Renew (previously the Alternative Technology Association) for 39 years has provided independent analysis and advice on diverse aspects of sustainable buildings for members https://renew.org.au/resources/advice/ Renew produces magazines you can borrow from your local library and organises Sustainable House Day, 15 September this year, where you can visit homes all over Australia to see and discuss designs and products they have used.
Avoid gas and wood stoves which introduce toxic air pollution into your home. That smokey smell should not be a comfort, wood smoke impacts negatively on everyone’s health at any level (just like cigarette smoke - burning biomass is the problem). The research on the harmful effects on health of smoke/air pollution is building, with an increasing list of serious illnesses, developmental impacts and chronic conditions such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease (including stroke), and now dementia being suggested (Swedish research). See http://woodsmoke.3sc.net/ and The Lancet Commission on Pollution and Health https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(17)32345-0/fulltext for a conservative assessment. Sorry folks, wood stoves are contributing a surprisingly high percentage of air pollution (PM2.5 is the most researched) in our cities and many towns. Time to move to healthier options. Yet the resistance to acknowledging this by government and communities seems similar to cigarette smoke 30 years ago (yet they’re very similar). Black carbon from wood smoke is also a problem by contributing to global warming.
Are most if not all all our hot food cafe’s, fish and chips, and restaurants still on the gas or all electric?
Should backyard wood fired pizza ovens, gas BBQ’s and free standing gas bottle mounted radiant space heaters be added to the list for action?
It might be a challenge to change some of these lifestyle choices though? Stone the crows! First they take our 4WD’s off us, next they ban the weekend, and now there is prospect to take the greatest of working class traditions away. The great Aussie backyard BBQ.
That only leaves the Yuletide logs burning in the fire place to enjoy a little home grown pyromania!
P.s. Perhaps there is a cartoon or two required with a depiction of the future great Aussie hydrogen fuel cell powered 4WD camping trip, complete with solar recharger and portable electric induction camp fire place? At least there will be no angst if it’s raining. You will have no need to seek out dry fire wood any more!
I do see the serious side to this, with 22 serious rural and semi-rural neighbours. Including the state forest pine plantation they all like to light up in the back yard on a regular a basis. The smoke always blows into our house! I don’t although I do have some planned environmental mosaic burns to do as part of our native forest rehab. Where do you draw the line?
Totally agree.
Is there any difference in the impact on and outcome to the environment?
It is likely the same irrespective of where the fuel is being burnt.
Green house gas emissions due to burning of fossil fuels for heating and cooking are included in the national accounting of GHG emissions, so they do matter. They are however a long way down the priorities. And certainly a very expensive upgrade in respect of replacement and increased electrical demand, mostly on peak and evening hours.
It might be a useful strategy to aid change to add an incentive to small business and residential that go solar with battery? Install a battery and the govt will pay to replace all your gas household or business appliances?
One of the great challenges with reducing our environmental impacts is having affordable solutions. The majority of Australians do not have unlimited budgets. In looking to a solar passive house design, how does anyone not living in a solar passive house reconcile their footprint? Do you do the best you can with what you have, and prioritise the budget accordingly? Gas cooking and heating is one aspect of everyday living that is here to stay for some time yet. And in some locations combustion heating by various different methods.
Is it a health hazard equal to that of smoking cigarettes? It is certainly a challenging question?
Probably not. My comment was addressing an implied health issue however.
From an environmental perspective burning fossil fuels is somewhat different from burning sustainably harvested wood, which would be relevant for some domestic scenarios.
(We have gas cooking for the stove but not gas heating and not gas oven - combined with electricity for the microwave. In that situation gas cooking uses a tiny amount of gas. It might not be what you would choose for a new build but ours wasn’t a new build and in that situation, you have to prioritise, and focus on the things where you can make the most difference for a given number of dollars.)
We are in a similar position with our new house to be built in Stanley,Tasmania.
We are going all electric with a 5-6 kw solar array and Solahart’s latest solar hot water system(about $3500) which is cheaper than the conventional setup on the roof.
Has anyone had experience of this product?
We are thinking of an 8 kw reverse cycle aircon for heating and very occasional cooling as I understand they are very efficient.
We presently live off grid and installed a 3.5 kw hybrid solar reverse cycle aircon which works really well.A bit dearer($1200) than conventional ones but obviously much cheaper to run.
