Apr 22, 2015: Experiment Declared Resounding Success!

This photo shows the two electricity meters for the Greeny Flat. The one on the left shows the amount of energy we have imported from the grid since the house was built. The one on the right shows the amount of energy we have exported to the grid from our solar power system. Proof Positive!

This photo shows the two electricity meters for the Greeny Flat. The one on the left shows the amount of energy we have imported from the grid since the house was built. The one on the right shows the amount of energy we have exported to the grid from our solar power system. Proof Positive!

It’s official… the Greeny Flat is energy positive… and spectacularly so!

Today is Earth Day 2015 and, appropriately, it marks the end of our first year of living in and monitoring the performance of the Greeny Flat. The photo above (taken this morning) shows the amount of energy we have imported from and exported to the electricity grid over the last year. As you can see, we have succeeded in exporting almost three and a half times as much energy as we have imported! This is far above anything we had hoped to achieve at the start of this experiment and goes to show that it really can be relatively easy and inexpensive to build a house that is energy positive.

Thanks to a very wet last month we have also managed to use about one and a half times more tank water than town water. So we have exceeded our water efficiency goal of using at least as much tank water as town water.

See our Results Table for more details about the amount of power and water we have used over the year as well as the indoor and outdoor temperature levels. This shows how comfortable the Greeny Flat has stayed (most of the time) with (almost) no additional heating or cooling apart from its excellent Passive Solar Design.

The other big success has been on the low-maintenance front where we have found the Greeny Flat to be extremely easy to clean and maintain. We can clean the entire house in about half an hour and the garden requires very little attention. Apart from maintaining the veggies in the raised beds out the front, it only requires mowing (using solar power with our electric mower) about once a fortnight or so.

Right now we’re preparing for the Greeny Flat’s First Earth Day Party this afternoon so I can’t linger. Please feel free to join us to celebrate from 3-7pm at 16A Queen St, Mittagong and keep an eye on our Newsletter for more about what we plan to do now that the we have proven the concept.

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