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.
Blog
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.
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.
Continue reading “Using STCs to Understand Heat-Pump Hot-Water System Performance”
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 temperature set point, and more broadly how the temperature is regulated. Temperature regulation of heated water systems is a matter which has serious impact on energy consumption, as well as on biological safety (due to legionella) and on burn safety (due to the risk of scalding).
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-rated lights would not rate them as OK to cover if it would cause significant reduction in their likely service life. So I thought I’d delve a little closer.
Continue reading “Will covering IC-rated lights make them fail quickly?”
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.
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 I’ve now saved nearly $49,000 in energy. I expect to have paid back my investment in solar and efficiency by the end of 2019.
Despite using much less energy, it’s also worth mentioning that the home is also much more comfortable than it was previously, thanks to the fundamental improvements to the thermal envelope.
Energy consumption reduced to less than energy generation
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 alternative view. Smart meters give important capability, and the roll-out program has probably saved lives.
(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
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
