Tag Archives: energy efficient house design

Green Home Plans

If you are planning an environmentally-friendly new building, or are looking to add renewable energy technology to an existing property, you are not alone. In recent times, the importance of designing in accordance with green home plans has really gained popularity. It is important to start by getting the orientation of the building right. This varies from location to location, so to understand the the sun’s angles and the climatic region of your planned location,  it is important to have scientifically correct data on which to base your decisions.

Green Home Plans climatic Regions

Climatic Regions Map

Changing Traditional Building Methods

People are beginning to understand the damage caused to the environment by traditional building methods and they are actively looking for green architects to undertake their new buildings, extensions or upgrades to existing homes. For details on architects and building methods please view our other articles under the Consumers Section of this website.

Using Renewable Energy

Millions of homes and businesses across the world are using renewable energy sources, such as solar panels and wind power, to harness the planet’s natural resources and reduce our dependence on expensive and depleting fossil fuels.

Buying Green Building Products

Many people now view the purchase of green building products as a long-term investment, reducing the running costs of a property, while also helping to reduce their carbon footprint. Green building supply companies are booming and an increasing number of energy efficient devices are becoming available on the market.

Whether you are adopting  green home plans for an entire property, an extension, a greenhouse,  garage or  planning to retro-fit an existing building, there is a wide choice of building products available to help you complete your project. Read the article on ‘green building products on this website.

Choosing Green Building Materials

If you have specific green home plans prepared already you will now be able to find a wide range of construction materials to choose between for the best environmental results. However, a little preparation will be required to ensure that any  green home plans are executed for the best results in energy efficiency, climate control and comfort.

Green Home Plans Data Sheets

Green Home Plans Data Sheets

While shopping shopping for eco-friendly building materials, it’s important to consider the many natural materials available, including but not limited to earth, wood, straw, bamboo or stone. The choice is now vast – new environmentally sensitive  products are being developed for the market continually, in a bid to satisfy the demand from green building projects.  Our expert green building design guideLow Energy Buildings in Australia” is now available in the solar-e.com shop. We recommend you research the information in this guide to help you select the orientation of your building, the placement of windows, your choice of  building materials and their contribution to a successful low-energy building design.

Adopting Sustainable Architecture

Ideally, you will need to find a balance between practicality and great aesthetics. Green building incorporates many different elements and should always embody a high level of sustainable architecture. Many people use the services of a specially trained environmental architect to help them plan and design their projects and turn their green home plans into viable and sustainable options.

Obtaining The Stamp of Approval

Your architect can also advise you on ways to obtain green building certification on your property, which can be extremely beneficial when it comes to selling your home.

Considering The Cost

When you are working with your architect or designer on your green home plans it’s vital to consider your ongoing requirements, before commencing with any building work. This will ensure that you get the best possible results to suit your lifestyle and needs.

Carefully reviewing the number of rooms you think you need may lead to a guest bedroom doubling as a multi-purpose room. Reducing the number of rooms or their dimensions will reduce building costs and ongoing energy consumption.

Searching For Help

There is now a vast range of websites available to help you get any green projects off the ground. Using the internet, searching websites and special interest forums will uncover tips and ideas for the implementation of new technologies in a practical and cost-effective way. Use the ‘search’ button on this site for a subject you wish to read in more detail or contact us with your questions.

As increasing numbers of people look towards the use of renewable energy sources as a way to make a positive contribution to the planet, there will be increased demand for specific green home plans and architects and designers will add energy efficient design training  to their skills.

Perhaps now is the right time to research your options, get your green home plans underway and look forward to a brighter future. Please contact us if we can assist you with any specific queries on designing a passive solar or low energy building.

AuSES Conference Best Papers: Solar Energy Environmental Benefits Best Papers

We have prepared list of solar-e.com’s own selection of ranked candidates for the Solar Energy Environmental Benefits best papers presented at the ‘Solar 2010’ Conference: Policies and Strategies (including the Economics of solar energy, diversity of derived forms of solar energy, electricity grids and data collection)

The analysis and understanding the of more obscure fields of solar energy related technology and policy developments is obviously another critical step forward to applying more solar energy in our economy. this section will hopefully expand as more papers are delivered in the future.