Anyway some ideas for you all to consider. . .
Smaller air conditioners are generally more efficient (higher EER/COP), so you’d get more heating and cooling from 3 X 2.5kW units than you would from one 8kW, with less energy consumed. It would probably cost a bit more. Three smaller units would also give you more control over which parts of the house you are heating or cooling, so much more efficient all round.
We are currently off grid with solar to run everything electrical and a gas stove and oven. We have Led lights, oled tv, front loader washing machine, two fridges and a freezer, I often use a microwave, but if it has been overcast for a few days I am careful on what and how I use electrical things. We have not run out of power in the past 3 years that the system has been up and running. We have Solar hot water (the evacuated tube type) and again it is great unless we have a week of overcast days, we have not run out of hot water but I think we have been very close, in hindsight should have gone for a gas backup on the hot water. When I go appliance shopping I do research online or in store for its power usage, I try to find the most energy efficient products. We have an air conditioner that has its own solar panels and uses 10% of the battery power, but we only use it when the sun is out, otherwise we have ceiling fans. I hope that this helps.
There is also a Facebook group “My Efficient Electric Home” which has lots of useful information.
I have recently built with LED downlights, hot water heat pump, panels, Induction cooktop, no gas, large water tank, no storage as yet as I am waiting to see how much I use from the grid, my first 2 bills were in credit, electricity company owes me $10, but there’s only me living here.
I noticed when I rented while building that my electricity bill was half of what I paid in my previous house and the only difference was all LED downlights (still used as much heating etc), so for me it was a no brainer to have them in my new house
It appears to be a modern Inverter style split system (Hansol). It has been upgraded to enable you to connect up to 5 solar panels directly into the DC side of the Inverter.
A clever adaption that allows you to run the air con from solar PV with a fall back to the grid if you are connected. Sounds great!
For anyone with a rooftop PV system, is there any benefit of the ‘hybrid’ air con vs running a modern Inverter air con directly from the household PV? Is it worth considering that when the solar powered aircon is not required the connected panels are not being used for any other purpose?
It would appear to be potentially a lower initial cost than purchasing together a home solar PV system plus air con.
P.s.
In marketing speak for solar products ‘hybrid’ is commonly used to describe systems that are PV/inverter plus battery. Initially when searching for the product there was an expectation of some form of energy storage involved. The actual product is much simpler with “ hybrid” describing the fact you can power the air con from PV panels or mains or both at the same time.
$3,055 on special with 4x250W PV panels, installation extra.
There is something not right with the indicated cost savings and marketing claiming saving up 97% of the cost of running your 3.5kW (cooling capacity).
The Gree marketing material linked earlier and the Ecoworld site suggest unbelievable high running costs in their comparison with a standard Air Conditioner?
The product may be effective and fill a niche market. The claims by Ecoworld that a single 3.5kW cooling capacity air conditioner costs $4,881 per year to run are gold dust sprinkled STP feed stock!
@GardeningGreenie, Hi we are in the process of building off grid and just wondering what appliances you ended up going with? We have made up our mind about most of the appliances except the oven and cooktop and finding information is a minefield. Hope all went well with the build.
An induction cooktop and electric stove will be the most energy efficient from the point of view of energy consumption and spilling waste heat into the house. Both draw considerable current and you would have to ensure that if they are on together (with other devices) you are not over the limit of your power system. Also both may need a dedicated power circuit which will add to construction costs but so would gas lines.
As for which models are the most efficient I don’t recall seeing much data published on that topic.
Some off-grid house owners use a gas cooker and oven (and hot water) due to the draw of electric equivalents. A system needs to be designed for the likely usage as well as maximum draw back from the battery system. You need to determine if the additional cost is worth the benefits of having these appliance as electric.
Other option is to install woodfired stove/cooking oven which have water heating incorporated into the stove. Such are only useful if you live outside urban areas (as they may give rise to complaints from neighbours having a wood fire burning most of the time) and have ready supply of dry wood. They are also particularly useful useful in colder areas as the stove also offsets heating which would otherwise be needed. In warmer climates, they aren’t particularly useful as it will overheat the house…and another downside is they require more maintenance than gas or electric (e.g. regularly removing ash, cleaning chimneys etc) and aren’t instantaneous.
