The energy efficiency of a home is heading to be the next big thing in real estate, along with location and number of bed rooms.

So no matter where your home is located in the near future a poor energy rating would mean that the value of your home would diminish. Energy ratings would become mandatory for all dwellings in the near future.

Real Estate Institute of Victoria Neil Laws said it was a natural progression that vendors’ section 32 statements would include an energy rating for dwellings, as happened interstate. Where other states are already facing home price drops due to poor energy efficiency, Victoria is soon to follow.

Futurologist Ray Hammond said that the amount of energy a property could produce and return to the power grid would become one of its selling features.

People will start to be interested in environmental issues such as insulation, power usage, heating and cooling cost and carbon foot print.

LED Lighting will become the core solution to lighting homes now and in the future, with lighting contribution to approximately 30% of energy cost in homes, lights is the first step to increasing the value of your home.

So when you really think about it, is it really about location, location, location? don’t think so.

Contact our sales team or browse our online LED shop today to see how you can future proof your home with the latest LED Technology now!

Reference:
Published in the Herald Sun Newspaper on the 3rd of August is an article by Tony Rindflesch in “The Key” section titled “How saving energy will add value to tomorrow’s houses” (Pg 87)

Lights On or Off

Myth: You save on energy bills by leaving lights on. Some people believe that the energy to turn on lights exceeds savings of turning lights off.

They talked to Mark Reisfelt, manager of the Independent Electric Supply where they purchased their light bulbs. He felt that it was best to turn the lights off.

To test the myth, they needed to measure energy usage during startup, maintenance (steady state), and shutdown.

For steady state energy consumption, they turned on several different types of bulbs for 60 minutes and measured their consumption using a "Kill A Watt":

• Incandescent 90 Wh
• Compact Fluorescent (CFL): 10 Wh
• Halogen: 70 Wh
• Metal halide 60 Wh
• LED: 1 Wh
• Fluorescent: 10 Wh

For startup energy consumption, Grant hooked up an inductive current loop to a computer and measured the amount of energy used when the turned on the bulbs. With an inductive current loop, you run a wire through the center, which induces a current in the loop. This current is then measured by a digital sampling oscilloscope.

Based on the amount of energy consumed turning on the bulb, they were able calculated how long the bulb would have to be turned off in order to make it worth the energy savings, i.e. "It’s best to turn off the bulb if you are leaving the room for":

• Incandescent: 0.36 seconds
• CFL: 0.015 seconds
• Halogen: .51 seconds
• LED: 1.28 seconds
• Fluorescent: 23.3 seconds

In other words, its almost always best to turn the bulb off. Even the 23 seconds for the fluorescent lights isn’t very long, and the rest of the times are pretty much blinks of an eye.

Bulb Longevity

They tested one final element of this myth: frequently turning lights on and off decreases their life span, thus leading to greater costs. Grant setup a timer and relay to turn the bulbs on and off repeatedly every 2 minutes. After six weeks, only the LED bulb was still working. Based on this test, they extrapolated that it would take five years of ordinary usage to cause the bulbs to burn out.

* busted *

Long Life Lighting can be seen again at stant R52 this year at the HIA Home Ideas Show in Melbourne 26th - 30th of March, Come say hello, we would love to meet our customers. If you would like to win tickets to the event we have 5 to give away!

>> Try your luck here <<

A new type of super-efficient household light bulb is being developed which could spell the end of regular bulbs.

Experts have found a way to make Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) brighter and use less power than energy efficient light bulbs currently on the market.

The technology, used in gadgets such as mobile phones and computers, had previously not been powerful enough to be used for lighting.

But Glasgow University scientists said they had resolved the problem.

“The days of the humble light-bulb could soon be over” - Dr Faiz Rahman (University of Glasgow)

The project, being developed along with the Institute of Photonics at the University of Strathclyde, involves making microscopic holes in the surface of LEDs to increase the level of light they give off.

This is a process known as nano-imprint lithography.

Dr Faiz Rahman, who is leading the project, said: “As yet, LEDs have not been introduced as the standard lighting in homes because the process of making the holes is very time consuming and expensive.

“However, we believe we have found a way of imprinting the holes into billions of LEDs at a far greater speed, but at a much lower cost.”

He added: “This means the days of the humble light-bulb could soon be over.”

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/glasgow_and_west/7162606.stm
Published: 2007/12/28 10:43:34 GMT
© BBC MMVII

Power bills to rise by up to 17.6%

Victorian power bills will rise by up to 17.6 per cent in the new year because of the drought.

State Energy and Resources Minister Peter Batchelor announced the price hikes on Friday, saying power companies were passing the extra costs of production, due to the drought, on to consumers.

From January 1 electricity prices will rise by between 12.8 per cent and 17.6 per cent.

Gas prices will rise by between 5.2 per cent and 7.5 per cent.

“Across Australia there have been large electricity price rises and Victoria is no different,” Mr Batchelor said.

“As the industry has foreshadowed over the past year, the drought has affected the capacity to generate hydro electricity, meaning more expensive gas-fired power has been required to meet every day electricity needs.

