Welcome to the New Energy Thinking blog
This series of posts outlines the building of my house, known as Straithouse, in Cape Paterson, Victoria, Australia. The journey started in 2017, and finished in 2021.
By Richard Keech
2025-12-12
The Facebook group, My Efficient Electric Home, known as MEEH, turned ten years old in late June 2025. As of that anniversary, MEEH had about 150,000 members and 38,000 visitors. MEEH is helping drive the surge in interest in home electrification in Australia and educ...
I've seen some people complain, suggesting that very low feed-in tariffs for rooftop solar PV are grossly unfair. This post is my attempt to explain why low FiTs are not as unfair as it may seem.
By Richard Keech 2025-09-02
The unfairness argument. On the group My Efficient Electric Home,...
I'm concerned that my dependence on big tech companies like Google and Facebook is problematic, and no longer worth the risk. Here I talk about my (work in progress) switch away from big tech.
2025-05-19
Richard Keech
TLDR
One year ago a partial list of products and services I used and...
When assessing homes, I see too many residential HVAC systems installed badly. This article outlines my thoughts on how residential HVAC systems can be installed better.
by Richard Keech 2024-08-03
Outline
Motivation. In my experience, heating and cooling systems are very often installed...
I don't often get to see the results of my advice, but I recently touched base with some clients to check out their lovely new home.
by Richard Keech 2024-06-13
Intro
In April 2024 I visited Gerard and Rowena in Woodend, VIC. I had advised them back in 2020 when they were setting out to ge...
Just how well does a small tank perform?
By Richard Keech, 2024-06-10
The question
When we built our new home in 2020, we chose a hot-water service with a tank capacity of only 160L. Despite sometimes having five people in the home, we've never been caught short of hot water. However, the...
I think community batteries, as they are usually conceived, are a bad idea. This post explains my thinking.
Richard Keech
2023-09-08
The promise
Community batteries have caught the attention of many. The need for energy storage is widely accepted. Community ownership of energy assets is...
Why your home's insulation probably isn't as good as you think it is.
Richard Keech
2023-08-18 (updated 2024-07-23)
Having assessed many hundreds of homes in Victoria, both new and old, I've come to the conclusion that when someone buys a new house in Australia they nearly always aren't ge...
If you're starting out on a journey to build a house, before even thinking specifically about what to include in the design here are some things to think about.
By Richard Keech, 2023-07-05
I've been an admin at the group My Efficient Electric Home (MEEH) on Facebook for over seven years. Here are some tips and advice when participating in online advice groups, MEEH in particular.
by Richard Keech
2022-08-23
Be nice
Rule #1 is be nice. Keeping things civil is really impor...
When choosing to put solar panels on your roof, what is a good basis for determining the appropriate capacity? And is generating more than you use a waste?
2022-08-15
Richard Keech
When anyone gets solar panels installed on their roof they need to choose the appropriate system capacity. So...
Some people asked me why I chose a Kona EV. This is a quick outline of my thought process.
Richard Keech
2022-06-12
Background
I've been looking to buy an EV for a very long time. My old car was a 2012 Holden Volt, which is a plugin-hybrid. It's been a great car. However, with an all-ele...
My amazing sustainable home in Essendon, Victoria, is for sale.
By Richard Keech
2022-01-26
Intro
This has been my family home for 21 wonderful years, but it's time to move on now that my children are grown, and we've built another wonderful home in regional Victoria.
This home, alth...
I sometimes run across a misunderstanding about the nature of solar radiation. I wanted to address that here.
Richard Keech
2021-11-26
What's the myth?
It's well understood that sunlight carries both heat and light. However, I sometimes run across a misunderstanding about the way in whic...
The way carbon emissions are calculated involves the use of a lot of assumptions. There are two particularly problematic assumptions used in calculating the emissions associated with gas which I am greatly concerned about. We need to improve our carbon accounting when it comes to gas so that the ind...
This looks at issues found with common solar-hot-water systems and regulations in Victoria, Australia.
2021-06-20
By Richard Keech
My experience from assessing homes
I've formed the view, from six years of conducting professional home assessments, that common, budget, solar-hot-water (SH...
With the build complete, here's the final reveal, albeit with landscaping still to come.
2021-02-18
By Richard Keech
OK, here it is. We moved in nearly two weeks ago. It's every bit as good as we'd hoped. Too early to know much about how the house performs from an energy point of view,...
This explores our thoughts about our choice to go down the path of certified Passive House. What does it involve? Is it worth it? How much extra does it cost?
