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…]
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…]
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 … [Read more…]
I attended the [Gerringong solar hot water information night](http://green-change.com/2008/11/19/solar-hot-water-information-night-gerringong/) on Friday. It was very well-run, and was a great opportunity to talk to lots of different suppliers all in one place. The presentation by [Jamberoo FutureCare](http://jamberoofuturecare.googlepages.com/) was excellent. They don’t have any particular axe to grind – they just want to present the facts and … [Read more…]
I’m really looking forward to the solar hot water information night on Friday. I’m hoping to find out whether it is possible to retrofit some kind of solar heating (or at least boosting) to my off-peak electric hot water system. It’s in good condition and it seems wasteful (and expensive!) to get rid of it … [Read more…]
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…]