The Age reported yesterday that Victorian’s water bills will increase by 51 to 64 percent over the next 4 years. The water price rises, approved by the Essential Service Commission, will help supliment water saving measures by the Victorian Government. The Government’s water saving measures will include the Sugarloaf and North-South piplines, Eastern Treatment Plant [...]
This is probably not something you'd do to the new Beamer sitting in the driveway but if you've got an early 90's or even 80's car sitting around, then you might like to try a little DIY and have a crack at converting your car to electric energy.
This Guide to Converting your Car To Electric shows how a couple living off the grid were able to convert their car to electric power and spend less than $20 per month to rechard their car.
This build your own electric vehicle guide will show you how to:
- Cut Fuel Costs to Nearly Zero
- Clean Up The Environment
- Get Massive Tax Refunds
- Step by Step how to convert a car to electric
So if you don't want to fork out $40k for a new Prius, but would love to convert your existing car to electric, go check out How To Convert Your Car To Electric.
If you're thinking of installing a rainwater tank to harvest rainwater, use the checklist below to ensure you get the best out of your rain water tank.
- Make sure you roof is suitable for collecting rainwater.
- Reduce the amount of debris that will end up in your tank by installing gutter mesh.
- Fit gutter outlets to the underside of the gutter to prevent obstruction of water flow.
- Fit leaf eater-beater rain heads to downpipes stop gutters blocking. Leaf eater-beaters deflect leaves and debris and keep mosquitoes out of pipes that hold water.
- Install a water diverter to prevent the first flush of most contaminated rainwater from entering the tank.
- Ensure a tank screen is installed at the water tank entry point to filter water and keep mozzies and pests out.
- Find your nearest rain water tank supplier.
- Choose a suitable size tank for your home and consumption volumes.
- Attach insect-proof screens or flap valves to the end of all pipes to the tank screen and to the tank overflow outlets to keep mosquitos and pests out and ensure the tank is well vented.
- If necessary, utilise a tank "Top-Up" system to automatically top up the tank with mains water when water levels fall to the designated minimum level.
- Select a water pump system to distribute water for use inside or outside the home.
Here's a great guide that will help you create a sustainable living environment in your home. This book will teach you how to:
- Understanding why you should Go Green;
- Learning to adapt your lifestyle to benefit the planet;
- How and What to Recycle to save our resources;
- Reduce the amount of waste in landfills;
- Help your community;
- Live a healthier life;
- Saving energy and put money in your pocket;
- Recycle home waste products
- Buy the right products with recyclable packaging
- Compost kitchen and yard waste
- Perform Home Energy Audit
- Buy local
- Install rain water tanks
- Plant drought tolerant plants
- Buy energy saving light bulbs (CFL)
- Shop for Energy Star Saving Appliances
- Calculate your carbon footprint
If you're interested in learning more about you can reduce your carbon footprint and living green, check out Going Green, the comprehensive book on home sustainability and living green.
Australian's are lucky enough to be able to claim a rebate on Solar Hot Water Systems, but for those who like to DIY and build their own solar water heater, here's a book that might help.
This easy step by step guide will show you several different plans to build your very own solar water heater system. The plans are simple enough for any DIY'er to follow and will give you different option on how to set up and install your solar water heater.
You can build an entire solar hot water system for as little as $100. Once installed, you will be saving up to 1/3 of your electric bill each and every month, depending on the amount of sunlight hours in your region.
View the Build Your Own Solar Hot Water Heat website for more info.
The Age reports that water rates will double by 2011 due to increases is charges by Melbourne Water to water retailers. New water infrastructure programs such as a desalination plant and the north south pipline will significanty bump up water rates.
The Age also reports that this week water storage levels in the state fell to their lowest level since the Thomson Dam was built in 1984.
Dr Peter Fisher writes about desalination plant alternatives for Melbourne's water woes in The Age today. The article title "Big solutions for our water needs will use more energy" explains the energy hungry nature of desalination plants and puts forward some innovative alternatives to water production.
