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LATEST ARTICLES
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Green Substitutes for Energy Efficiency
The energy assessors at Energy Rating Perth are always recommending ways to improve energy efficiency for our clients and homeowners. But what if we could tell you that it’s possible to make your home almost completely self-sustaining with the use of green technology. This is beneficial for your carbon footprint and your electricity bills. Solar: 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 balance and can be installed onto your home in no time. Consult with a reliable installation company today and do your research on the best options for your home. Wind: When you think of wind turbines, you assume huge fields of windmills for large corporations. That’s not always the case, today this technology is available for your home too. The outlay for this option may be significant but long term it reaps benefits to your utility bills. Geothermal: Although this option will not produce electricity, it will still benefit to the temperature control of your home. It absorbs the heat from
Changes to your lighting, means changes to your bills!
Lighting can make up to 20% of your electricity bills, so if you are using energy efficient materials it can make a dramatic change to your usage. Our energy assessors at Energy Rating Perth recommend swapping from incandescent bulbs to LED will not only help the environment but it will help your bank account too. In recent years they have changed the minimum efficiency standards so many regulations are changing for the bulb manufacturers. Older light bulb models are being made obsolete to make way for new productions to help with energy efficiency. There are many new options available on the market today like: CFL’s use 75% less energy than traditional lightbulbs and last more than 7 years. Energy efficient soft white is the same shape/size of a traditional lightbulb and uses 28% less energy. LED’s use 75% less energy and will last up to 22 years. Another positive fact is that CFL and LED bulbs can be recycled unlike your more traditional incandescent bulbs. Make the transition today and you’ll be saving your environment and electricity bills! For more information on how to
Can daylighting reduce your electricity bills?
Our energy assessors at Energy Rating Perth urge our readers to use daylighting in their building as a key strategy for passive as it can have a significant impact on you electricity bills. Allowing sunlight into your home does not only affect visual comfort but thermal comfort as well. The sun’s path of travel is predictable, daylighting can be a vital light source over artificial lighting. We always urge our clients at Energy Rating Perth to remember the difference between sunlight and daylight. Sunlight is the direct entry of light which also allows heat in and may not be optimum for visual comfort as it harsh light that will causes glare. On the other hand, daylighting is a softer diffused even distribution of light in which the factor of heat may also be reduced. The following steps can be taken for both new builds as well as existing homes to allow daylighting: Massing and orientation to allow daylighting through the east-west façade rather than north-south to allow daylight penetration. Even distribution of windows with smaller continuous strips rather than one large window
Choosing the Best Insulation Company for You!
Previously our energy assessors at Energy Rating Perth we have mentioned the use of insulation and how it’s one of the most important ways to keep your energy costs down. So follow our 3 tips to choose the right company! Communication is the key. You want a company that not only listens to you but can visualise your short and long term energy and liveable needs. Choosing a company that can supply various forms of insulation and provide you with the best fit. Can they provide you with a vast range of information including the proper application of each type? If they are well educated on all types, then they can advise you on the proper choices and recommendations to suit your development. All contractors should respect your home and maintain the buildings integrity. Just because a new system is being installed doesn’t mean existing systems should be damaged. Your home should be left clean and free of damage. For more information on your home insulations requirements contact one of the friendly energy assessors at Energy Rating Perth today!
How does the form of a building affect its thermal performance?
Many factors play a crucial role in the efficiency of a building in order to achieve a good thermal performance. We may perfect a building’s envelope, but if the building form is not intelligently designed it may not be a building that performs well. At Energy Rating Perth, our energy assessors urge our clients to include energy efficiency concepts early in their design process. There are many factors to consider when it comes to an energy efficient building but the conscious effort should start when designing the building form and a good thermal performance can be achieved. Mainly, an intelligent building form is a balance between the floor area, shape of the plan, height of the building and surface area to volume ratio. The only way to determine the best outcome is by modelling different geometries of buildings into energy assessing software with variables like orientation and insulation considered to achieve the optimum outcome. Results from such modelling give a general idea for optimum building form but the true balance is dependent on complex factors like the prevailing climate and/or micro climate of a
Winter is coming – Are you ready for an energy efficient winter?
Our energy assessors at Energy Rating Perth urge our readers to always be climate ready. While our older homes and buildings may not be as energy efficient as the newer constructions, small steps and alterations to your activities can result in a thermally stable home without the expensive renovations. The following tips are important for staying warm in the winter of Perth: The sun is your friend for the winter: If the glazing is well designed in your home, you can maximise your solar gain by opening all blinds in your home and allowing full sun penetration to altogether avoid or reduce the need of mechanical heating systems. Especially if you have a polished concrete floor, taking off rugs and moving the furniture out of the windows may help “charge” your thermal mass so it radiates the heat at night as well. Invest in retractable shading devices as the low angled winter sun may not penetrate through the long traditional eaves. If you have evergreen trees planted around your home, trim the branches enough to reduce the foliage volume. This would help maximise the
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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
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OFFICE LINE
1.800.555.6789
EMERGENCY
1.800.555.0000
WORKING HOURS