Smarterhaus

Have you ever imagined that your roof system that can read the climatic change and adjust itself to reflect or absorb heat during different seasons?

Well, American Scientists have just come up with the new “Smart” roof coating that’s made from the waste cooking oil from fast food chains. The coating automatically switches roles, reflecting or transmitting solar heat, when the outdoor temperature crosses a preset point that can be tuned to the local climate. The material is non-flammable and non toxic.

The new “intelligent” coating may sidestep this quandary. Tests on coated asphalt shingles showed that it could reduce roof temperatures by about 50 — 80 percent in warm weather. In cooler weather, the coating could increase roof temperatures up to 80 percent compared with the traditional cool roof. By changing the coating’s composition, the substance can be tuned so that it changes from reflective to transmitive at a specific environmental temperature.

Source: Science Blog

According to the source from Herald Sun, foil insulation will be torn from up to 50,000 homes under a plan by Greg Combet to fix the insulation rebate mess left by Peter Garrett. Also, up to 150,000 of household with insulation batts will need to go through the safety check.

Source: Herald Sun

Hobart City Council has recently launched a new programe to help Hobart residents to save on power bills by introducing the Home Energy Audit Toolkit (HEAT).

HEAT can be borrowed free of charge from the Hobart City Council. HEAT provides practical tools and information to help households conduct a simple home audit which will help to discover new ways of cutting the households energy cost.

Each HEAT kit will contain:

• Power-Mate Enables measurement of electricity consumption of all electrical appliances with a standard 3-pin plug. Useful for measuring the electricity consumption of appliances such as fridges; televisions, microwaves and computers and their standby consumption.
• Infrared radiometer Used to check for leaks around fridge doors as well as checking for adequate ventilation behind the fridge/freezer and the effectiveness of ceiling insulation.
• Stopwatch Assists in determining flow rate of hot water from showers & taps.
• Compass Assists in identifying: (i) the homes orientation for solar aspect considerations and (ii) suitably orientation of roof aspect for hot water and electricity solar panels.
• Thermometer with magnet Enables measurement of air temperature around houses, hot water system, fridges and freezers.
• Supporting instruction and information sheets Developed specifically for Tasmanian households they provide instructions on how to use the tools included in the kit and suggestions for doable energy efficient actions for various appliances and/or activities.

For further information, visit www.hobartcity.com.au Read the rest of this entry »