This is a really simple calculator to show you how many trees you save from having to be planted each week, month, and year by switching to an ebike.
Continue reading “Find out how many trees you save by switching to an ebike”
Balance Transfers – A Kiwi Microfinance Blog
Everything Micro Nothing Macro
Articles and interviews relating to Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions.
This is a really simple calculator to show you how many trees you save from having to be planted each week, month, and year by switching to an ebike.
Continue reading “Find out how many trees you save by switching to an ebike”
One of the unexpected side advantages of solar power is it gives you the opportunity to keep a careful watch on your whole family’s energy consumption. At least insofar as it makes their energy consumption habits a bit more conspicuous.
Otaki is 16km away from Levin, and Levin has cheap fuel. Is it worth making the 16km return journey to score petrol at a significantly lower price?
Continue reading “Is it worth travelling 16km for cheaper petrol?”
It’s a bit early to do a case study on solar power for the Otaki Motel, because quite frankly, we haven’t received enough data yet to assess how much of an impact our 1.5 kWh solar power system has had on out energy use across all weather patterns and seasons. What we have had is our first electricity bill come in.
Continue reading “So Far, So Good – One Month In and Solar Is Outperforming Expectations”
The motel solar power system has now been successfully installed. I’m able to log in to my inverter system (through Enphase Enlighten) and get a near-real-time reading of the energy consumption versus production through the solar panels. This reading quickly threw up an unintended side effect, which is that the motel solar system is producing way more power at present than the original estimate.
Continue reading “Why Solar Power and Slow Cookers Go So Well Together”
There are some assumptions that I need to make you aware of when using certain valuation methods, including the Discounted Cash Flow Method, to calculate the value of a solar power installation once ten years have already passed. Explaining and outlining these assumptions may go some way to support my on-the-surface outrageous conclusion that, for many households, the value of a solar power installation may be worth more ten years from now than it is on the date of purchase and installation, even when considering the loss in energy efficiency that occurs over time.
I must confess I am just about the furthest thing from an actual engineer – while I have a great deal of curiosity about the nature of solar power and its possible impact on household energy consumption at a micro level, on certain technical matters I will be a small kid with armbands swimming in the deep end.
What do we do when we are potentially out of our depth? We consult a real world expert. So for that reason, this week we speak to Martin King and Bryn Bennett of Degree Limited, who specialise in the installation of all things heating and cooling.
In last week’s article I wrote about the need to calculate your own power consumption before investing in any solar power proposal. This week I want to talk about how extending the timeline for your data set well in advance can help you to improve the data accuracy of your energy saving calculations.
Continue reading “Why It Helps to Start Planning a Year In Advance When It Comes to Solar Power”
In a past article I talked about how the main environmental benefit of installing solar power systems in New Zealand is that it reduces demand on the grid during periods of peak consumption. This time I’m going to look at the flip side of that equation – if you want to receive the maximum economic benefit from your solar power installation, you need to begin with a clear understanding of your own home or business actually uses power.