Hovabator Incubator Fridgemate Hack
A cheap incubator can be turned into something much more accurate and reliable with a simple $50 digital temperature controller.
Dehydrating Zucchini
The waves of zucchinis just keep coming from our garden! This year, we’re dehydrating them to preserve them for use throughout the year.
Fridge BuyBack Scheme Pays $35 For Old Fridges
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 … [Read more…]
My Chest Fridge Conversion
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 … [Read more…]
The Great Chest Fridge Conversion Project Begins!
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](http://green-change.com/2008/11/27/ms6115-mains-power-meter-review/), 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 … [Read more…]
Fridge Buyback Scheme Comes To The Illawarra
The NSW Government has been trialling their [Fridge Buyback Scheme](http://fridgebuyback.com.au/) 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 … [Read more…]
Energy Star Ratings On Appliances
When shopping for whitegoods and appliances, the energy star ratings can be a useful guide to judge the relative energy efficiency of different makes and models. Be careful, though, because the stars can be misleading if you’re not comparing like-for-like. For example, this week we were looking at chest freezers (we want to be able … [Read more…]
Using A Plugin Power Meter
>_When you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it; but when you cannot measure it, when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meager and unsatisfactory kind; it may be the beginning of knowledge, but you have scarcely, in your thoughts, … [Read more…]
Reducing Electricity Consumption
After figuring out our [baseline electricity consumption](http://green-change.com/2008/11/07/baseline-water-and-electricity-usage/), we were mortified to see how much electricity we use. I had honestly thought our usage was about half of that amount. So, where are we wasting electricity? We have over 30 50 watt halogen downlights throughout the house. They use a lot of electricity, and we’re pretty … [Read more…]