welcome & intro

[Mark Gerrard]

Hi everybody,

 

Welcome to the Sustainable Maleny energy mailing list, hopefully we can get some ideas going here on how we can benefit our community by reducing our carbon emissions in the fields of transport, building, power generation etc.

 

It's only a matter of time before petrol & electricity prices rise (much more than normal), especially with a carbon cap & trade on the way, and this will have a flow-on effect to most other commodities we buy in our daily life. I feel that there's a lot of skills and resources in the community which can be put to good use to prepare ourselves for what's coming down the line.

 

Anyway, for those who would like to share their skills and/or interests please post something about yourself to the mailing list so we get an idea of who we have here. I recognise some of the names that have registered for this list but wouldn't have a clue what you're interested in or maybe what you'd like to find out from others.

 

So, to get the ball rolling my blurb is as follows:

 

Been interested in renewable energy for a while so last year completed a Dip. Renewable Energy which means I can get BCSE (Business Council for Sustainable Energy) accreditation for design & installation of RE systems (solar PV, wind). Some of the subjects we covered were energy auditing, energy-efficient building design, sustainability etc. This semester I'm doing the Adv. Dip. RE which covers hybrid systems, wind farms, grid-tie PV etc.

 

Not sure if I'll setup my own design/installation business or find others to work with (maybe a co-op?). I'd eventually like to be involved in setting up community owned & run RE projects. If the government introduces a realistic feed-in tariff (similar to Germany) then maybe we'll see fields of solar concentrators owned by & running the local community.

 

Cheers Mark

[Bernie Dwyer]

Hi Mark - here's my blurb:

My wife & I and our 2 children live off-grid at Witta. We have a solar PV +
battery system which provides for nearly all our needs.

12 x 55 watt panels (they were here when we bought the house in 1996)
12 x 80 watt panels (bought in 2000 with the help of state & commonwealth
subsidies)
12 x 2 volt 1100 amp hour lead-acid batteries (ditto)
Plasmatronics PL40 charge controller
Latronic 1500 watt sine wave inverter
70 amp battery charger
Honda petrol genset for backup

One battery failed last year and was replaced ($870.00 !!!), and 2 others
are marginal. We've decided to take advantage of the new subsidies to
replace the whole battery bank, upgrade the charge controller, and add more
PV panels. Once it's all approved and installed, there'll be some
second-hand batteries and a 40 amp charge controller for sale.

We both work from home, so there are 2 computers that frequently run all
day, the kids watch TV & videos on the weekends, we have a Fisher & Paykel
washing machine, stereo, kitchen appliances, etc - but not a dishwasher. I
fix computers for a living so I'll sometimes have a customer's computer
running here as well. We sometimes run a clothes dryer, but only directly
off the genset, and it's not very often.

The house is wired for 24 volt DC and 240 volt AC. The lighting and
refrigeration are 24 volt, and we have 240 volt circuits for various
appliances such as the computers, TV, etc.

We have a Rayburn wood burning stove which takes care of cooking, hot water,
some clothes drying and general household heating. It's a hungry beast so
we've planted a plot of 240 firewood trees to help with feeding it. There's
also a 2-burner gas cooktop.

I've spent most of today filling out the application for subsidies for the
upgrade - which was only possible once we upgraded our energy audit - which
we hadn't touched since 2000! That took a while. I borrowed a "tong tester"
AKA "clamp-amp" meter to measure the actual consumption of all our 240 volt
appliances - there's often a big difference between the plate rating and the
actual consumption, e.g. a computer with a 350 watt power supply might only
use 160 watts while running - it's worth finding out or you could
over-specify a system and spend more money than you need to. Same goes for
the washing machine, vacuum cleaner, etc.

I'm willing to talk about this all day.....

cheers

Bernie Dwyer
***********************

[Tony Ullman]

Hi Bernie

Since I have just spent the last 5 years as service manager for the Rainbow
Power Company I am willing to talk about this for most of the day at least.

Tony

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[Tony Ullman]

Hi Mark

 

Since we have already spoken you know that I have spent 5 years as service manager of the Rainbow Power Company and that I have a BSCE accreditation which is not current.  As you may have noticed, having worked in the industry I have also formed some opinions on renewable energy issue sbased on what I have seen.

 

Tony Ullman