Energy saving tips from the European Commission
So we Australians are inundated with advice about how to save money on our electricity bills. But what are the Europeans doing differently to Australia to save electricity?
Service Central has lots of articles about saving electricity.
10 ways to save money on electricity
What's more energy efficient? A full or empty fridge?
Green electricians help you save energy
The European Commission lists a whole bunch of advice. The smaller things that they also suggest:
- Unplug your mobile phone charger
- Boil only enough water for your hot drink
- Cover pots while cooking
What have you done to save energy?
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‘Green’ is not a dirty word
over a year ago by Steve Krsticevic
I was at a bbq last weekend with some of my wife’s work friends listening to tales of renovation woes when a lovely old scottish lady asked what I did for a living and I replied “I’m a green builder”.
Stunned silence.
I felt like a bank manager. It seemed like a minute before anyone spoke.
“Isn’t that expensive?” was the collective thought spoken by my Scottish friend.
When I explained we were more focused on quality design, building a stronger structure as well as saving money for the long term, their faces unscrewed.
“What if I showed you systems that essentially create an esky around your home so you don’t suffer those stinking hot summers you used to?”
They leaned in.
“What if the same structure meant you didn’t need as much heating in winter to keep warm and cosy?”
They stepped closer.
What if this structure was so strong you could sleep safely at night knowing that strongest of winds ... even a car crashing into it ... could not bring your house down…and because the structure is so air tight and there are no ‘cavities’ in the walls, there are no pollens, dust, spiders, ants or cockroaches that can live in the cavity of your walls and come inside whenever they feel like it. Your house is now a healthier place to live.
“How long has this system been around? Has this been tested and proven in Australia?”
It is relatively new in Australia but has been in America for about 30 years and was developed in europe over 70 years ago.
“Why is Australia so far behind?”
Would love to answer that one but the Australian building industry is only now catching on to the concept of building with ICF’s or SIP’s as opposed to cladding or bricks ‘n’ mortar. Double glazed PVC windows are now accepted as a high quality product and not a cheap alternative. Evacuated tube solar panels to heat water for living and hydronic heating are the next generation heating systems coming into the market direct from Germany. Spray foam insulation has been proven around the world as the superior method of minimizing heat transfer as opposed to the batts. There is more interesting technology to come out of Europe which is at this stage still at ‘Pentium III’ levels of availability and price. No doubt as take up increases and the laws of supply and demand kick in Australia will join the rest of the world in building energy efficient homes.
They were eating ... but chewing very slowly as they stewed on the underlying philosophy of all the things we contemplate before we decide a product is ‘Fit for Purpose’ ... fit for your family ... your home.
There is more to building ‘green’ than just orienting the home to take advantage of northern sun. And why am I constantly putting ‘green’ in inverted commas ?
Not many can justify spending exponentially more money to build ten star carbon neutral homes when a 6 star home is not much dearer than standard construction and 8 star feels really good in the extremes of summer and winter. To put it in perspective our typical brick veneer home at the moment with R1.5 batts in the walls rates at a paltry 3.5 – 4 stars on the energy efficiency scale. But there are plans to raise the minimum building standard for new homes in the coming year or two. The more dramatic impact on all of us will be the introduction of a new minimum energy efficiency rating for all homes that are put on the market for sale. This will create a flurry of building activity for those wanting to sell their homes and almost instantaneously create a new level of awareness in the entire community for the kinds of products that achieve these ratings.
The big question is will we have a government that has the spine to withstand the backlash from the do-gooders, the industry associations and the companies who manufacture or import el-cheapo building materials to see Australia spring back onto the world stage with quality construction that would really do something practical to reduce / minimize emissions coal fired powerstation and other eco-unfriendly practices.
And this has nothing to do with which party wins the upcoming election, it has to do with a leader taking charge and leading the party and our people into a better future. And while we’re on it, has the cost of coal being ripped out of the earth increased ? Has the universe increased the levies on raw materials or have Australians enjoyed cheap power bills for too long … compared to America and the rest of the world?
Australia no longer rides on the sheeps back … we sent all that business to NZ. Some Australians are struggling at or below the poverty line while our GDP makes us look wealthy … our utilities are somehow getting away with double digit increases 2-3 times a year and the carbon tax is now another sure slug on our disposable income … while the rest of the world is figuring out how to help their people through these testing times, the people pulling our strings are squeezing every drop of blood they can get.
I believe the answer is to stay one step ahead … and renovate our existing homes or build new homes to ensure they cannot take more than they deserve.
What are the basic principles of energy efficient homes and "passive design" ?
1. Orientation - living areas facing north, large glass area facing north with screen or eaves to receive low winter sun, min glazing facing west to avoid heat gain – more smaller windows are better than one large window (unless you have a killer view then we forgive you).
2. Thermal mass- concrete slabs, icf walls, to even out temperature fluctuations
3. Insulation – such as spray foams in the ceiling …forget about insulation batts they only work in laboratories, monolithic urethane sprayed in your ceiling or under your roof works in the real world. You also want the external side of thermal mass to be insulated to keep winter heat in and summer heat out. That’s what makes icf walls such a good option… there is a monolithic skin of styrene right around your home … like a big doona wrapped around every room of your home.
4. Shading- to protect all glass from exposure to summer sun, to minimise heat gain.
5. Zoning- doors to living and sleeping zones to prevent heat loss and gain, living areas on north side, sleeping areas, garage, laundry on south side.
