate that they’ll favour a net tariff, which is very much inferior to the gross feed-in tariff the solar industry is calling for.

A gross feed-in tariff (where the energy-producing household is paid for all the electricity they generate) would create a massive incentive for people to invest in rooftop solar systems and other renewable energy sources (e.g. small-scale wind generators). This is what we need!

If you agree, hop on over and sign the Gross Solar Feed In Tariff Petition For Australia. I have.

The comment I left was:

C’mon Mr Garrett! You agitated the government for years on environmental issues, and that’s why we elected you. Now you’ve suddenly gone quiet, except for occasional cave-ins like the watering down of the solar rebate program. It’s time you make the difference we elected you for!

Leave a comment below and let me know if you signed it!

Choosing A Green Electricity Supplier

Darren — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 20:14:37 +0000

Have you considered switching to green power?

Are you overwhelmed by the choices?

There are dozens of green energy suppliers, offering all sorts of plans and options. Some suppliers are ‘greener’ than others, and prices vary widely, so how do you choose who to go with?

Enter the EasySwitch web site.

You simply enter your postcode, and they show you all the renewable electricity suppliers and plans that are available to you. The suppliers they compare plans from include ActewAGL, AGL, Australian Power & Gas, Click Energy, Country Energy, Energy Australia, Integral Energy, Jackgreen, Momentum, Origin Energy, Queensland Electricity, Simply Energy, TRUenergy and Victoria Electricity.

The list of available plans you’ll get shows details such as contract length, tons of CO2 saved, additional cost (or savings), and some information about where each plan sources its green electricity. It also shows the GreenElectricityWatch (GEW) rating for each plan, which is an independent comparison of how much difference each plan really makes to the environment.

Once you find a plan you like, you can click through to initiate the switch.

Give it a try, and let me know what you think!

Solar Power On It’s Way!

Darren — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 22:13:50 +0000

We received an email last night from Earth Utility confirming our order for a 1 kW solar power system. They also phoned today to make sure we were kept informed. I’m really happy with their service so far.

WARNING: Earth Utility appears to be in trouble (updated 28-04-2010).

Now it’s just a matter of waiting for the government to approve our rebate application – which could take up to 12 weeks! Sheesh.

On a related note, the government yesterday announced that they were replacing the old means-tested solar rebate scheme with a new, non-means-tested credit scheme (see coverage by ABC and Energy Matters).

Personally, I think the new scheme is dodgy in several ways.

It’s basically a 5x multiplier for your RECs. So if you sell your RECs, you’re basically selling a polluter the right to generate 5 times as much pollution as your solar panels are actually offsetting. Not only did the government let us down with a very weak 5% carbon emissions target, but now it looks like even that level will only be achieved by fiddling the books. Boo to Rudd.
The scheme means that people in the southern states of Australia will get less rebate than those in the north, due to their lower sunshine levels. So when the government says it’s worth “up to $7,500″, that’s really only if you live in the far north of Australia. It’ll be considerably less if you’re in Sydney, Melbourne, or (heaven forbid!) Hobart.
The credit multiplier gets reduced every year until it’s fully phased out by 2016. There’s no mention of whether any further incentives will then be offered for solar installations.
It appears to only address solar power and not other forms of renewable energy. Wind, micro-hydro and others should have incentive schemes as well.
There is still no word on any kind of federal feed in tariff programme. Giving people a guaranteed buy-price premium for the renewable energy they feed into the grid would provide a huge ongoing economic benefit that would encourage more home solar takeup.
The price of RECs depends on supply and demand. If lots of solar systems get installed, and they all get 5x the RECs they should, then supply of RECs will exceed demand and the price will drop. So effectively, the purchaser will get less subsidy than what the scheme is currently suggesting they’ll get. So that promised “up to $7,500″ shrinks some more.
The old rebate topped out at $8,000 for a 1 kW system. To get the full “up to $7,500″ in the new scheme, you’ll need to install a 1.5 kW system, which will cost you about $4,500 more than a 1 kW system.

You’d think that with all the money they’re throwing around in the pre-Christmas “economic stimulus package”, the government could have made a stronger, not weaker, renewable energy incentive scheme.

If you’ve been thinking about installing solar power, it looks like you have until June to get it in under the old rebate system. On the other hand, if your household income exceeds the $100,000 limit of the current means test, hold off until July and you’ll be able to take advantage of the new system (hey, it’s better than nothing).

What do you think? Is the new system a let-down?

UPDATE: LocalPower have posted a great article summarising SHCP Rebates vs 5xRECs.

The Clean Energy Project – Distributed Computing Initiative

Darren — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 11:55:01 +0000

IBM and Harvard University have launched a new distributed computing initiative called The Clean Energy Project. They want to harness the spare computing power of thousands of computers around the world to crunch numbers and search for potential materials to be used in new-generation polymer solar cells.

Polymer solar cells will be cheaper to manufacture than traditional silicon solar cells, however they currently have a pretty low efficiency rating. It is hoped that new combinations of materials may be found that will increase the efficiency to a practical level.

This processing task would take two decades to complete using their normally-available computing resources. The project aims to harness enough participants’ computers to get the job done in two years!

Anyone in the world can donate their spare computing power to the project simply by joining up and installing the free software. When your computer is idle, it will download data from the Clean Energy Project server and process it, then upload the results back to the server.

If you tend to leave your computer running when it’s not doing anything (energy waster!), maybe you could at least get it to do something useful for the solar industry.