The NSW Government has extended rebates for solar hot water systems rain water and tanks until 2011. You can now claim up to $2,800 solar hot water systems and $2,000 for rainwater tanks, through a combination of state and federal rebates.
Check out the NSW Dep't Environment & Climate Change website .
Apple had just released what their claiming to be the most energy efficient desktop PC in the world. The new green Mac Mini uses 45% less energy at idle than it's predecessor using just 13 Watts per hour. Apple are also touting the following green PC stats:
- FR-free
- PVC-free (internal cables)
- Highly recyclable aluminium and polycarbonate enclosure
- Meets ENERGY STAR Version 5.0 requirements
- Rated EPEAT Gold
All these eco friendly improvements have not had an adverse effect on performance. Your new mean green Mac Mini can come with up to 320Gb hard disk, 4Gb RAM and comes with a NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics processor giving 5 faster graphics performance.
Given that I'm a recent Mac convert, I'm drouling! For more info, check out the new Green Mac Mini pages at Apple.
AVG Australia has started a campaign to encourage as many website owners as they can to add a Victorian Bushfire Red Cross Appeal donation button to their website.
If you're a webmaster, or can get in the ear of a web site owner, please encourage them to participate in this important campaign.
For more details visit the Red Cross Donation Button page at AVG.
Australian university students with something "eco" on their minds are being asked to step forward with their ideas on sustainable energy solutions for the 2009 Bayer-UNEP Eco-Minds Forum, and be in with a chance to represent Australia at an International Forum in Auckland, New Zealand.
In partnership with the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP), the Bayer Eco-Minds program aims to foster awareness, thirst and passion for the environment amongst students from across the Asia Pacific region. In return, the winning students receive an all expenses paid trip to Auckland for the opportunity to present their ideas and participate in solution-orientated group work, cross-cultural activities and knowledge sharing in a bid to tackle real-life sustainable development issues.
In Australia, the initiative is being supported by leading environmentalist Jon Dee who believes the Eco-Minds Forum is an ideal opportunity for students to put their passion to good use.
"What better way for young Aussie students to get their suggestions for sustainable energy solutions out there," says Dee. "Eco-Minds provides the perfect forum for tomorrow's leaders to exchange ideas with each other in a proactive, pan-Asia effort to make a very real difference to the future of our environment, today."
2009 will see the third bi-annual Eco-Minds Forum take place. At the 2007 Forum in Thailand, university students Rachel Cain from the University of Adelaide, Laura Joseph from the University of Western Sydney and Eric Knight from Sydney University represented Australia when the best minds from across Asia Pacific came together to explore real-life issues and sustainable development ideas for fresh water supply.
Rachel Cain, who has been involved with the Youth Environment Council of South Australia, as both a member and mentor, and has completed voluntary work in Central America, says:
"Eco-Minds has helped to fast track my career by providing me with an unforgettable experience to work alongside students from across the region to try and solve issues of sustainability that affect all of us.
"Each student brought their own knowledge and skill-set which helped fuel the discussion and ideas and allowed each of us to learn so much from each other. It's opened up doors for me and I've created some wonderful friendships." said Ms Cain.
The 2009 Eco-Minds Youth Forum will focus on a topic that is of growing importance to the world - Sustainable Energy Systems: Challenges and Opportunities. As part of the week-long event, participants will look at some of the challenges around energy supply, including climate change, and the practical solutions that can overcome such challenges with a visit to New Zealand's hydro and geothermal supply systems.
For those "eco-minded" students who have ever seen something and thought "I could do it better", this is their chance. The Bayer-UNEP Eco-Minds is open to all university students aged 18-24 years with delegates from Singapore, Thailand, Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Philippines, India, Indonesia and China attending.
For entry details and application forms, students can log on to
www.eco-minds.bayer.com, or contact the Australian Eco-Minds Co-ordinator on
(02) 4736 0892. Entries close on 28 March 2009.