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Energy efficiency tips for the office
Not only is energy efficiency assessed within the home but also your workplace or office. You spend just as much time at your workplace as you do your home during the week if you work traditional hours. Follow these guidelines recommended by our energy assessors at Energy Rating Perth below to ensure you’re saving in all environments around you: As always, that air conditioner tends to eat up a lot of the energy bill. Make sure you are turning it off when not needed and if possible, allocating it to only the areas needed. Do you really need that air conditioner on the lowest temperature possible? Try turning the temperature setting up 3 degrees to help the electricity bill and the environment. As mentioned in some of our previous blogs, lighting can take up 20% of the electricity bill. Turn off any unnecessary lights and don’t keep them running over any period when the office isn’t being utilised. Further on from lighting, replace your older model incandescent bulbs with new energy efficient bulbs. There’s plenty available on the market today! Ensuring taps and faucets aren’t
Amazon.com going energy efficient!
In the past Amazon has been known for their efforts towards the environment as they have invested a lot of company time and resources towards wind turbine energy production. Now, Amazon have gone green by installing solar panels to 15 of their warehouses. In the future, they aim towards a bigger and better environment by having 50 warehouses converted to be more energy efficient and using renewable energy by 2020. On average homes consume power at a rate of 1.2 kilowatts so with the new solar installation, Amazon would be able to generate enough power to run around 34,000 homes. Dave Clark, the senior vice president of worldwide operations states “This is good for the environment, our business and our customers. By diversifying our energy portfolio, we can keep business costs low and pass along further savings to customers,” Solar power is the future of energy efficiency as quoted by many industry professionals. Solar panels are greatly advancing in technology and becoming more and more common within the residential areas. You can find cost effective options that don’t break the bank and can be
Can your building perform against the micro-climate?
When a 6-Star energy assessment is conducted by an average energy assessor, the building is usually assessed against the main climate zone it is placed in. Here at Energy Rating Perth we go beyond the average assessment. If you consult with us prior to completing the building design, we can provide consultancy on many factors that will help improve your building’s thermal performance by taking the micro-climate your site is placed in into consideration. Australia is primarily divided into 8 major climatic zones which is a generalization based on the overall effect of the mean temperatures, rainfall and relative humidity for certain areas. However, energy assessors here at Energy Rating Perth will further categorise the regions based on several factors like altitude, terrain, slope, vegetation, distance from the coast etc. Due to this geographical variation, we have a phenomenon called a micro-climate which may be alternate to the general climate of the area. The following is a list of examples of micro-climate: Rise in altitude means a drop in temp. Generally, for each 100 m rise, we can assume the temperature to be
Solar Cost
The team at Energy Rating Perth are looking into the question: “Is solar really worth it?” Solar power has made a huge advancement in recent years with 1.5 million homes in Australia already having a solar power PV system. Many industry professionals say Solar power is the future. In the previous 4 years, studies have shown a cost reduction for installation of about 25-30%, therefore making it even more affordable to save money long term! Installation cost is only one of the influences that impact how well your solar system performs in terms of value of money with other factors such as available sunlight, panel placement, energy consumed by the home and your electricity retailer coming into play. Some recent studies show that on average a 3W system on a standard home, considering there are many other assumptions and influences on individual properties, has an estimated payback period of 2.5-3 years with an average saving of $1000-$2000 per year on utility bills to follow. These figures are only proposed to be suggestive, but it does provide a little insight in the positive factors of
World Solar Challenge Record
In June 2017, student’s from Cal Poly’s Prototype Vehicles Laboratory are setting out to try and take over the world record for the fastest land speed for a solar powered vehicle. Currently the record stands at 23.5mph for FIA and 56.74mph for the Guinness Book World Record. The students design relies exclusively on solar power, with no batteries or system of energy storage. Former record holders have made use of such materials and energy sources so this is really a true breakthrough and shows the advancement of technology education available today. “After a year of rigorous engineering and development, we think we have a car that can exceed 65 mph,” said Will Sutton, the student project manager. “We want to inspire the public to see how quickly solar power is advancing.” The masterminds behind this project consists of over 60 students all from diverse masters and expertise backgrounds. “These students aren’t competing against other universities – they’re battling the laws of physics,” said PROVE Lab’s founding faculty adviser Dr. Graham Doig, who is a professor in the university’s Aerospace Engineering Department. The students have used techniques and materials used in formula
Using thermal mass to maintain an indoor thermal comfort
When conducting a 6 Star Energy Rating Assessment, our energy assessors take many factors into consideration beyond just the glazing and building envelope performance. It considers phenomenon such as building materials and their level of thermal mass. The term thermal mass simply means the ability of a solid mass to absorb and store heat. Dense materials of a high mass require a lot of energy to heat up and can store the heat energy for longer, such materials are said to be a high thermal mass e.g. concrete, bricks, earth, tiles. Lightweight materials like wood do not take long to absorb heat but also cannot retain it for as long and are termed as low thermal mass. What is important is not just a material’s ability to retain the heat but they also release it back to the environment steadily depending on their thermal mass. This is known as phase lag. This phenomenon is very useful for building thermal performance. At Energy Rating Perth, our energy assessors can decide depending on net target interior temperature required as it can be used to heat or
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At Energy Rating Perth, we aim to provide clients with every probable solution to help improve the thermal performance of their homes. A large number of clients at Energy Rating Perth might not recognise the importance of landscaping and the ability of your home to achieve thermal comfort. Trees can provide shading on the walls and windows, which can greatly improve the interior thermal comfort. However, just like the concept of eaves, we may not require shading on all sides all around the year. For this reason, deciduous trees can be planted towards the northern side so in the winters, they can allow full sunlight penetration while evergreen trees are preferable for the eastern and western facades. This can help in keeping your home cool in the hot summers by providing shade and avoid unnecessary solar heat gain. In colder climates, trees can also limit the harsh cold air from penetrating into the building by acting as a barrier. In hot/humid or even moderate climates, this may be a limiting factor therefore, when choosing trees, they should be ones that allow air movement through the foliage.
Other than trees, there are smaller shrubs that are strategically placed can also cool the breeze before it enters into the building through evapotranspiration. Other landscape features water bodies also help in creating a cooling effect due to evaporation. The process can be speeded up by using a water spray in a fountain particularly into a summer breeze path. This is not recommended for climates with high humidity throughout the air as it may actually increase the humidity thus affecting the overall thermal comfort of the home.
Our energy assessors take into account a range of information when they are completing a 6 star energy rating assessment and may at times give recommendations that seem trivial but can add greatly to the energy efficiency of your home. Strategic selection as well as plantation of vegetation should be considered as a solution and site featured trees should be preserved rather than removed.
Call our team at Energy Rating Perth for more information today!
OFFICE LINE
1.800.555.6789
EMERGENCY
1.800.555.0000
WORKING HOURS
9:00am – 6:00pm
OFFICE LINE
1.800.555.6789
EMERGENCY
1.800.555.0000
WORKING HOURS