Ontario Green Party leader Frank de Jong visited a sustainable house in Surrey Hills owned by Peter Campbell, Greens candidate for the federal seat of Kooyong, on Tuesday July 17 to raise awareness about domestic energy standards.
He said Mr Campbell's house, which produces three-quarters of its power requirements, was a fantastic example of how home owners can reduce their emissions, and highlighted that standards in Australia need to be lifted, as they have been in Canada.
“Improved energy and housing standards have been successfully introduced in Canada to reduce energy use and reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” Mr De Jong said.
“We have recently improved our EnerGuide standards for heating and cooling, water heating, gas and electric appliances, lighting and windows.
“Consumers in Canada also use the Energy Star symbol and ratings to buy energy-efficient TVs, VCRs, DVDs, audio equipment and other audio visual products,” Mr De Jong added.
“For the future, we need to set a target of net-zero energy construction as the standard for all renovations and new buildings. This means that buildings could be energy neutral in the long term by a combination of passive solar design, solar panels and hot water systems, and energy efficient appliances such as we see in this Surrey Hills house.”
Mr Campbell stated, “Our Surrey Hills house produces 75 per cent of the power we consume and we are net producers of clean green power over summer.
“If all new homes built in Australia were this efficient and if we implement widespread energy efficiency measures to reduce demand for power, we could avoid building new coal-fired power stations like the one on the drawing board for the Latrobe Valley, which would increase greenhouse gas emissions,” Mr Campbell said.
“While the improvements introduced in 2005 to the five-star energy efficiency requirement for housing in Victoria are a step in the right direction, they clearly don’t go far enough.
“Average energy-related emissions for new dwellings are almost six per cent higher than those of existing dwellings, mainly due to people buying inefficient appliances and lighting, so clearly the five-star building standards need to be further improved” Mr Campbell continued.
“Some large-screen plasma TVs consume more electricity than a fridge while in use, and consumers have no easy way of knowing this when they buy them.
“If we are serious about addressing climate change, we need to consider six-star building standards that include assessment of solar building design and efficiency of appliances, similar to the standards in place in Canada, and we urgently need to expand the energy star rating to cover all electrical goods rather than just whitegoods,” Mr Campbell added.
Frank de Jong is visiting Australia as a guest of Earthsharing Australia.
MEDIA CONTACT: Peter Campbell mobile 0409 417 504 kooyong@greens.org.au
Links
- Frank de Jong, Green Party of Ontario leader
- EnerGuide standards
- Overview of Australian Regulatory Requirements - Labelling and MEPS
- Options to reduce greenhouse emissions from new homes in Victoria through the building approval process. Report to DSE by George Wilkenfeld & Associates (2007)
5_star energy report May 07 (PDF - 531 Kb) - Surrey Hills house
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