Reports recently published in newspapers indicate that the government’s mandatory energy star rating schemes of homes is rather inaccurate. The scheme has been heavily-criticised by the building industry (HIA and MBA) and they are calling on scientists and the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency to review the way the star rating is calculated for new houses.
Tracking Energy Use
I’ve decided to write this blog in a somewhat different format than usual. I thought I should share some of my observations in tracking energy use since I’ve been involved for a little while now in installing, analysing, presenting and monitoring ‘real time tracking systems’ (or ‘carbonrealtime’) as we refer to it. I was actually really shocked to learn recently -when an environment officer at one of the councils posed the question to a small business audience, whether they knew how … read more
Read More
Painting your roof white better than a PV system in slowing global warming
Lawrence Berkerley National lab reported November last year on some fantastic research into how "cool roofs" can help slow global warming. White surfaces reflect rather than absorb radiation, and can be effective in re-radiating heat back into space. I've only just come across this research today, and the potential greenhouse gas savings are enormous. Most roofs are dark in colour, the research by Akbari, Menon and Rosenfield calculated the CO2 offset achieved by increasing the solar reflectance … read more
Read More
Why 5 and 6 star homes won’t get us to the low carbon future we need
If you’ve bought a new home in Victoria in the last few years the builder would have impressed you by saying its an “energy efficient” 5 star home (or maybe even 6 stars). Unfortunately even if all existing homes were converted to 5 star homes this won’t get us to the low carbon future we need. And in fact many new 5 star homes use more energy than forty year old 2 star homes. The 5 star standard is misleading, and needs to change if we are to have truly low energy homes. The major flaw … read more
Read More