James & Vilija

Here is the next tip in our “Don’t be an Eel with Energy” challenge.

With summer in full swing in the southern hemisphere and not far off in the northern one luxury of cheap electricity is the liberal use of Air Conditioners. Whilst undoubtedly useful for some when extreme weather hits the need for an Air Conditioner is often a consequence of less than optimal housing design.  A recent study has also found that air conditioners can in fact make the outside temperature hotter by upto 2°!  (See the end of this post for more info)

Simple modifications can reduce and even eliminate the need for Air Conditioners;

• Installing/upgrading insulation in the ceiling and walls will stop your house heating up when its hot outside.
• Installation of awnings on the outside of the windows will prevent direct sunlight hitting and entering the house. Well designed awnings will block summer sun, yet allow winter sun in for warmth.
• On hot days, ensure you keep all doors and windows closed. Close the curtains to keep the sun out and door snakes to stop hot drafts from entering through gaps. When it does cool down at night, open the doors/windows to let the cool air into the house.
• If you have older windows/doors, consider fitting foam to help them seal and keep out hot air. You can buy the foam at hardware stores and is like sticky tape so is very easy to install.
• In place of an Air Conditioner install/use Ceiling fans. They are the most energy efficient form of cooling and are the cheapest to purchase, cheapest to run. They operate quietly and are suitable for rooms of all sizes.

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Here is the next tip in our “Don’t be an Eel with Energy” challenge.

Two of the biggest users of energy in a standard home are the fridge and the hot water heater.  Why, because these are two devices that run 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.  It is estimated that upto 40% of a households greenhouse gas emissions come from electric hot water heaters.  This equates to about 4 tonnes of gas a year!

Fortunately, there are many easy and inexpensive (with the exceptions of replacing the unit) options to reduce the impact of your hot shower.

• Change Units - Next time your hot water service stops servicing you with hot water consider replacing it with a more efficient unit.
  • Solar Hot Water - By installing a Solar hot water service, you can sleep comfortably at night knowing that you are emitting nearly 0 green house gasses
  • Heat Pump  - A new type of hot water unit uses the same principal as a fridge in reverse to heat water.  However, for the same reasons that a fridge is inefficient (when trying to remove heat), a heater is actually more efficient. Click here for an example unit. 
  • Gas - Natural gas high efficiency water heaters produce around two-thirds lower greenhouse emissions than electric heaters
• Switch to Green power - By using “Green” electricity you can minimise the impact of your electric hot water service.  Before you do, check our Green Electricity Watch which reviews and rates the different “Green” electricity plans from all the different energy suppliers.  This ensures that you are getting what you paid for and are not just handing over money for nothing.
• Turn the temperature down - If you risk burning yourself with the hot water from your tap, your hot water service is set to high.  Turn it down to 40-45°
• Use cold water for the laundry - There is very little need to use hot water when doing the washing.  By simply washing your clothes in cold water you can reduce your need for hot water
• Reduce wasteful use- By fixing leaking water taps, avoiding using the hot water taps for washing hands and short uses, keeping plumbing well maintained, turning off the hot water unit whilst you are not at home for long periods (ie: on holidays)

Sources - Renovation Nation (The Age), Energy Australia

Photo courtesy of flickr user alexfittyfives

For a while James and I have had a small list of things we wanted to see whilst we are here in Italia.  This list included Venezia, Roma, etc… and Pompei.  Pompei is one of the most memorable things we studied in Roman history back in primary/secondary school.

Given that we were in Roma, it seemed silly to us to ignore Pompei given that it was within easy reach of a day trip and we couldn’t confidently say that we would be back in that area any time soon, if at all.  So on Sunday (New Years Eve) we dragged our tired behinds out of bed early and off to Termini train station. Read the rest of this entry »

About a week and a half ago, we received an e-mail from James’ dad with a message from a family friend (Rod). Rod had worked with the MSO and generously arranged tickets for us to see the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra in the last of their European concerts in Milan. Incredibly surprised and excited, we organised ourselves to go and see the concert. We estimated that the 4.19 train from Genova on Friday afternoon should deliver us to Milan with 2 hours to spare. Once there we would go to our hotel room (the last train for Genova left too early), get ready and head out. Well, thanks yet again Trenitalia, we arrived an hour late. Managed to navigate the Milanese public transport system to our hotel, got dressed in a world record time of 5 minutes and were out the door and in a taxi on our way to the concert across town. Read the rest of this entry »

Here is the second tip for our “Don’t be an Eel with Energy” challenge.