2021-01-28
By Richard Keech
What is Passive House?
Firstly, passive solar design and Passive House are not the same.
Passive ...
Here's an interesting way to help understand the flow of energy in a rooftop solar system. Who knew that Venn diagrams and simple algebra could help explain solar?
Richard Keech
2021-01-26
Solar flows
First lets get some clarity about the different flows of energy in a home solar system...
Our green roof is an interesting element of our build that deserves a whole post of its own.
2021-01-01
Richard Keech
Recap
Since very early on in the design process, we had the idea that the garage roof would lend itself to a green (i.e. planted) roof. The recessed elevation of the ga...
The question often arises whether roof ventilation is a good way to help cool a home. I generally don't recommend them. This post explains my reasoning.
By Richard Keech
2020-12-27
CAVEAT: CONDENSATION
Note that in this article I'm concerned with the impact of roof ventilation on ther...
Victoria and South Australia have recently announced the introduction of taxes on plug-in vehicles. Here's my take on that.
2020-11-22
Richard Keech
I once heard economist Richard Dennis say something simple but profound that really stuck with me
'Good public policy means that you...
Some places, like the one pictured, are obvious candidates for having and off-grid power supply. But does it make sense as an option for all homes?
2020-10-19
Richard Keech
Sentiment and Motivations
Sometimes I hear people express the desire to take their house off the electricity grid....
Here's a pictorial essay showing the construction of the house up to the point that the windows are installed.
2020-09-13
Richard Keech
Getting started
It's about three years from our first visit and fin...
Improving the insulation in our homes is a well-understood good. However, the benefits are even more than most people realise.
2020-09-06 [updated 2020-09-13]
by Richard Keech
Thermal comfort
Before we can understand the hidden benefits of insulation, we need to know a bit more about i...
There's a widespread view that Australia has a six-star minimum standard for home energy efficiency. I was taught this, and was of this view for many years. However, I've since learned that it is simply not the case.
This article will help you appreciate the misunderstood and complex fundamental...
2020-08-04
Richard Keech
Finding a builder
It's mid 2019. Kate and I have a great home design, that's got planning approval. Now it's time to find someone to build our dream. From the outset the field is narrow because our design is intended to be a certified Passive House (PH). Our hope w...
2020-07-22
Richard Keech
Kick off
We kicked off in 2019 with a meeting with Luke Middleton onsite at The Cape on a hot and sunny Monday in January. We'd given Luke a written brief already (basically the things in Pt 2,...
2020-07-13
By Richard Keech
Design thinking
After we signed the contract for the land in May 2017, the quest for a design started. We had time up our sleeve, since we were expecting settlement on the land in early to mid 2018. We also had some threshold questions to deal with, i.e.
- wha...
Do wood fires have a place these days in an efficient home?
2020-07-03
By Richard Keech
Introduction
In discussion about efficiently heating our homes, the question often comes up about whether burning wood is appropriate for heating. My view is that wood burning is highly problematic be...
In 2017, my wife Kate and I started on a journey to build our dream home at Cape Paterson in Victoria, Australia. This is our story.
2020-06-30
By Richard Keech
First visit: hook
In February 2017, Brend...
by Richard Keech
2020-04-02
Here's my quick and dirty method of powering some essentials in my home using my plug-in car, should that ever become necessary in a crisis.
The car
My car is a 2013...
by Richard Keech
2019-07-20
STCs are the basis for federal clean energy rebates, including for heat-pump hot water systems (HPHWSs) and solar-thermal hot-water systems. However, they can also be informative in understanding the performance of HPHWSs.
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by Richard Keech
orginally published December 2016, re-blogged 2019-07-20
A couple of times recently on this list, the question of the relative merits of solar hot water vs heat pump hot water has arisen. There’s an oft-overlooked factor to consider when comparing these and that is the temperatu...
by Richard Keech
2019-04-27
I've heard a few people say that covering IC-rated LED lights is bound to cause accelerated failure rate. One the one hand it's well known that electronic devices fail more quickly when they get too hot. On the other hand, you'd think that the manufacturers of IC-ra...
by Richard Keech
2019-02-23
There may be some confusion about performance ratings for heat-pump air conditioning units. Here are a few thoughts and resources that may clarify things.
MEPS and Star ratings
In Australia the federal government regulates appliance energy efficiency. There...
