April 17, 2016: Gimme Three Reasons

We always enjoy getting feedback from our readers, especially when it comes from good friends like Judith and Paul Collins. I wrote about our visit to Paul and Judy’s wonderful Permaculture Farm called ‘The Keep‘ way back in our Newsletter from June last year. At the time I commented on the incredible job that the […]

Apr 10, 2016: Second Earth Day Party, 4-7pm April 22nd.

April 22nd marks the global celebration of Earth Day as well as the end of our second year of living in and monitoring the performance of the Greeny Flat. Our First Earth Day Party on April 22nd last year was very enjoyable and cozy. It was a cold and rainy evening so our fifty […]

April 3, 2016: Home Battery Updates

Solarquotes.com.au is an excellent source of up-to-date information about solar power and home battery storage systems. They have put together a ‘Battery Storage Comparison Table’ which compiles a lot of useful data about the range of available (or soon to be so) battery systems on the Australian market.

Home Battery Comparison Table from […]

Mar 26, 2016: An Electric Transportation Revolution

All of a sudden it seems like every car and bike manufacturer is coming out with an electric vehicle, and one of my favourites so far has to be the Honda ‘EV-Cub’.

The beautiful Honda ‘EV-Cub’ (source Gizmag)

Modeled after Honda’s original 1958 ‘Super Cub’ it really is a thing of beauty. My […]

Mar 18, 2016: Mould and Other Fun Stuff

Daniel helping to insulate the Greeny Flat during construction in 2014.

Daniel Jones became a good friend during the building of the Greeny Flat. At the time Daniel had just completed a degree in engineering at the University of Wollongong and had recently been a member of UoW’s victorious 2013 Solar Decathlon winning […]

Mar 12, 2016: Reader Feedback and Lithium Issues

In last week’s newsletter I wrote about how Australian ‘standard practices’ for the insulation and air-sealing of buildings leave a lot to be desired. This clearly touched a chord with readers and I received a number of affirmative responses.

Architect Mary Bowe of Coolfield Pty Ltd made the following comments:

Thanks for sharing your thoughts […]

Mar 6, 2016: Beware of ‘Standard Practices’

For the last nine months or so I’ve been helping a friend who is trying to get her dream home built not far from the Greeny Flat. She started with a vacant lot and I’ve been consulting to her on the design, permitting, choosing a builder and attempting to ensure that the project gets completed […]

Feb 28, 2016: Fossil Fools

In our Newsletter three weeks ago I mentioned that President Obama had proposed a $10/barrel tax on crude oil as a way to fund a $300 billion plan to make America’s transportation system more sustainable. As I said at the time, there is zero chance of this plan being approved by the US Congress, […]

Feb 20, 2016: Grow, Cook, Eat – Offgrid Power – and Welsh Cars

In last week’s Newsletter we featured a couple of small, affordable, relocatable homes. This week we look at

Moss Vale Community Garden‘s new Off-grid Power System Southern Highlands Grow, Cook, Eat Festival, March 20th, and A Small, Hydrogen-powered EV from Wales of all places. Moss Vale Community Garden‘s New Off-grid Power System

The […]

Feb 14th, 2016: Gotta Love These Little Houses

Well it’s Valentine’s Day. I’ll let Cintia choose whether I cook her dinner or we go out to a restaurant… either way this will have to be a quick Newsletter so I thought I’d share a couple of exciting little houses that readers have told me about.

Now THIS Is Affordable Housing!

Modular […]