Personal Experience

After recently having a domestic hot water geyser fail and investigating the potential of replacing it with a solar unit, I definitely saw the need for something different to advance the penetration of solar water heating in South Africa. While replacing my electric geyser costs R 5,500, an equivalent solar installation costs around R 25,000. Eskom, the state electricity generator, provides a subsidy of around R 3,000 and indicates a payback period is 5 to 8 years.

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How would you design your ultimate green home? My green home is one that incorporates Earth, Wind, and Fire!

Think of what technology might make possible in the next few decades and how we can use it to build homes that have a positive impact on the environment.

The growing awareness of the fact that buildings are responsible for 39% of our energy consumption, helps explain why green building and energy efficiency at home is one of the most pervasive trends in the construction industry — even as the economy struggles and home-building is at its lowest level in a generation.

Lets take a journey through our imagination and envision the green homes of tomorrow.

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So you want to take advantage of the sun’s energy somehow but solar photovoltaics just aren’t in the cards? Solar hot water systems may not be as sexy as their electron-producing counterparts, but in most scenarios, you will get more energy bang for your buck—especially if you’re on a budget—because water heating consumes the most energy in a home after space heating and cooling.

After being seen almost exclusively on the rooftops of Jimmy Carter-era homes, solar hot water panels have made substantive advances in recent years, including efficiency improvements, earning some manufacturers the coveted Energy Star label.

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Danish company AC Sun recently made news with the “invention” a new solar-powered air conditioning system.The new systems are pollution-free, low-noise, and use only 10% of the energy of conventional systems. The only problem is they’ve already been invented, several times over.

Lars Stigel, director of Østjysk Innovation, an investor in AC Sun, spoke with enthusiasm about AC Sun’s design. “It is a groundbreaking technology in relation to renewable energy and energy savings,” he says.

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In the coastal city of Gangneung, South Korea, look up and you’re likely to see solar panels or a solar water heater on the roof of at least one house.

The rice patties to the North of Gangneung offer up a view of a dozen such solar power facilities on the rooftops at the edge of one of the city’s newest neighborhoods.

If the sight of so many solar homes doesn’t convince you that South Korea is serious about solar, consider the newly proposed 20 MW solar plant. When it’s completed later this year, it will rival Spain as the largest photovoltaic solar plant in the world.

According to BP, South Korea’s national goal to produce 1 GW of solar energy by 2012 would make it the world’s tenth largest solar market. Even more ambitiously, the country hopes to reach 4 GW of solar production by 2020 and 18 GW by 2030.

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