AuSES Committee – Best Papers at AuSES Solar 2010 as judged by the AuSES panel

Student Prizes – Wal Read Memorial Prizes
Post Graduates Prizes
BILBAO, Jose “PV-Thermal Water Systems as a Retrofit for Near Zero Energy Homes”
Winner $1500 AUD
BAMBROOK, Shelley “Experimental PVT Air System for Dwellings”
Highly Commended $1000 AUD
LHENDUP, Tshewang “Simulation of a Ground-coupled Heat Pump Combined with Solar Collectors”
Commended $250 AUD
ELLISTON, Ben “Grid parity: A potential misleading concept?”
Commended $250 AUD

Undergraduates Prizes
BRAZIER, Thomas “Dependence of installed cost of a 1.5 kW rooftop PV system on module efficiency”
Joint Winner $1,000 AUD
BOEREMA, Nicholas “Economics of constraints on wind farms – SA”
Joint Winner $1,000 AUD
O’BRIEN, Paul “Exergetic analysis of a steam-flashing thermal storage system”
Joint Winner $1,000 AU

Solar Energy Environmental Benefits: Solar-e.com Director Garry Baverstock’s personal selection of the Best Papers

At the conference the papers were presented under a number of category headings such as Built Environment, Wind Power, Photovoltaics, Environmental Benefits, Solar Thermal and Solar Energy Economics. Following is our selection of the worthwhile papers and a ranking based on relevance to world situation on Climate Change, the impact on the increased use of solar energy and the quality of the research as presented in the paper.
The Solar Energy Environmental Benefits best papers, in our opinion, have been listed below. This is our opinion, but we are interested in what the solar experts think and any comments are welcome. If we have overlooked a paper or you disagree with our assessment please feel free to offer your opinion. If bona fide it will be published.

A comment by solar-e.com is included after each listing.

Image Trees in Forest

1.A Novel  System of Combined Power Generation and Hot water Desalination Using Renewable Energy

Fulaqi, Anhitijit Date, Aliakbar Akbarzadeh
Comment: Desalination is already becoming a necessity and this is renewable energy must be used to make water supply economically viable.

2. Efficiency Improvement Using Solar Desiccant Drying for Selected Solar Seeds

Kame Khouzam
Comment:Drying of seeds in developing countries is an important use of solar energy to increase yields and food production

3. Sustainable Non Condensable Gas Removal from Geothermal Waters

Anna Khaghani1, Abhijit Date, Rene Wolke, Aliakbar Akbarzadeh
Comment: Geothermal will be a large industry eventually and we must control the environmental side effects pollution

4.Efficiency Improvement Using Solar Desiccant Drying For Selected Seeds

Kame Khouzam
Comment:Agricultural applications of solar energy is a potentially large contribution to Climate Change and a betterment of developing countries.

5.  Hybrid Solar Photovoltaic and Water & Waste water Treatment System

M.Vivar, L Kumaresan, V Muugesan, M Lluch, S Iniyan, K Palanivelu, I Skryabin
Comment: Combining waste heat from photvoltaics with waste water treatment will lower fossil fuel use in water conservation as global populations balloon in the next 40 years.

6. Solar Thermal drying of Canarium Indictum Nuts

T Curtis, R Corkish, RJ Fuller
Comment:The availability of better nutrition and food preserving is critical in the developing world.

DO YOU WISH TO BUY ANY OF THESE PAPERS?

A message from AuSES
People who were not delegates at Solar 2010 (or AuSES members) who would like to access this resource they can apply for access for an annual fee of $140 (ex GST). Please go to AuSES website.

Solar-e.com invites you to leave comments on our ranking of Solar Energy Economics Best Papers at the end of this article.

Experts who disagree with our rating and choices we invite you to make comment and if enough substance is shown we will reserve the right to change the ranking at anytime or keep the ranking the same.

Solar-e.com related links:

http://solar-e.com/knowledge/2009/11/30/green-economics
http://solar-e.com/knowledge/2009/11/24/ethical-investment
http://solar-e.com/knowledge/2009/11/30/employment-opportunities
http://solar-e.com/knowledge/2009/11/30/wave-power
http://www.solartec.iinet.net.au/solare/innovation/strategiesindevelopingproducts.htm

AuSES Conference Best Papers: Photovoltaics Best Papers

We have prepared list of solar-e.com’s own selection of ranked candidates for the Photovoltaics best papers presented at the ‘Solar 2010’ Conference: Policies and Strategies (including the Economics of solar energy, diversity of derived forms of solar energy, electricity grids and data collection)

The analysis and understanding the of more obscure fields of solar energy related technology and policy developments is obviously another critical step forward to applying more solar energy in our economy. this section will hopefully expand as more papers are delivered in the future.

