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Sydney City of Council has created what sounds like to be a ‘Live Green House’. From what I understand this house will be on display at Taylor Square North in Darlinghurst from the 15-18 of October.
“Wander through this transportable interactive urban home and discover sustainable solutions for both house and apartment living. The Live Green House was designed by Terry Bail from Archology, a firm set up to concentrate on projects with an emphasis on sustainability. With practical information and ideas from experts covering topics such as energy, water, waste, rebates and gardening, you’ll be inspired. There’s also a bicycle showcase and a focus on sustainable transport, as well as demonstrations and displays of the latest work from sustainable designers. Be part of City of Sydney’s Sustainable Sydney 2030 Vision for a green, global, connected City and join us in shaping an exciting and sustainable future.”
Even though I am flat out with work at the moment, I am planning on checking out the home on Thursday. I hoping to find ideas on how we can improve on our electricity usage and also understand more about electricty solar panels which I would like to have installed early in the new year.
Here is the Full Program:
Thursday 15 Oct (12pm – 8pm)
Time Speakers Answering Your Questions on -
12pm – 2pm Live Green Ambassadors, City of Sydney Staff Sustainability & the Live Green House
12pm – 8pm Penny Spankie Arqua Water Station from Street Furniture Australia
12pm – 4pm Ford ECOnetic Showcasing the new Fiesta ECOnetic fuel efficient, environmentally advanced vehicle
2pm – 6pm Megan Bennett & Mithra Cox, The Watershed Worm farming, composting & recycling
2pm – 6pm Michael Neville, City of Sydney Worm farming, composting & recycling
3pm – 8pm Terry Bail & Martin Urakawa, Archology Live Green House architects
4pm – 6pm Live Green Ambassadors, City of Sydney Staff Sustainability & the Live Green House
4pm – 8pm Steve Bately, Sydney Organic Gardens Gardens on your balcony
4pm – 8pm Annie Walker, City of Sydney Community gardens in Sydney
4pm – 8pm Mel Cook, City of Sydney Programs & rebates available to help residents
4pm – 8pm Reverse Garbage Container Gallery Reusable materials to create sustainable art & design
4pm – 8pm Solahart Solar hot water products
6pm – 8pm MobileMuster Recycle your old mobile phones & discover where they go
Friday 16 Oct (12pm – 8pm)
Time Speakers Answering Your Questions on -
12pm – 2pm Live Green Ambassadors, City of Sydney Staff Sustainability & the Live Green House
12pm – 8pm Penny Spankie Arqua Water Station from Street Furniture Australia
12pm – 4pm Ford ECOnetic Showcasing the new Fiesta ECOnetic fuel efficient, environmentally advanced vehicle
12pm – 4pm Kirsten Woodward, City of Sydney Greening the City of Sydney
2pm – 4pm Paul Myors, Energy Australia Ways to save on your energy
2pm – 6pm Tankworks Australia Water tank products
2pm – 6pm Kath McLaughlin, City of Sydney Worm farming, composting & recycling
3pm – 8pm Terry Bail & Martin Urakawa, Archology Live Green House architects
4pm – 6pm Live Green Ambassadors, City of Sydney Staff Sustainability & the Live Green House
4pm – 8pm Nik Midlam, City of Sydney City’s greenhouse reduction programs
4pm – 8pm Sable & Argent Green technology for bicycles
5pm – 8pm Helen Mok, Designer Kinetic jewellery from found objects
5pm – 8pm Danpalon Polycarbonate roofing
6pm – 8pm Junglefy Green Roofs
Saturday 17 Oct (10am – 6pm)
Time Answering Your Questions on -
10am – 12pm Live Green Ambassadors, City of Sydney Staff Sustainability & the Live Green House
10pm – 6pm Penny Spankie Arqua Water Station from Street Furniture Australia
10am – 2pm Kath McLaughlin, City of Sydney Zero Waste
10am – 2pm Mel Cook, City of Sydney Programs & rebates available to help residents
10am – 2pm Fiona Campbell, City of Sydney City of Sydney & cycling
12pm – 3pm Lisa Gasparotto, Designer Sustainable lighting design
12pm – 3pm Matt Chan, Scale Architecture Laneways By George! – Infinity Forest
12pm – 3pm Solar Shop Understanding solar products
12pm – 4pm Ford ECOnetic Showcasing the new Fiesta ECOnetic fuel efficient, environmentally advanced vehicle
12pm – 4pm UTS – Institute for Sustainable Futures SWITCH electric vehicle
12pm – 1pm Katie Patrick, Managing Director, Green Pages Get your copy of Green Pages
12pm – 5pm Terry Bail & Martin Urakawa, Archology Live Green House architects
2pm – 4pm Live Green Ambassadors, City of Sydney Staff Sustainability & the Live Green House
2pm – 6pm Jemma Wong, City of Sydney Zero Waste program
2pm – 6pm Bhakti Devi, City of Sydney Water and plans for the future
2pm – 6pm Sable & Argent Green technology for bicycles
4pm – 6pm Junglefy Vertical Gardens
3pm – 6pm Arthur Koutoulas, Designer Furniture with recycled materials
Sunday 18 Oct (10am – 6pm)
Time Answering Your Questions on -
10am – 12pm Live Green Ambassadors, City of Sydney Staff Sustainability & the Live Green House
10pm – 6pm Penny Spankie Arqua Water Station from Street Furniture Australia
12pm – 3pm Trent Jansen, Designer Sign Stool 450 design
12pm – 3pm Eric Ng, Designer Graphic design with a sustainable focus
12pm – 3pm Greenrooms Landscape Design
12pm – 4pm Ford ECOnetic Showcasing the new Fiesta ECOnetic fuel efficient, environmentally advanced vehicle
1pm – 6pm Terry Bail & Martin Urakawa, Archology Live Green House architects
2pm – 4pm Live Green Ambassadors, City of Sydney Staff Sustainability & the Live Green House
2pm – 6pm Jemma Wong, City of Sydney Zero Waste program
3pm – 6pm Julie Paterson, Cloth Fabric Real material for the home
3pm – 6pm Nicholas Karlovasitis, Design by Them Designer working with sustainable materials
Like every Sydneysider today, I awoke and looked out my window and thought ‘Oh my goodness what is going on?’.
