Best 'green' things to do to a home?

T

tess85

Been tossing up some ideas as I want to reduce my environmental footprint, but getting stuck on what does actually have some environmental benefit and where the payback period won't be 20+ years!

* Solar - we don't have a north-facing roof but seems this idea could be worth investigating
* Rainwater tank - long payback period (10+ years) given cheap cost of water
* Double glazing

I do minor things like keeping chickens and composting, but I don't feel like I'm doing enough.

Any other greenies out there? Sometimes in my crazier moments I think about going all out to make my home into one of those 10 star energy efficient homes. I would LOVE to do this if budget were unlimited but I have to work with what I've got (ie. existing house) and make modifications to it - re-building is out of the question.
 
Anticon insulation to roof lining.

Odyssey system or similar in lieu of aircon (finding the most appropriately moderated air temperature between inside house/outside house/inside roof space and flushing it into the house via a fan rather than air con. $50 a year to run or something silly). So in winter once it is warming up outside in the morning it will bring warm air in. At night in summer when your house has heated up during the day it will swap it out with cooler outside air and so on. I personally love these.

LED lights.

Bio water system (recycle sewerage water).

All depends on how far you want to go with it all...
 
Cool, thanks for the ideas, I will look into all those things.

Forgot to mention we are getting the whole house re-done with LED downlights so that is another small step I guess.

Bio water system - does this mean sewerage water is recycled for water for toilets and gardening etc? Can it be added to an existing house? I'm looking for options where I don't have to rip up floors to get to under the house...

Thanks for the leads!
 
tess85 said:
Cool, thanks for the ideas, I will look into all those things.

Forgot to mention we are getting the whole house re-done with LED downlights so that is another small step I guess.

Bio water system - does this mean sewerage water is recycled for water for toilets and gardening etc? Can it be added to an existing house? I'm looking for options where I don't have to rip up floors to get to under the house...

Thanks for the leads!
Click to expand...

It can be added to existing houses, but won't come cheap.

We are undertaking a large job at the moment, the bio-water system is $20 000 (about $12k to purchase, another $6-8k on the install).

Probably one of the more green and of course costly things you can do.

Look at an Odyssey system, Solar Panels and insulation for cheap and effective items.
 
tess85 said:
Been tossing up some ideas as I want to reduce my environmental footprint, but getting stuck on what does actually have some environmental benefit and where the payback period won't be 20+ years!
Click to expand...


Live completely off the grid :D

Cut off your circuit breakers.

Fridge is the toughest.

No washing machine - by hand :)

Remember, everything you put in has a "footprint" of its own to manufacture, deliver and install; so sometimes replacing something in your house with a "lower energy version" can actually have a larger carbon footprint (because you have to also think about disposing/recycling the used item)



The Y-man
 
Best green thing I ever did was my big, lime green kitchen bench.

I looked at something similar to the Odyssey system. The one I looked at was being flogged by a NZ company over here about 5 years ago. Great idea. I was most interested in it for heating. The idea was that the air in the roof space heats up in the daytime. When the difference in heat between the roof space and the rooms below reach a certain and they had a fan and ducting system to draw that warm air down. Cheap as chips to run. The only reason I didn't do it was I don't have a peaked roof and the temperature difference wasn't sufficient.
 
tess85 said:
No electricity ... you're killing me... I can't even go camping somewhere without hot showers!!
Click to expand...


Y man probably means live off the grid but with whole of roof solar panels charging giant batterys for night time use. In colder areas you would need a wood fire in winter. You can get wood fires now with a water jacket that will heat hot water just like what happened 50 years ago.

It's probably the way the world is heading and sounds good.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/102170511#.


See ya's.
 
I'll just leave all that stuff to you lot.

Does recycling your zip-lock sandwich bags each day count? :D

Has Al Gore cleaned up his home energy-use act yet and stopped flying in planes?

I wanna be Will-I-Am and turn up to GW/CC rallies in my helicopter.
 
Metro Sydney. What determines whether the location is a factor? Currently investigating the anticon insulation and odyssey, we have a peaked roof.
 
BayView said:
I'll just leave all that stuff to you lot.

Does recycling your zip-lock sandwich bags each day count? :D

Has Al Gore cleaned up his home energy-use act yet and stopped flying in planes?

I wanna be Will-I-Am and turn up to GW/CC rallies in my helicopter.
Click to expand...

These are the types of things everyone can do.

My motivation isn't being green, but to keep costs down..which still gives the same effect.

second hand clothing
cooking from scratch as much as possible

basically reduce, reuse, and recycle as much as we can.

Impressed Y-Man.
Do you also have a compostable toilet?
We house sat at an off-grid house, in Goulburn, a few years ago.
 
Thanks Boeman for the tip on the Odyssey system. I've looked it up, have asked for a consultation, interested in having it installed. Currently where I am in metro Sydney it's 39 degrees outside, something silly for the 1st day of Autumn.
 
kathryn d said:
Impressed Y-Man.
Do you also have a compostable toilet?
We house sat at an off-grid house, in Goulburn, a few years ago.
Click to expand...

Sorry to disappoint!! We're not off the grid - was just suggesting to the OP as an idea :eek:

We do use a small LED lantern in the bathroom that is solar charged, and our toliet is flushed with grey water from the washing machine that is kept in a tank (visitors always freak out).

The Y-man
 
Hi Everybody,
I got in touch with the company dosing the Odyssey system but they don't have the externals in green, they only do it in 4 colours and if you paint it, it would void the warranty. I need a green similar to peas in a pod.

image.jpg
Any ideas of another company offering a similar product but can do it in the colour I need?
 
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