AuSES Committee – Best Papers at AuSES Solar 2010 as judged by the AuSES panel

Student Prizes – Wal Read Memorial Prizes
Post Graduates Prizes
BILBAO, Jose “PV-Thermal Water Systems as a Retrofit for Near Zero Energy Homes”
Winner $1500 AUD
BAMBROOK, Shelley “Experimental PVT Air System for Dwellings”
Highly Commended $1000 AUD
LHENDUP, Tshewang “Simulation of a Ground-coupled Heat Pump Combined with Solar Collectors”
Commended $250 AUD
ELLISTON, Ben “Grid parity: A potential misleading concept?”
Commended $250 AUD

Undergraduates Prizes
BRAZIER, Thomas “Dependence of installed cost of a 1.5 kW rooftop PV system on module efficiency”
Joint Winner $1,000 AUD
BOEREMA, Nicholas “Economics of constraints on wind farms – SA”
Joint Winner $1,000 AUD
O’BRIEN, Paul “Exergetic analysis of a steam-flashing thermal storage system”
Joint Winner $1,000 AU

Photovoltaics: Solar-e.com Director Garry Baverstock’s personal selection of the Best Papers

At the conference the papers were presented under a number of category headings such as Built Environment, Wind Power, Photovoltaics, Environmental Benefits, Solar Thermal and Solar Energy Economics. Following is our selection of the worthwhile papers and a ranking based on relevance to world situation on Climate Change, the impact on the increased use of solar energy and the quality of the research as presented in the paper.
The Photovoltaics best papers, in our opinion, have been listed below. This is our opinion, but we are interested in what the solar experts think and any comments are welcome. If we have overlooked a paper or you disagree with our assessment please feel free to offer your opinion. If bona fide it will be published.

A comment by solar-e.com is included after each selection.


1. Investigation of single layers of silicon quantum dots in SiO2 matrix for energy selective contacts in hot carriers solar cells

P.Aliberti, B.P. Veettil, Ruoyu Li, S.K. Shrestha, B. Zhang, A. Hsieh M.A. Green, G.J. Conibeer
Comment: High Quality scientific PV research

2. High Efficiency Flexible Mono-Crystalline Silcon Modules

EA Thomsen, V Everett, A Blakers, M Brauers, E Davies, J Muric-Nesic, C Samundsett, T Ratcliffe, H Zhao, I Skryabin
Comment: This is significant research in the race between polycrystalline and mono-crystalline cells.  Of course the winner will all about area available for collection and the cost of installed PV /sq m.

3. Large Increases in Bulk Lifetime of Commercial Grade CZ Silicon Wafers Through Hydrogenation

Brett Hallam, Ned Western, Stuart Wenham
Comment: High quality research with large potential benefits to PV industry

4.Improved Implied Voc for Commercial Grade Wafers by Rear Surface Passivation in Conjunction with Rear Laser Doping Technique

X. Bai1, A. Sugianto1, S. R. Wenham1 and B. J. Hallam
Comment: High Quality PV research.  Improvement of the efficiency of PV is the main area that will increase the viable use of PV in the built environment and the various agricultural applications

5.Tandem Photoelectrochemical Cell for Direct Water Splitting

Haixiang Zhang 1, Shujuan Huang1, Gavin Conibeer 1
Comment: This PV production of hydrogen could be a potential industry in the secod half of the 21st century or even earlier

6.Third Generation Photovoltaics

Gavin Conibeer
Comment: Good visions for future improvements of PV.

DO YOU WISH TO BUY ANY OF THESE PAPERS?

A message from AuSES
People who were not delegates at Solar 2010 (or AuSES members) who would like to access this resource they can apply for access for an annual fee of $140 (ex GST). Please go to AuSES website.

Solar-e.com invites you to leave comments on our ranking of Solar Energy Economics Best Papers at the end of this article.

Experts who disagree with our rating and choices we invite you to make comment and if enough substance is shown we will reserve the right to change the ranking at anytime or keep the ranking the same.

Solar-e.com related links:

http://solar-e.com/knowledge/2009/11/30/green-economics
http://solar-e.com/knowledge/2009/11/24/ethical-investment
http://solar-e.com/knowledge/2009/11/30/employment-opportunities
http://solar-e.com/knowledge/2009/11/30/wave-power
http://www.solartec.iinet.net.au/solare/innovation/strategiesindevelopingproducts.htm

AuSES Conference Best Papers: Solar Energy Economics Best Papers

We have prepared list of solar-e.com’s own selection of ranked candidates for the Solar Energy Economics best papers presented at the ‘Solar 2010’ Conference: Policies and Strategies (including the Economics of solar energy, diversity of derived forms of solar energy, electricity grids and data collection)

The analysis and understanding the of more obscure fields of solar energy related technology and policy developments is obviously another critical step forward to applying more solar energy in our economy. this section will hopefully expand as more papers are delivered in the future.

