Too important to fail

"The Green Loans Scheme is an excellent idea that has turned into an utter debacle through gross mismanagement by Peter Garrett's department," Australian Greens Deputy Leader, Senator Christine Milne said on the 4th of February. You've probably seen or heard more about the issue in the media (a quick web search will bring up lots of recent print news stories and electronic media transcripts).

Energy Imaging, and many of our colleagues in the energy efficiency sector, have been involved in Green Loans since the beginning. It was an excellent idea. Debacle is now a fair description. Frustrating, infuriating, mindbogggling and unfair are other words that spring to mind. The program still has big potential but it will take a serious overhaul by DEWHA, and the creation of genuinely level playing field for assessors, to make it work effectively and fairly.

The Association of Building Sustainability Assessors (ABSA), a national not-for-profit association, is the Approved Accrediting Organisation for the Green Loans Program. The program is managed by the Federal Government. Unfortunately due to DEWHA's unresponsiveness, many assessors are venting their frustrations at ABSA. ABSA are working hard to support asssessors and it would be sad to see them used as the scape goat in this mess.

Assessors are finding themselves the target of participating householders' frustrations. Unable to make bookings, yet to receive their reports, and waiting in ridiculously long queues on the DEWHA hotline, members of the public are, understandably, venting their frustrations at assessors. As the public face of the GL program, the reputations of dedicated and ethical assessors are being tarnished and the credibility of Australia's energy efficiency sector damaged.

ABSA are currently collecting ideas on ways to improve the GL Program. All assessors are encouraged to direct their ideas to ideas@absa.net.au by Friday 19 February 2010.

Senator Milne referred the matter to the Auditor General on the 4th of February and asked some important questions at senate estimates last week. Read more here.

Obama says: Sealing Leaks & Insulating is Sexy Stuff!

Barack Obama is clearly passionate about sealing air leaks and insulating:

"Here's what's sexy about it: saving money! Think about it this way, if you haven't upgraded your home yet, it's not just heat or cool air escaping, it's energy and money you're wasting. If you saw $20 bills floating through the window, up into the atmosphere, you'd try to figure out how you're gonna keep that. But that's exactly what's happening because of lack of efficiency in our buildings!"

According to the US Department of Energy: Sealing and insulating the "envelope" or "shell" of your home — its outer walls, ceiling, windows, doors, and floors — is often the most cost effective way to improve energy efficiency and comfort.

See and hear President Obama's passion for energy efficiency here.

Read All About It!

Energy Imaging's 3 page feature story in B2B in Canberra (business and government) magazine is 'live' on the web.

You can view the article at the following address (best viewed in full screen mode - top left corner):

issuu.com/b2bincanberra/docs/december_2009/20

They were distributed to Canberra businesses and government agencies yesterday so keep an eye out for a hard copy if you are in the national capital!

Watch All About It!

Watch an Energy Imaging air leakage and insulation assessment in action. Hands-on Directors, Jenny Edwards and Andrew Cleary, use their fan depressurisation and thermal imaging technologies to find all the concealed areas of energy loss in a home.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=auACO5rTgI8

Spend summer swimming for a sustainable future!

Energy Imaging, and our good friends at Graphic Ark, are proudly supporting Swim for Solar in the Canberra/Queanbeyan region this summer. This great initiative will be launched at 4.30 pm on Friday 27th November at Queanbeyan Pool. Come along and see the Energy Imaging team challenge the politicians, Mike Kelly and Shane Rattenbury, to a swim-off!

LifeSaving Energy Swims for Solar is a community project to raise funds to install solar panels on community buildings. The project is an initiative of Clean Energy for Eternity (CEFE).

People of all ages and swimming ability can join in the fun. Jump in the pool to stay cool this summer and help capture those rays to reduce your community's carbon footprint!

CEFE is a not-for-profit group which aims to inspire local community action on climate change. CEFE began in Bega in 2006 and each year runs the LifeSaving Energy Big Swims. So far the swims have raised over $60,000 to install solar panels and wind turbines on surf lifesaving clubs, fire brigades and community buildings in NSW.

Check to see if your local pool is involved. If not encourage them to do so. For more info click here

Canberra's sustainable (& unsuckable) house!

Nick Mayo and Sarah Clayton live independently of water and power services in the heart of Canberra. Their home, in Duffy Street Ainslie, is a truly sustainable house with all sorts of clever, and great looking, features. For example, look carefully at the second and fourth window in the picture above and you’ll see a glazed brick wall - a very clever and stylish use of thermal mass.

Our infrared imaging of the building envelope confirmed that this is a house with outstanding thermal performance (the image below shows the internal surface of the glazed wall, pointed out above). Better still, when we conducted an air leakage test and tried to suck air out of the home we found it to be the most tightly constructed property we have ever tested. An airtight and well insulated building envelope is the most important thing for building comfort, energy efficiency and durability: this home experiences very little conductive or convective heat loss/gain and will most certainly stand the test of time. Very impressive!

Grand - Air-Tight - Designs

The episode of Grand Designs that went to air on ABC 1 last night featured a new home "built using the latest avant garde eco technologies." On top of its eco-concrete foundations sit a series of timber frame boxes, heavily insulated with recycled newspaper and clad in English cedar. Large, triple glazed windows to the south help to heat the house using the power of the sun to warm the heavy concrete slab. To conserve heat the whole building was: enveloped in a special membrane to make it super-airtight; tested using the same air leakage assessment technology that Energy Imaging use; and then fitted with a ventilation system to recover heat from the air.

The UK building codes of 2006 introduced mandatory air leakage testing of new houses. Best practice for building air leakage is considered to be between 3 and 7 m3 of air, per hour, per m2 of permeable surafce area at a 50 Pascal (Pa) pressure difference between inside and out. Once a building gets below 3 at 50 Pa, mechanical ventilation is required to maintain indoor air quality. The home featured on Grand Designs achieved an impressive score of just 1.2. To put this into perspective, most houses we test in Canberra are between 15 and 25 at 50 Pa!

Australia is yet to introduce a maximum air leakage standard for new buildings despite it being the most cost effective way to achieve direct energy savings, reduce GHG emissions and improve comfort levels. It is also the simplest and most cost-effective way to retrofit an existing building.

NB: there is a difference between insulation and air leakage. Insulation does not prevent air leakage. Both insulation and air leakage must be addressed to achieve energy efficeincy. Your insulation cannot do its job if your precious heated air can escape directly through holes in the buidling envelope. If you are serious about improving the energy efficiency of your home: 1. seal the air leaks + 2. insulate thoroughly and evenly... 1 + 2 = 3 x more efficient heating in your average Canberra home.