Blog & Media
Find out what your home costs to run (video)
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MEFL's Energy Policy Advocate Eli Court explains the benefits of Mandatory Residential Disclosure.
More information
New Research: Small businesses can cut energy costs by $1300
MEFL Media Release, 12 September 2011
New research conducted by the Moreland Energy Foundation (MEFL) with a Pascoe Vale liquor store ‘Bottle King’ has found energy cost savings for that business of $1,300 per year, through the installation of simple energy saving devices.
The case study will be unveiled next Thursday 22 September at a breakfast event for local businesses in Moreland. The event will promote MEFL’s Business Support Program, which is helping small businesses to save energy, and a number of local business leaders will be presenting.
How to find out what your home costs to run
Location, location, location. If you're looking to buy a home, that's all that matters. Right?
Wrong.
With energy prices predicted to double over the next five years, blindly pursuing location above all else could cost you dearly in high gas and electricity bills that keep getting higher and higher. The difference between a high quality, energy efficient home and a poorly constructed inefficient home could be thousands of dollars a year.
The answer is energy efficiency. It's cheap. It's simple. Sealing gaps and cracks, installing insulation or replacing inefficient lights will save you money and reduce your environmental impact.
So why aren't we all doing it?
New activities for the Victorian Energy Saver Incentive
The Victorian Energy Saver Incentive scheme provides rebates to households who install energy saving measures in their homes, like replacing inefficient appliances with more efficient ones, installing double glazing, or sealing up gaps and cracks around doors, windows and chimneys.
The Victorian Government has committed to expand the scheme to small and medium businesses, and has been consulting on which activities for these businesses should be subsidised under the scheme.
MEFL has a wealth of experience in helping businesses in Moreland save energy and cut their gas and electricity bills, through established and new energy efficiency measures, including replacing inefficient light bulbs, installing timers and many more.
We made a submission to the Victorian Government on this proposal, which focused on:
- the importance of designing energy efficiency schemes on the basis of high quality data on the costs and benefits of implementing energy efficiency measures on the ground;
- the mounting evidence that well-designed energy efficiency programs that include an element of behaviour change can reduce energy wastage and cut energy costs more effectively and cheaply than other programs;
- MEFL's extensive experience in implementing and measuring energy efficiency measures in both households and businesses, and gathering the kind of data that is required for designing these schemes properly.
You can download a complete copy of our submission on our website.
Victorian Government should expand the Energy Saver Incentive
MEFL has just made a submission to the Victorian Department of Primary Industries on the proposed expansion of the Energy Saver Incentive scheme. The submission relates to a cost-benefit analysis undertaken for the proposed expansion.
The scheme provides a financial incentive for households to improve their energy efficiency, and the Government is considering expanding the scheme to small and medium businesses, and increasing the target for greenhouse gas emissions to come from the scheme.
PM's Task Group on Energy Efficiency
MEFL follow-up response to government workshop
As reported previously on this blog, the former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd formed a Task Group in March 2010 to report on energy efficiency in Australia, and how it could be improved. The Task Group completed its report in July 2010. MEFL recently attended a meeting to discuss the report, and submitted a follow-up response.
MEFL will continue to work with the Government to ensure the report's recommendations are implemented.
Tax breaks for green buildings
MEFL has made a submission to the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency on its proposal to offer tax breaks for green buildings.
We have suggested a range of changes and improvements to the proposed tax breaks.
We will track the progress of this initiative.
What really went wrong with home insulation?
'Ceiling insulation' has become a dirty word. The mere mention of 'pink batts' is enough to strike fear into the most fearless politician's heart. How did it come to this?
Local markets - healthy, energy efficient and community building
When we think of energy and sustainability issues, we often think first of big polluting power plants, cars and factories. But we often forget about the 'embodied' energy in the products we use - the energy required to make the product and transport it to the shop where we buy it, as well as the energy we use getting to the shop itself.
Green roofs for Melbourne?
During the recent Victorian election, the Coalition talked about supporting the installation of more green roofs in Melbourne as part of its Living Melbourne, Living Victoria policy. According to the media release, the Coalition's green roofs plan will fund rooftop gardens in Melbourne's CBD designed to filter rainwater, reduce runoff, improve air quality, conserve energy and reduce temperatures in the central city.
One of the first green roofs in Melbourne was unveiled in July last year, on a ten storey office tower at 131 Queen Street (see article), and the City of Melbourne is undertaking a green roofs feasibility study for three other large buildings in the CBD (see website). Recognising the benefits of green roofs, some cities around the world have passed laws requiring green roofs on new or renovated buildings (see, for example, article from livingroofs.org on Copenhagen's green roof policy).
MEFL looks forward to further detail of the new Government's green roofs plan, and the broader Living Melbourne, Living Victoria policy. In particular, we look forward to further research being undertaken to quantify the benefits of green roofs so building owners and local governments can make informed decisions about how best to utilise roofspace.
For further information on green roofs, take a look at Green Roofs Australia and Sustainable Canberra's green roofs guide.