AuSES Committee – Best Papers at AuSES Solar 2010 as judged by the AuSES panel

Student Prizes – Wal Read Memorial Prizes
Post Graduates Prizes
BILBAO, Jose “PV-Thermal Water Systems as a Retrofit for Near Zero Energy Homes”
Winner $1500 AUD
BAMBROOK, Shelley “Experimental PVT Air System for Dwellings”
Highly Commended $1000 AUD
LHENDUP, Tshewang “Simulation of a Ground-coupled Heat Pump Combined with Solar Collectors”
Commended $250 AUD
ELLISTON, Ben “Grid parity: A potential misleading concept?”
Commended $250 AUD

Undergraduates Prizes
BRAZIER, Thomas “Dependence of installed cost of a 1.5 kW rooftop PV system on module efficiency”
Joint Winner $1,000 AUD
BOEREMA, Nicholas “Economics of constraints on wind farms – SA”
Joint Winner $1,000 AUD
O’BRIEN, Paul “Exergetic analysis of a steam-flashing thermal storage system”
Joint Winner $1,000 AU

Solar Energy Economics: Solar-e.com Director Garry Baverstock’s personal selection of the Best Papers

At the conference the papers were presented under a number of category headings such as Built Environment, Wind Power, Photovoltaics, Environmental Benefits, Solar Thermal and Solar Energy Economics. Following is our selection of the worthwhile papers and a ranking based on relevance to world situation on Climate Change, the impact on the increased use of solar energy and the quality of the research as presented in the paper.
The Solar Energy Economics best papers, in our opinion, have been listed below. This is our opinion, but we are interested in what the solar experts think and any comments are welcome. If we have overlooked a paper or you disagree with our assessment please feel free to offer your opinion. If bona fide it will be published.

Image Businessmen shaking hands

SOLAR ENERGY ECONOMICS

A comment by solar-e.com is included after each listing.

1. Renewable Energy Education at UNSW

Richard Corkish1,2, Stephen Bremner1, Anna Bruce1, Hanzheng Duo1, Evatt Hawkes1, Merlinde Kay1, Alison Lennon1,2, Alistair Sproul1, Ted Spooner3, Santosh Shrestha1,2, Geoff Stapleton1, Ashraf Uddin1,2, Muriel Watt1, Darcy Wentworth1
Comment: This an exceptional run-down on what the UNSW does in the field.

2.Improving investment outcomes in the development and commercialization of ‘clean’ energy technologies within Australia

Allan Aaron1, Iain MacGill1
Comment: This is the key for faster change and adoption of solar energy technology and systems

3.Comparing the Economics of Nuclear and Renewable Sources of Electricity

Mark Diesendorf1
Comment: This really makes one think hard and long to go nuclear in Australia, on economic grounds

4.A Supply-Demand Model for a Zero-Carbon Australia
Trevor Jack1, Robyn Bateup2, Vernie Everett3
Comment: Looking at a visionary big picture view is the essence of this paper

5.Using policy design to manage the impact of stakeholder pressure during the policy development process
Robert Passey and Iain MacGill
Comment: Interesting perspectives for governance

6.Status of Rural Electrification in the ‘Heart of Borneo’: Role of Micro Hydro Projects

S.Murni1, J.Whale1, J.K.Davis1, T.Urmee1, D.Harries2
Comment: This is a visionary approach for Australia and relevant to the developing world

7.Valuable insight into the strategic thinking by governments – Urban growth, albedo and global warming

G.B. Smith1, A.R. Gentle1 and I. Edmonds2
Comment: A unique blend of big–picture thinking and solid scientific principles.

8.Lessons learnt from implementing intelligent metering and energy monitoring devices in a new housing development

D.M. Whaley, W.Y. Saman, E. Halawa, L.T. Mudge
Comment: Having evidence based-learning will lead to better results in the built environment

DO YOU WISH TO BUY ANY OF THESE PAPERS?

A message from AuSES
People who were not delegates at Solar 2010 (or AuSES members) who would like to access this resource they can apply for access for an annual fee of $140 (ex GST). Please go to AuSES website.

Solar-e.com invites you to leave comments on our ranking of Solar Energy Economics Best Papers at the end of this article.

Experts who disagree with our rating and choices we invite you to make comment and if enough substance is shown we will reserve the right to change the ranking at anytime or keep the ranking the same.

Solar-e.com related links:

http://solar-e.com/knowledge/2009/11/30/green-economics
http://solar-e.com/knowledge/2009/11/24/ethical-investment
http://solar-e.com/knowledge/2009/11/30/employment-opportunities
http://solar-e.com/knowledge/2009/11/30/wave-power
http://www.solartec.iinet.net.au/solare/innovation/strategiesindevelopingproducts.htm