The huge dust storm that swept across inner NSW then Canberra, reach Sydney early this morning.
With the rich reds you couldn’t help yourself being amazed at the colour of the light (and I don’t believe it is just a photographer thing).
This photograph was taken from our front room office at 8.00am this morning. May I add no enhancements have been added, just the wonder of light in a red dust storm.
Mini & Cooper (my dogs) as per usual were jumping around the front door to be let out so they can play on the grass. They were white fluffy puppies when they left but returned with a noticeably yellow tinge. It will be bath time for them soon (as well as their yellow dirty coloured bed).
On an earlier post, I mentioned that my household is taking part of Sydney’s Home Energy Consumption Trial. The trial is limited to 100 households within the City of Sydney Local Government area.
According to information I have received, the key objective of the trial is to educate household members about the operating costs of electrical appliances and to encourage energy efficiency within the home.
Last week an electrician came out to install the energy monitor. One part of the monitor system is connected to our switch board which was hardly noticeable (see below before and after shots). The other part of the monitor system was a small hand held wireless energy monitor.
Our household energy switch board
Our household energy switch board after installation of energy monitor
With this wireless monitor we are able to freely move around the home with it in hand, turning appliances on and off and see straight away how much energy that appliance is using .
The monitor will remain in our home for the next twelve months and over that time we will be able to see our energy usage as cents per hour or kWh per hour or Kg green house gas per hour. Also there is a ongoing meter that shows how much up to current time we have used as well as comparing weeks, months, quarters and even years. There is no hiding from the results. What energy we use over this time is added to the total usage.
Now we as a household will know exactly what energy we are currently using. Then we can start to look at what can be done to lower our usage…..and we are already doing this.
The electrician who installed our monitor system said that we already had a reasonably low energy usage but I know we can be so much better.
Taking the handheld wireless monitor into our home office, I did a little test with the down lights.
Taken in our home office with down lights on (also in the home the fridge and phone system are on and computers are on hibernate). It is costing us 2.752 cents per hour to run these appliances.
Turned the down lights off (fridge, phones and computers remain the same): 0.590 cents per hour to run. This means the down lights in the office by themselves cost us 2.162 cents per hour to run.
With the downlights on again, we can change the mode on the wireless monitor and see that .235 Kwh of energy is used per hour to run the downlights (with fridge, phone and hibernated computers running).
Regular readers will know that I haven’t written regular posts for a little while now. To be honest the last six months have been very challenging with business changes, technology issues and personal health concerns.
Yes I have been feeling guilty about my absence. Taking advice from my own words written on this very blog I have decided not to allow my guilt to win. Today I read again my words from ‘Finding Balance on Ones Green Journey’ and ‘A Pig Feeling’ which both address the issue of guilt.
I must add however even though my posts are not regular my green journey is always on my mind. Here is what I have been up to these last couple of days/weeks:
1) In the office at work I have again had another very large clean up. I have been a photographer for 20 plus years, so you can imagine how much stuff I have accumulated in this time. Last year I had two such clean ups but I still felt there was stuff not being used and hence needed to go. If I am not using it then someone else shall have it. Hating Ebay, I again decided to give everything away through www.freecycle.org in my local Sydney area. Giving away items of value instead of selling is so much more enjoyable!
2) Joined the City of Sydney’s home energy consumption trial. This trial is limited to 100 households within the City of Sydney Local Government Area. The key objective of the trial is to educate household members about the operating costs of electrical appliances and to encourage energy efficiency with the home. I am looking forward to seeing the results and finding ways to lower our energy use even more.
3) City of Sydney had a toxic waste recycle day (batteries, paint tins etc). For 20 years I have not thrown away any of my old camera batteries (or any batteries) as I knew the damage they cause in landfill. Over the years I have placed my old batteries in a cardboard box with the hope one day recycling would be possible. Taking up City of Sydney’s offer, proudly I gave my 20 year old box of batteries to be recycled! If you would like to know more about these clean ups go to www.zerowaste.org.au
It may only be Autumn but I feel ‘snowed’ under and overwhelmed in regards to work & family commitments at the moment.
Forgive the brief post today but I promise that I have a gold nugget of a link for you!!
Click on the link below to view ‘Earth Hour’ photographs from all around the world. As a photographer I was impressed and as a concerned human being I was inspired.
Click on the link then scroll down the website page. Some of the photographs you can actually click to instantly see the difference during Earth Hour. Be your own judge, but I think Las Vegas wins in regards to the biggest response to Earth Hour.
I hope you like this website page and photographs as much as I do. 
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