“This has pushed up the wholesale electricity price, which in turn impacts on the retail market.”

This will result in price increase everywhere we shop, dine and buy.

Home and business owners will be hit with higher power bills and find that making end meet a real challenge.

It is now that home and business owners need to make wise investments to keep energy, water and gas usage to a minimum.

• Do NOT recycle
• Do NOT use energy efficient lighting
• Buy a 4Wheel drive monster car
• Ensure you have drafts in your home
• Support Coal Fuel for power

Do not recycle under any circumstances! Australian government has made it easier for us to recycle but did you know Recycling saves Victoria alone 309,964 tonnes of greenhouse gasses each year! These savings are the average amount of energy used by around 155,000 households a year!

We should use higher wattage lights in our homes, an average room uses a single 60 or 100 watt incandescent bulb, but why not install 10 x 50 watt downlights and consume 500 Watts instead! Don’t bother with LED bulbs they only consume 3 watts, such low wattage they hardly produce 1kg of greenhouse gas if operating for a whole year. Also Halogen bulbs only have a 2000 hour lifespan so more manufacturing is required to replace the frequently dying bulbs which means more beautiful carbon emissions for the manufacturing procedures and transport of the product.

With the lovely Australian climate a great deal of people use public transport to travel to work or walk there kids to school. Why not consider purchasing a new car? With many Sports and Four Wheel Drive vehicles available now with 5 or 6 litre V8 engines you can consume more petrol or diesel than any other car on the road! This way you can fill up more regularly by burning more fuel and by traveling EVERYWHERE via your huge petrol guzzler you can emit 2.4 Kg of Greenhouse Gas per every litre you burn! Average V8’s burn upto 15L/100kms, some 4 cylinders only burn 4.5L/100kms.

Companies are introducing draft proofing materials and better insulation products to help reduce your heating needs. However be sure you have large gaps underneath your doors and open fans to your ceiling so warm air can escape and cool air is allowed into your home, in doing so you will need to increase your thermostat by 5 – 10 degrees to ensure you stay slightly comfortable. An extra 1° difference in temperature between indoors and outdoors can add around 10% to heating or cooling costs and greenhouse gas emissions.

Be sure your power is sourced from Coal Power plants, electricity sourced from renewable sources like wind and hydro power is referred to as green energy because unlike coal-fired power, its production does not generate carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.

SO WHAT ARE YOU DOING ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE?

Announcement: Long Life Lighting has recently been moved from a partnership business to a company. Long Life Lighting will trade as usual with the same staff on board. The legal owner of Long Life Lighting is LONG LIFE LIGHTING AUSTRALASIA PTY. LTD.

The change has been made as a result in rapid growth and success of our business.

Our new ABN is 89 128 131 171 Please update your details if need be.

 

Long Life Lighting is a mentor of the program and highly recommends everyone to sing up as a participant or mentor, the site is a great resource site for future sustainability.

Grow Me The Money is a free program for Victorian businesses interested in environmental sustainability. Grow Me The Money focuses on correcting overconsumption of resources like electricity and water, and reducing waste. Businesses can make substantial cost savings in these areas.

The main ways to be involved are as a participant or mentor and it costs nothing to register in the program.

Participants are businesses wishing to reduce costs associated with energy and water use and waste production. You will gain access to tools and support to help you improve environmental performance and be recognised for your good work.

Mentors are organisations or individuals that can offer skills and knowledge to participants. Mentors will help businesses reduce costs associated with resource use but can also offer support to improve broader business performance. Mentors are special members of Grow Me The Money and will be recognised for their valuable efforts.

Long Life Lighting is proud to announce that we are giving our products away for FREE! You heard correctly we have teamed up with freeStuffDAY.com.au and you now have the chance to get our products for FREE!

This is a great way to try before you buy! Not only will you have access to FREE items from Long Life Lighting, you will also have access to other companies products for FREE as well!

How it works!

freeStuffDAY.com.au gives registered users the opportunity to secure free items once a month.

In the month leading up to an actual Free Stuff Day users can view the items being offered for free by any of the companies offering free products in your area.

To increase their chances of securing a free item users can earn points throughout the month and attempt to gain Priority Access.

What are you waiting for? SIGN UP NOW!

The longer you wait the less time you have to earn points…

Australian Prime Minister John Howard on Tuesday used YouTube a Internet video sharing site to promote a package of measures to tackle climate change.

The opposition Labor party launched a television commercial on Tuesday depicting Howard as an old man refusing to get out of bed. The advertisement portrays the federal government as inactive on climate change.

A quick YouTube video is sure to take focus off the TV and onto the Internet.

The video is said to have be released to appeal to the younger Australian public and to earn votes for the upcoming election.

The video would most likely reach out to more viewers then a TV campaign would and also cost virtually nothing. This is one of the first official video releases ever seen in Australian politics, and we can be assured there will be a heap more.

The video after 1 day has been viewed 16,544 times received 169 comments

The Video can be seen at YouTube