By Richard Keech
2019-01-18
Here's a quick look at how I've transformed my home to zero bills. Since the beginning of the transition, at the time of writing I've saved nearly $49,000 in energy. I expect to have paid back my investment in solar and efficiency by the end of 2019.
Despite usin...
by Richard Keech
2019-01-10
In Victoria, Australia, we now have a complete roll out of smart meters for our home electrical supply. It's not unusual to find people who are of the view that smart meters are bad and that the roll out program was a costly failure. I want to present an alternativ...
(aka Why I'm a Voltage-Optimisation Sceptic)
Of late I've seen reports about how high grid voltage is supposedly a problem and why voltage optimisation may be the solution. But is high grid voltage the villain it's made out to be?
By Richard Keech
2018-11-08
Voltage scaremongering
I...
In selecting home heating, a common choice is a ducted system. Generally I think ducted heating is a bad idea for homes. Here's my take on the problems with ducted systems.
By Richard Keech
2018-10-20 based on earlier work from 2013
Last updated 2023-02-01
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by Richard Keech
2018-10-10
The problem
Downlight fittings that you commonly see in Australian homes are often an energy and comfort nightmare. They can be associated with up to five different problems. Before you go replacing a halogen bulb with an LED replacement, read this.
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This outlines a possibly novel approach to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of heat pumps used for home heating, cooling and hot water. This involves placing the units in the sub-floor space to exploit the thermal mass of the ground in both summer and winter.
By Richard Keech
2018-10-02
...There's been lots of talk of late about a hydrogen economy. I've looked into this. In a nutshell I can't see Hydrogen being widely adopted for energy storage within our electricity system. Likewise, I can't see it being widely used for transport except in some very limited cases. Its use within th...
By Richard Keech
2018-08-14
Do solar air heaters or coolers live up to their promise?
At face value the idea of having a device which uses sunlight directly to heat air in winter seems like a good one. It's the idea behind a number of products on the market that promise really high-efficiency...
By Richard Keech
2018-08-12
Some systems used for heating and cooling depend on air displacement. Understanding what this means is valuable, because systems like this are usually inefficient.
So , what do 1) evaporative air conditioners, 2) fireplaces; and 3) solar air heating systems have in...
If you know a little about insulation then you'll already know about R values. However, to really understand insulation you also need to know about U values and K values.
2018-07-29
By Richard Keech
Our comfort in our homes depends so much on that mostly unseen material - insulation. The...
by Richard Keech
2018-07-12
I thought this picture neatly shows the limitations of passive panel-based heating such as hydronic or column heaters. The thermograph shows most of the heat convecting to the ceiling, allowing much of it to be lost before it can reach the occupants of the room. This...
On Wednesday June 27 2018 I spoke to Lighter Footprints, a community group in eastern Melbourne, on home batteries. Here are the presentation slides. Here is a video recording of the presentation.
The presentation references a spreadsheet model for efficient homes with batteries. You can f...
Yesterday I was enroute to a country client for ecoMaster. I found myself at sunrise driving past the Waubra windfarm at sunrise. Too beautiful not to stop and take a picture or three.
By Richard Keech 2018-06-23
Seeing this natural beauty made feel very grateful and happy. One of t...
There's some debate about whether the best configuration of split systems for multiple rooms is to have multiple single splits or to use multi splits.
By Richard Keech 2018-06-18
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Multiple single-split systems can be an eye sore[...
Are concrete slabs the best floor for an efficient home?
By Richard Keech 2018-06-16
Figure 1: Thermal mass is a two-edged sword
Thermal mass equals efficiency?
The use of concrete slabs on ground is ubiquitous in contemporary Australian home construction. Conventional wisdom says this is...
Here's a way of estimating the benefits of solar, energy efficiency and batteries in a home.
By Richard Keech, 2018-06-06
I was commissioned by the developers at The Cape to created a spreadsheet model to help understand the effect of different factors in an efficient electric home. This lets...
Tips for homes that are energy-efficient, comfortable, carbon-neutral with low or zero energy bills
By Richard Keech 2018-05-19
Based on a talk give...
There's lots to think about when considering high-efficiency hot water.
By Richard Keech, May 2018
Energy efficiency is using no more energy than you absolutely have to to achieve a good outcome. This is very true for domestic hot-water systems which typically account for between 1/5 and 1/4 of...
By Richard Keech (May 2018)
In the course of assessing many homes for energy efficiency, I've seen that even new homes exhibit problems in the basic build. Here are a few ideas of things that are often overlooked. This list doesn't include the many and varied mistakes that can be made in the basi...