Suggestions for saving energy and water
21/10/2007, Benalla, Victoria
There are lots of suggestions floating around for how everyone can ‘do their part’ to be more efficient with the resources we have. The need for this is because, for water there is not enough because of drought, and government incompetence because they did not plan ahead and build extra water storage or desalination yet. Of course people in dryer areas of the country have been dealing with lack of water for centuries. For power, because the attention is currently on greenhouses gases and climate change - we have no shortage of power generation capacity or fuel.
My main disagreement with most of the suggestions officially recommended is that they are mostly unsuitable for renting.
People renting thier home generally cant make structural or infrastructure changes, and if they could, why would they pay for it when the landlord can remove the tenant at any time with short notice. Landlords, who own their properties as an investment, are not willing to reduce their return on investment by paying for water or energy saving things.
Examples of improvements in this category:
Rainwater storage tanks - unfortunately very expensive, and they are generally installed only to operate the toilet and water the garden, so they tend to increase water use, rather than reducing reliance on mains water.
Insulation - Also expensive to install, and a permanent feature of a house. Lack of insulating makes a house hotter in summer and colder in winter, increasing energy costs and greenhouse gas emissions
Gray water recycling system - Similar issues as for rainwater storage tanks. May not actually reduce water use if used to water the garden, since it is illegal to water the garden using normal water, this just uses water that would have gone to waste to keep the garden alive (not a bad thing anyway)
Window glazing - Since most heat exchange in a building is through the windows, glazing or other forms of glass insulation reduce noise coming into the building and also reduce heating and cooling energy use. Again, something that should be installed by the owner of the building not the tenant.
Hot water system- Hot water systems here come with the place if you’re renting - if you own the house you can buy your own. Electric hot water systems are inherently inefficient compared to gas because the coal must be burnt, the heat converted to electricity, and then the electricity is converted back to heat, but when gas is used for heating, the flame heats the water directly. In the house I lived as a child, there was even a coal-burning hot water service in the laundry when we moved in. The entire room was black with soot! With modern electric hot water systems - that soot is just somewhere else.
And many more…
What we can practically do on our own is limited to relatively small scale things: Short showers, let the garden die, turn lights off when not needed, use efficient lamps…
That is just for the home we also should be conscious of what we do in other areas of life like transport,work,leisure.
Ill leave those for another day…
3 comments October 21, 2007
