A charity aiming to help people recognise when their homes are too cold and damp are teaching the community how to make their own heat and humidity sensors for the house.
Whare Hauora was started in early 2016 and is trying to help others take control of their family’s health, by running workshops around the Wellington region to give people a pack of sensors and instructions, and instructions to assemble everything themselves.
Kiwi households pay more for power than Norwegians, whose average wages are a third higher than ours.
The result? A CreditSimple survey found 69% of Otago respondents and 59% of Cantabrians economised by going cold.
Australian article that asks “Is there an energy performance level here in Australia that delivers the best ‘bang-for-buck’?”
Lochiel Park in South Australia is arguably the most environmentally sustainable housing estate in the country. Are homes built to the Lochiel Park performance level affordable?
“When we crunch the numbers based on actual costs and real energy and water savings we find that although net zero energy houses cost slightly more to build, mainly because of the extra energy technologies, the owners are much better off financially. In fact, our research shows owner occupiers are nearly $25,000 better off over the life of the home, and that is before we consider the health and wellbeing benefits of better thermal comfort and enjoying almost no utility bills.”
From Australia – options for external shading, for both new builds and retrofits.
A good overview of how to keep the sun off windows, links to yourhome.gov.au , and a new energy rating scheme for window coverings, WincovER, has recently been developed and is soon to be launched by the Blind Manufacturers Association of Australia (BMAA).