6. Ventilation- cross flow air movement to exploit cooling breezes to dispel excess summer heat , vented roof space
7. Glazing- performance glass (eg low 'e') to unshaded windows, double glazing to southern windows to reduce heat loss. Another little known fact here in Australia is to seal the gap around the perimeter with spray foam. This will make a big difference to air movement (and heat transfer) through windows. Have you ever wondered what architraves are for ? To cover the gap between the window and the wall. Europeans laugh at us because they know the importance of making the external skin of a home ‘air tight’. If you do nothing more than gently pry off your architraves (inside or out …. Not both) and fill with a mild expanding foam (not gap filler) you will notice a difference.
It goes without saying that these are the ‘ideal’ design factors but we know that in the real world you may not be able to include all of these in your design for various reasons. The upshot is that no amount of money is wasted going down the green path. Investing in as many of these principles as you can afford will save you money in the long run and make for a healthier, happier home for you and your family to live in.
Good ventilation is necessary for a "Healthy" Building
The human body has tiny pores in the skin to allow it to "breath" and facilitate exchange of gas and other substances from within the body to the outside surrounding. If all the pores are closed, the body will become sick. This is the same for a house or building.
A house / building must be properly ventilated to allow fresh air from outside to enter the building and stale air from inside to get out. Sounds like another motherhood statement but talk to most builders and this whole topic comes under the category of ‘Your problem … which you can address at your expense after I’ve finished building to the drawings and contract we both signed and you’ve paid me all my money’. A well-ventilated building enhances natural air flow and makes the interior comfortable to live in. In addition to ventilation, a homes roof and walls must also be weather/heat insulated to prevent nasties like mould and other bad chemistry experiments growing out of control.
Again, many reply with something along the lines of “I’ve installed a three phase airconditioning unit to take care of all that stuff”.
In the words of George Carlin, the paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings but shorter tempers, wider Freeways, but narrower viewpoints. We spend more, but have less, we buy more, but enjoy less. We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences, but less time. We have more degrees but less sense, more knowledge, but less judgment, more experts, yet more problems, more medicine, but less wellness.
It is a disposable society where houses are often built to minimum standards written by antiquated bureaucrat’s decades ago. We often find people ‘putting up with’ the house they just bought or are living in. Our climate is not as cold as Europe’s but it is certainly hotter and the laws of thermal dynamics and insulation apply equally to our extremes of the weather chart.
It begs the question, why can’t we live in more comfortable homes? Why do we have to pay so much in energy bills? Why must we tolerate minimum building standards and excuses for cracks in walls which become a slap in the face when bricklayers tell us ‘that’s just the nature of bricks’. Why can’t builders educate themselves on how to build thermally efficient homes rather than just building ‘skinny’ buildings that have a pretty façade that will maximise their profits ?
In the wake of Hurricane Katrina an Australian developer asked me how was it that in a suburb of 250 homes only 3 were left standing and did I know how they were built ? The answer was simple … ICF.
Insulated Concrete Forms are styrene blocks filled with steel reinforced concrete. It begs the question, if these people know they are living in tornado alley or other dangerous environment why don’t they build all the homes in that area using these systems ?
Just as perplexing is when my four year old asked me why don’t they build the whole aeroplane from the same stuff black boxes are made of !
The answer came from a forum of green builders in the USA where one grey haired, disgruntled builder commented that “As long as insurance companies continue to insure matchstick construction, builders will continue to build cheap matchstick homes, that will continue to be blown away like matchboxes.”
The same holds true for the Australian market with brick veneer still the most popular method of building at present. With numerous double digit increases in the cost of electricity lately and more to come, the payback period for energy efficient construction that does not require much heating or cooling throughout the year is suddenly much more affordable.
Affordability goes beyond first cost; consideration for greater durability, lower operating costs & superior performance must be included when it comes to calculating affordability.
It will be quite some time before the project builders latch onto this concept because they live in a cut throat world of ‘build at bare minimum cost’ and the care factor for quality of life inside the home and cost of maintaining the home does not feature in their spreadsheets. Interesting to note that the automotive industry has embraced this concept and now uses energy efficiency as a marketing tool. You don’t have to go back many years to remember the days when car salesmen presented options in terms of horsepower, time it takes to get from 0 to 100km/h. Nowadays almost every vehicle has a sticker telling us how many litres that little baby will drink to drive 100km. And petrol is just another form of energy. The human body is merely a combustion engine whose fuel is food.
White goods have numbers and stars.
Houses burn gas and electricity and are measured by real estate agents under the classifications of … close to transport …. glimpses of water views … close to shopping … low maintenance yard …
When are we going to see adds for a three bedroom bungalow “… that only needs $175 worth of gas to keep warm all year round. Coupled with a superior ventilation and HRV technology you will only need to cool your home on just a few of the hottest days of the year that will cost you no more than $120 of electricity… that’s for the whole year !”
My neighbor’s electricity bill for the last quarter came in at just over $500 !
In the eighties most self respecting wogs built using double brick and concrete roof tiles because that was the best technology around even if it cost a little more than brick veneer or cladded houses. Today builders, architects and mums ‘n’ dads are looking very seriously at styrenes, urethanes, PIR foams, PVC windows, low-e glass, hydronic heating. Who knows when geothermal pumps and other European technology will hit our shores. What I do know is this is a tremendous time to be in the building industry.
As for using the term ‘wogs’, I can do that because I are one.
Steve Krsticevic.
