greenie....airconditioning

Some friends of mine near Kyneton (central Vic) have a mud brick house they, literally, built themselves about 25 years ago. I was there for lunch a couple of years ago when we had previously experienced four or five days of 35C to 40C - the inside of that house was (at a guess) about 23C.

Mike Harding

Grandfather's house was solid sandstone 4-500mm thick. Was great in the hot weather till about the 7th day by when it had heated up. Then it was like an oven for the next week.

Too true Mark although you don't really need to go with alternative materials to be energy efficient. I built a true 5 star energy efficient house 15 years ago using brick veneer & have done without aircon up until next week when I weaken & install a split system for the good wife. I estimate by simply open & closing the windows & drapes, I can cut the number of uncomfortbly hot days down to no more than 7 a year. (NE Vic)
99% of houses built are grossly inefficent, faced the wrong direction or built for looks. Funny how when we choose a car fuel efficiency and performance are key to our choice yet barely rate a mention when looking at a house :-)
Cheers Craig..........

Not really.

Why not?
i have evap at home but there is no way i would be wanting to go back to my room after work to anything less than my RC split sysem.
Tody has been cooler only got to 40 yesterday was 45
every day since chrismas has been around the mid 40s and no sighn of any change soon

And Mike why don't you love refrigerated air conditioning?

Australia (especially some parts) gets very hot - given time we can acclimatise to that heat.

Air conditioning uses oddles of power simply to keep us comfortable and attempts to disguise the real environment in which we live.

Your planet, your choice....

Mike Harding
(who lived in the Middle East in hotter temperatures than Oz)

22 degrees inside while it's 40 out! Almost cold enough to be looking for a long sleeved shirt. Funnily enough many would turn their heater on in winter if it was 22 degrees.
Any time the temp is between 18 to 30 degrees, I can feel comfortable simply by adjusting the clothing I'm wearing without the need to crank up a heater or air conditioner. I'm no greeny but it just seems pointless. My Missus is the same, zero degrees outside & walking around the house in shorts & tee shirt with the Coonara cranked up to 30+ degrees, ironically the same temp Richard you'd have your air con on :-))
Cheers Craig............

Yes I do care about the enviroment more then you may want to think...but I also care about my comfort when at home too.

I surgest Mike that you give up most things you do in life because you might cause harm to the planet and it may also not be enviromently accepted.

There are things we may do that is better for the enviroment then what you do.

We choose to use energy efficent inverter refrigerated air conditioning in our house which is insulated because evap air conditioners don't cut the mustard alot of the time.

Equinox,
I hope you had your tongue firmly in cheek when you typed your reply.

Synergy charges 4.4cents/kwh extra to provide energy from sustainable resources.

True.

But unless you have a direct line from that alternative power source, and absolutely no one has, the power you recieve comes from the general grid.

Power generated from the renewable resource, eg wind power, is fed into the state grid system for distribution along with power generated from Diesel and coal fired generator systems.

IMHO all ones extra 4.4cents does is make one feel good about doing the right thing, although I understand that it makes a small contribution to the massive cost of setting up alternative energy sources.

As one can probably tell from the tone of my reply, I think it's a big con job by the WA govt.

Disco.

Disco,
That kind of plan will never work without, more than just token support.

Yes- it is the same grid but Synergy is required to provide a proportion of their supply according to demand for the Natural Power product.

It is a start at least, one that would work with majority support but at 4.4cents extra, who is gonna pay that??

Happy New Year too :)

I'm paying an extra 5.5c per kwh for wind power from Origin - on days like today, the air conditioner goes on.

Without the demand from consumers for renewable electricity, it won't be built. Of course the electricity that comes into my house is mostly generated in the Latrobe Valley from brown coal, but I've offset it with wind power that is powering someone's house closer to the wind farm (and probably not paying for it). But enough people do it, and there's no need to build another new coal power plant adding to the problem.

That logic is like saying "don't put money in a bank - you deposit $100 of your own and you'll get someone else's $100 when you withdraw it".

Are there still climate change deniers out there? A month of good rain doesn't make it go away.

Barnesy - Passive solar houses are built facing North with no verandahs. If you calculate the angles for your latitude, and window and eaves sizes right, you have a house that is warmed by the sun in winter, and out of the direct sun on the north face in winter. It doesn't mean that it won't get hot on the worst summer days, but most of the year it will be fairly comfortable.

It is the northern hemisphere equivalent of facing south, and studies have found that cave dwellings in Europe in the ice age faced south. These cave dwellers were smarter than a lot of today's architects!

Subsidised solar power is here, but still not affordable for the masses. Not enough votes in genuine clean energy.

Happy New Year to you and all ExplorOz contributers

Motherhen