Energy Australia Open Day

On Saturday 28 Nov I attended The GREEN DREAM HOME OPEN DAY organised by the electricity provider Energy Australia and held at Energy Australia's Energy Efficiency Centre (Homebush Business Village, 12/11-21 Underwood Rd, Homebush). NSW Australia. If you live within striking distance of Sydney, the Centre is worth a visit.There are lots of hands on displays and exhibits which demonstrate and illustrate how a variety energy saving technologies work.

The event took the form of a seminar where two speakers gave talks and answered questions from the audience. Whilst the first speaker was entertaining, the second speaker, architect Caroline Pidcock was very informative. Her presentation was an overview of the various aspects which should be taken into consideration when undrtaking a sustainable building project.
The Pidcock website is well worth a look.

Water (and space) saving toilet suite.

An extra toilet is often handy but if you are stuck for space, its often difficult to accomodate a wash hand basin in a small WC.
Well here is a very environmentally friendly solution.



At a recent green expo day in Sydney I saw a toilet which makes so much sense that you wonder why you dont already have one.

The Caroma website says, "The first toilet suite in Australia to achieve a 5-star WELS rating, the Caroma Profile™ Toilet Suite with Integrated Hand Basin provides a simple, effective way to re-use water in the bathroom. Profile™ achieves this leading water rating by using the same water twice, firstly for hand washing and then for toilet flushing."



The Caroma website says,"Profile™ is the first of its kind to feature a unique, dual-flush push button and spout arrangement that saves the water normally used when hands are washed in a separate basin. The flush cycle activation controls the flow of fresh water through the basin spout, allowing time for thorough hand washing before the same water fills the cistern tank. Award-winning Smartflush® technology is also built-in for ultra low 4.5/3L flushing."

There is a school of thought which says that ideally you should use water three times.
When hooked up to a system like Biolytix this product could exactly that by
1. Washing hands.
2. Flushing the loo, and (after going through filtration),
3. watering the garden.

Find out more at: Caroma

Long time no blog.

Its blogging season again - at least on these pages. It has been months since I posted anything about the project but thats the nature of the beast.

Our sustainable seachange will happen over several years and I intend to document our progress in this blog. But there will be months when nothing happens and I am sure there will be months when lots of things happen.

Seems like last month but was actually almost six months ago when we last visited our block of land. We planted over 30 trees, assorted fruit trees and a hedge. Last report was that 3 or 4 had died but the rest were growing so thats good news.

By the time we move we should have a variety of fruit trees, bearing delicious fruits like mango, avocado and many others.

Global warming protest.

Wall linings - Want an alternative to plasterboard?

It is often the case when choosing building materials that there will be a compromise between choosing what is best for the environment and what you can afford.

The name for the material most commonly used to line the walls and ceilings of timber framed or metal framed houses differs around the world.
In north America it is drywall, in other countries, plasterboard, wallboard, gypsum board, etc. It may also be referred to by the name of the manufacturer, e.g., Sheetrock or Gyprock.

For my purposes I am going to call it plasterboard because it is manufactured by rolling gypsum plaster, (basically wet calcium sulfate) between two sheets of paper. Plasterboard is a very versatile and useful material and I am sure it will continue to be manufactured and widely used for many years.
Plasterboard is however neither sustainable nor environmentally friendly. Calcium sulfate has to be quarried or mined as gypsum or anhydrite, or otherwise manufactured.

When plasterboard is used in construction, boards have to be cut to fit as required so there is a lot of waste which ends up in landfill. Demolition or renovation of buildings containing plasterboard also adds to landfill.
You can't recycle plasterboard.

One alternative is known as VJ Paneling.

A company called Masterline use medium density fibreboard (MDF) to make panels with the traditional VJ profile.

MDF is made from plantation timber and so as a sustainable choice it is preferable to plasterboard. Working with MDF requires that you wear a suitable mask as the dust produced when cutting MDF is very fine and contains chemicals which could cause respiratory problems if inhaled.

A better alternative in my opinion is VY paneling made using plywood.

This is the product used by a company called SALA Homes, who are very serious about sustainability. They say
"SALA provides homes which significantly reduce your power and water consumption with minimal cost to you and to the environment. They are made of quality sustainable building materials, yet are initially affordable and will save you money in the long term".

Of course not everyone is going to like the look of VJ over the look of plasterboard.

And plasterboard will probably be cheaper to buy than alternative wall linings.

Plasterboard would be my choice for ceilings.

I would choose VJ ply for walls.

You pays your money and you takes your choice.