Greeniology 2020

Greener Living Today, And In The Future

Tanya Ha

• Publisher: Melbourne University Press Digital
• Year: 2011
• Print ISBN: 9780522858549
• eBook ISBN: 9780522860511
• Topic: Biological Sciences
• Subtopic: Environmental Science
• Index: Biological Sciences

Do you want to live well, be green and make a difference? There's never been a better time to reduce your personal impact on the environment and prepare for change as our society moves towards sustainability. With topics covering everything from green cleaning and eco-fashion to growing food and saving energy and water, Greeniology 2020 is a practical, fun guide to changing your lifestyle for a healthier home and healthier planet. Award-winning environmentalist and television presenter Tanya Ha provides green living advice, tips and ideas for the beginner and committed tree-hugger alike. They will compel you to change your life, and to be part of the solution to our planet's problems. Find out how to:
&bull: Reduce the impact of your lifestyle and help the planet flourish
• Make your home more comfortable all year round
• Save money on energy and water bills
• Go green at work, and
• Make your home safer and healthier for your family

9

Energy

Energy is defined as the ability to do work. And what wonderful work energy does for us. It boils the water to make your morning cuppa, airconditions sweltering offices, provides light after dark and powers the stereo. All of nature interacts with the free energy from the sun, and using the warmth of passive solar energy is part of being human.

Energy—in the forms of electricity, gas, LPG and other fuels—is an integral part of our homes. We use it to do a range of useful and important things, like cooking food or refrigerating it. But as well as the practical home uses of energy, there are also the fun uses. Electricity powers televisions, computers, fairy lights, game consoles, cordless telephones, lava lamps, hair-straightening irons and many other devices. Even the humble open fire may be more about romance than home heating.

Our environmental concerns relating to energy boil down to two issues: the energy we currently use has serious impacts, such as climate change, and we also need to ensure our future ‘energy security’—that we have enough sources of energy to keep enjoying its benefits and uses into the future.

In the first part of this chapter, we look at energy use in our homes and how we can cut it back and still live comfortable, enjoyable lives. In the second part, we look at where this energy comes from and how we can source the energy we do use from cleaner, renewable sources.

➔ Ask Tanya

I currently buy 100% green electricity. I have recently noticed lots of advertising promoting reducing energy usage at home and at work. Is there any reason, other than reducing my bill, for me to cut down on my usage?

Peter, Orange, NSW

First, a hearty ‘good on you’ for being a GreenPower subscriber. But your chosen source of electricity isn’t the only way you influence Australia’s electricity situation. Your electricity usage, along with that of all the other grid-connected electricity users, places a demand on power stations. New electricity-generation projects are being built to keep up with our increasing collective energy demand.

Power stations, renewable energy projects, powerlines and other energy infrastructure all have environmental and financial costs (some much more than others). Queensland Premier Anna Bligh summed it up when in June 2009 she announced the state’s ban on the sale of inefficient airconditioners: ‘Every time an air-conditioning unit is installed, it costs our network up to $5000’.

Remember also that greener electricity sources are not completely without environmental impacts. For example, hydro projects can affect aquatic ecosystems, and wind farms can harm local wildlife (though I’d hazard a guess that more birds have been killed by cars, tall buildings and pet cats than wind turbines). In short, unlimited consumption is never sustainable—even an all-you-can-eat restaurant has a door price, and poses a risk of overeating, indigestion and weight gain!

Energy in the home

There are four steps in a simple household energy action plan that aims to cut the carbon impact of your energy use:

1 Measure your energy use. This is easy. Your electricity and gas bills do this for you. Monitoring your usage will help you to keep track of how effective your efforts to reduce your energy use are. Keep in mind that electricity prices are increasing, so look for changes in average daily energy use (measured in units, kilowatt hours or megajoules) rather than changes in the dollar figure to get a true indication of how you’re going environmentally.

2 Reduce your energy use. That’s what this chapter is all about.

3 For the energy you do use, go renewable, as discussed in the second part of this chapter.

4 Offset the carbon impact of any non-renewable but less greenhouse-intensive energy you do use, such as natural gas used for home heating. This also is covered later in the chapter.

Where does our home energy come from?

Most of the energy we use in our homes comes directly from burning fuel such as firewood or natural gas, or indirectly in the form of electricity. The natural gas and LPG used in homes are both fossil fuels. In Australia over 90% of electricity is generated by burning coal and natural gas—both fossil fuels—at power stations. In this chapter, I refer to this as ‘conventional electricity’, as it’s often the default electricity source. It’s generally what you get unless you ask to switch over to GreenPower or unless you generate your own—for example, with solar panels. By comparison, more than half of New Zealand’s electricity is generated by hydroelectric schemes. The average Australian household contributes more than 15 tonnes of greenhouse gases each year by using electricity and natural gas, driving cars and producing waste. If you add the emissions that result from producing the goods we consume, the figure is much higher. Some of this greenhouse gas is produced in the home—for example, the carbon dioxide from an open fire. However, much of it is produced away from the home, at the power stations that provide electricity or at the factories that produce the products we buy. In this chapter, we will be focusing on the greenhouse emissions from our direct use of energy in our homes.

Different energy sources make widely differing contributions to climate change, so it’s useful to talk about the idea of ‘greenhouse intensity’. This is a measure of the emissions that result from producing a given amount of energy. Our electricity in Australia is at the high end of the greenhouse intensity scale when compared with other countries, largely due to our reliance on coal. As a rough guide, a kilowatt hour of electricity produced in Australia means a kilogram of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere. Note that this is a national average. In Tasmania, the emissions intensity of electricity is about 0.32 of a kilogram of carbon dioxide per kilowatt hour because of the use of hydroelectricity, while in Victoria the use of polluting brown coal results in an average electricity emission intensity of 1.23 kilograms of carbon dioxide per kilowatt hour. The higher the proportion of renewable electricity fed into our national grid, the lower the greenhouse emissions of electricity use will be. In this book, emissions figures quoted for electricity use are based on the national average (which largely comes from polluting fossil fuels), unless stated otherwise.

Similarly, we can talk about the greenhouse intensity of using natural gas. Because it is burned directly in our homes for cooking or heating, it produces less emissions than would be produced by the equivalent amount of conventional electricity needed to do the same job. For cooking, heating and providing hot water, you have a choice between gas and electricity, provided you have access to natural gas. You also have a choice in relation to electricity source. Keep this is mind as you work through this chapter. As a rule of thumb, natural gas produces less ...

Table of contents

• Previous Books
• Title
• Dedication
• Contents
• Introduction
• Healty home, healthy planet
• Working Green
• Green Cleaning
• Green Wardrobe and Linen Press
• Green Grooming and Bathing
• Food
• Waste and Recycling
• Energy
• Water
• The Green Garden
• Green Building and Renovating
• Getting Around
• How to Have a Green Baby
• Notes
• Acknowledgements
• Index
• Imprint