Initial Cost - Now $low, long term $0

Traditional incandescent lights were first invented over a 100 years ago and today still remain popular as they are generally the cheapest light fittings to buy in a shop. However the true cost of these fittings is not accurately represented by the cost at the checkout. Incandescent lights a horribly inefficient, around 5% meaning 95% of the energy used by them is lost in heat.

However, for many years now, a significantly better solution has been readably available. Compact fluorescent lights which work by the same principle as the long tube fluorescent lights used in offices etc… are around 20% efficient. This is 4 times better than normal incandescent which means 75% less power for the same light and 75% less running costs. The other advantage of them is that they last upto 15,000 hours of use compared to roughly 1000 for incandescent. This means you won’t have to change that hard to reach globe nearly as often if you replace it for a Compact Fluorescent.

So, heres the weekly challenge, try to change as many lights to Compact Fluorescents as possible. Yes some can’t be changed because they require special light globes but 90% can be. The initial cost can be a little off-putting but if you buy one at a time with your weekly shopping in a very short time your entire house can be using Compact Fluorescents.

Update - I read an article during the week of a new invention that allows you to reduce the amount of stand-by power usage easily. In essence it is a remote controlled hard power switch that you can use to remove all power to all devices in the house if you want or a select group of devices. It is a great idea making saving energy even easier. Check out “Bye Bye Standby” here.

 UPDATE!!!!: It looks like it might be announced soon that traditional Incandescent light bulbs may be banned in Australia from 2009.  (Article - The Age)  Why not try to ban them ourselves by the end of 2007!

Photo courtesy of flickr user TaranRampers…

Here is the first tip for our “Don’t be an Eel with Energy” challenge.

Goal - Reduce your energy use by 10%

Cost - $0

Think of all the things in your house that sit there, plugged into the wall all day, every day. Most, if not all of these consume a little bit of power even if they’re not in use. Things like TVs, DVD/VCR Players, Computers, Stereos, Microwaves, Mobile Phone Chargers, Laptop chargers, etc… have a standby mode that allows you to turn them on with a remote control. Whilst in standby, these things still sip power. A little bit of power times 5 things times 24 hours a day times 365 days a year equals a significant amount of power. Estimates put this vampire usage at between 5% and 10% of a households energy use.

If you turn off everything when you are finished using it by unplugging it or turning off the power you can achieve your 10% reduction in one simple move!

Photo courtesy of flickr user lecasio

Whilst the weather has been a favourite topic of conversation of people for years, it has become a little more “exciting” this year. The longest/biggest drought on record… The warmest winter that I can remember… Dinosaurs were killed by global warming…

As people with large egos and big eyebrows sit on their hands talking discussing if the Greenhouse effect has anything to do with the weather, I propose we follow a different route.

As all Australians are aware, over the last several years there has been a big push to reduce the amount of water used through public education programs, advertising, restrictions, financial incentives, etc… Why don’t we try this for energy? Hence the title.

Don’t be an Eel with Energy

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It would be nice to say that we are now fully recovered after our trip to Roma. We are both back at work now and life is pretty much back to normal other than a persistent cold that I have. We can nearly celebrate our three week anniversary! Between you and I, though, the relationship is starting to wear thin. This week, the cold and I enjoyed each other’s company with a hearty cheasty cough. It was at its worst last Thursday where I had most of my colleagues at work fitting ear plugs. Without wanting to jinx myself, as of this evening I think I might be winning. I am weaning myself of cough syrup and even managed to go swimming this morning with Vilija.

One thing that quietly passed under the radar was the official 1 year anniversary since I arrived in Italia last year. The 6th of January is La Befana here in Italia. A public holiday where a nice witch on a broomstick brings lollies and sweat things to kids throughout Italia. Though after a year here, I didn’t make it onto La Befana’s lolly list. Maybe next time? Read the rest of this entry »

Having finished our day trip to Pompei we were sitting at the Pompei train station exhausted after another long day and lots of walking. As if we should have expected anything else, the regional train that we needed to take back to Napoli for the connection through to Roma was running late. This significantly reduced the chance that we would make our connection in Napoli. When it did arrive and took us to Napoli, we were two headless chickens running through the train station in search of the ticket office and then our subsequent train. With a stroke of luck we were on the correct train, complete with tickets in time. Anyone of the bemused locals who had bet on the crazed strangers missing their train lost their bets.

The reason we were keen to be back in Roma was that we were meeting a friend of Michaella’s from Australia who is also living here in Italy. Marco currently lives in Brescia, north-east of Milano and had spent Christmas visiting family in Napoli. Marco has had a lot of the same experiences as us including battling unsympathetic bureaucracy etc… It turned out that we were both planning on being in Roma for NYE and made plans to meet up. Read the rest of this entry »

Some handy hints for those of you planning a trip to Rome: Read the rest of this entry »