BUILDER'S DIARY A STRAWBALE BUILDING PART 3: SAVING ENERGY

摘要

Every time the power bill arrives in our letterbox, I am filled with dread. I feel indignant that we're charged as much as we are for a basic necessity — and we really scrimp on our usage — and the recent price increases in our charges only herald worse times ahead. With the talk of huge pylons going up in our area to feed Auckland's appetite for consumption, we could all be looking at ways of giving the power companies a lot less business and a lot fewer reasons to dam our rivers and burn yet more coal. As a result, I looked at getting a complete solar powered system for our straw bale house, one involving banks of photovoltaic batteries and several panels, but I discovered that we'll have to do a lot more saving first.