Becoming Green is Addictive
by My renewable life as a Greenie. How the environmental movement is attracting even me.
I have to say that i am getting pulled into the green movement and i am enjoying it. It started 10 years ago when i built my first house. The Government required it to be 5 star energy rated, north facing, insulated etc. At this time i installed an off peak electric water heater. And that was my effort at being green. woohoo.
A few years down the track and i started to breed, see my other story Three babies in 10 months. The environment started to matter more, my children’s future and the fact that we entered the worst drought we had ever had . see my story on the drought that won’t end.
As my family grew we sold up and bought a larger house, old and in need of total renovation. It ran on a wood fire and oil heater. It was a dark and cold house and totally run down. We set about getting insulation and taking out the fireplace (we had babies and the brick surrounding was just plain dangerous to their little wobbly heads). We got rid of the oil heater and installed ducted gas. I am not sure that this was a green movement but it was 5 star energy rated so i went with it.
Next came a water heater, the one i chose was a Quantum Water heat pump. The idea behind these guys is they draw the heat from the air and virtually heat your water for very little money. They cost a whole heap but the Government did give a rebate. But my green movement was in motion.
The next thing i did was sign up for green electricity. My partner is still out on that as to him it was useless..”your just giving them more money, your not getting green electricity”. I knew this but the energy company promised to buy the same amount of electricity i used from a renewable energy producer so i was contributing in some way.
In went the skylights to lighten the house, save on lighting. In went the long life energy bulbs although i still have to say i hate them, they take forever to lighten up, their dangerous if you break them and they give off a supermarket lighting effect. I don’t care if they paint them orange on the outside to make them “warm”, i miss my incandescents. I hear led’s are the way to go so i might go that way.
My next project is we are getting a solar energy system on the roof. 12 panels generating 2kw which should take care of most of our energy needs. The Government is giving us $8000 rebate which takes care of most of it and is also promising to buy the electricity back at 4 times the rate we pay for it. Brad is all systems go for that .
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