Double Glazing a home can be very expensive.  But with a cold winter and many weeping windows, we have imported a range of DIY Double Glazing at just $4 per window. Double Glazing works by trapping a layer of insulative air between the glass and the film.  This system can improve the thermal performance of your glazing by almost 50% and takes just minutes to apply. Continue reading

Our Tasmanian landfills are filled with useful materials like food and green waste (42%), cardboard and paper (18%) and recyclable plastics (13%) (source). Changing this situation begins with kids learning to love and care for our world. South Hobart Primary School has spent the last few years trying to work out how best to help children recycle and it appears that in order to choose the right bin for their wastes, kids like to see what others have done. Continue reading

To avoid accepting plastic bags at the shop, don't forget to have reusable bags with you. Better still, remember your reusable produce bags for fruit and vegetables (the ones in the picture are Onya produce bags). Before 2013, when Tasmania moved to thick plastic bags (made with three times the amount of plastic), we were accepting over 100 million bags a year in Tasmania (based on the 2007 Australian 3.9 billion plastic bags assumption). Post ban the number would still be very large, so it is well worth investing in some reusable carry bags and bags for your fruit and veg.         

Have you ever wondered what happens to the clothes you put in charity donation bins? Some good quality, clean items move down the second hand clothes chain, or are exported or given to animal shelters or mechanics as rags. However, the sheer volume of textiles and the decreasing quality of clothing, means that most of it ends up buried in our Tasmanian landfills. Continue reading

Windows have a major impact on energy efficiency in the home. A square meter of glass in direct sun can allow as much heat in as a small single bar radiator. Heat loss from a window can be ten times the loss through the same area of insulated wall. There are a number of retrofit options available.  They can be implemented on any budget and any level of skill.  Read on... Continue reading

Heating is the largest energy user in the average Tasmanian home so it is important to find out which form of heating is best for your home and your situation. There are a number of resources available to help you make the best home heating choices. Continue reading

Waste water from the kitchen (sinks and dishwashers), laundry (washing machines, troughs) or bathroom (showers, baths and hand basins) is called Greywater. It can be reused to water your lawn or garden.  Continue reading

A solar hot water system will provide almost all hot water needs in summer, so it is preferable to optimise the collector slope to catch the winter sun. This means mounting the collector at an angle of 60º to 70º. Also, the collector should ideally face north in a position where it is not shaded for the major part of the day.  Continue reading

A typical shower uses up to 17 litres of water per minute. Installing an efficient shower head that uses 9 litres (or less) of water per minute saves you money on both water and energy costs, as well as saving tens of thousands of litres of water per year! Continue reading

Cold air can creep into your home through gaps and cracks around doors and windows. Sealing these gaps keeps the warm air in and the cold air out.  You can find the source of a draught by holding an incense stick or candle near doors, windows and other joins. Does the air move the smoke? How to seal gaps: Gaps beneath doors can be covered with a rolled up towel or "door snake" Use tape to seal around the sides of doors and windows If the gap is uneven, you can use a weather stip. It has a rubber seal (like on your fridge) For the bottom of outside doors, you can use a weather seal or brush strip. Find out more.