Home Energy Advisor - Seb Crangle

23/04/2026

I'm opening up our home for Renew's Sustainable House Day again this year, including for in-person guided tours by an accredited home energy consultant (moi! 😊) If you live in Northern NSW, book in and come along (17th May). Or if you live further away, you can check out the home profile and video summary on the SHD webpage:

Our home in Northern NSW was built in 1986 in beautiful surrounds but without consideration for sustainability, including few build / design features to promote thermal and energy performance. When we moved in in 2006 the house was incredibly hot in summer, cold in winter, and energy bills were high...

17/02/2026

There is an ever-increasing concern of the catastrophic impact that AI will have on the world as we know it, from its upturning of the worldwide employment market through to the centralisation of human intelligence (and power) in the hands of a wealthy few. For me personally, one of the more sickening impacts emerging are the enormous environmental impacts of AI, specifically from the resource demands of data centres.

According to the International Energy Agency a typical AI-focused data center consumes as much electricity as 100,000 households, and the larger centers under construction today will consume 20 times that (https://www.iea.org/reports/energy-and-ai/).

This is particularly disturbing to me because I have dedicated my professional life to reducing the energy consumption of residential homes and small businesses. I'm conscious that the energy savings from our homes are small compared to government and industry, and yet the collective progress we have been making to reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions is likely to be gazumped by the impact of AI's resource hungry data centres.

There are many good people around the world attempting to introduce ethical constraints and regulations on the AI wildfire, but they are fighting a losing battle up against powerful, vested interests. I'm at a loss for what I can do personally, other than a few simple acts of conscientious abstinence which I will share below. Their impact is small, yet they are all that we can do (easily) to reduce demand for this technology. And like improving the energy efficiency of your home the impact on the country's combined consumption is small, yet they are actions that we have the biggest influence over. Here's what I propose we all do:

1. When you search Google, type "-ai" at the end. This tells Google that you don't want the AI summary. Apparently this AI summary uses 10x as much energy and water as a standard Google search.
2. Change the settings on software that uses AI (like Adobe Acrobat) so it doesn't constantly offer you AI generated summaries.
3. Seriously consider not using AI tools like ChatGPT. Or at least: refrain from doing 'frivolous' queries, eg to generate video of a cat dancing...
4. If you *do* need to use an AI product, try to only use it for good outcomes that will help you make the world a better place.
5. Ask your workplace if it is developing guidelines for the ethical use of AI in your employment, and encourage them to include education on the environmental costs of non-essential AI use.

In making these suggestions I fully appreciate there will likely come a time when using AI is unavoidable, especially in our workplaces. Yet the more awareness we generate of the potential negative impacts of this technology, the more likely we are to be able to manage and mitigate the consequences.

04/11/2025

⚡Energy Saving Tip ⚡
It's hard to believe, but did you know that your NBN connection box and modem/router are consuming each year the equivalent of 7 days worth of electricity for the average 3 person home? I just tested mine with an energy monitor - the extrapolated annual energy consumption for both combined was 99 kWh. That's quite a lot of energy, especially if you're a low-energy home. In our case it's 6% of our total energy consumption, day in, day out. It's a 'cost' that many of us haven't considered as we've rushed out to get faster internet with NBN and Fibre To The Premises.

❔How can you reduce the energy use❔
One easy way is to automate the times when your modem is turned off, ie overnight. The easiest way to do that is with a basic electrical timer, as shown in these pics. At our place I have plugged a double adapter into one, and then the modem and NBN box into that, and set it to turn off between 10pm and 6am each night. That's 8 hours total, so these devices will consume a third less energy. And better yet, you'll be doing so at a time when electricity is very carbon-intensive (mostly coal power).

❔Won't it be inconvenient losing internet overnight ❔
Even if you wake up in the middle of the night and feel inclined to doom scroll on Insta/FB, remember that your phone can still connect to mobile data. So, as long as you have decent amounts of data on your plan, there should be no issue using that to access the net. Either way, consider it a deterent to doom-scrolling 😜

‼️UPDATE: after my first night doing this I had trouble getting the internet working again... Apparently it's common after power outages for the NBN box and modem to not talk to each other. I'm trying to find a solution. Crazy that you can't turn the power off to these things... Best you don't to do this hack just yet...

☑️Credit: I was inspired to finally do something about this (and test the energy consumed) from a post by Tim Forcey on MEEH.

27/10/2025

* Visualising the Effect of Subfloor Insulation *

It's really hot here today, with an ambient temperature outside of 35 degrees, and the AC set to 27 degrees inside. I had noticed the other day that some of my floor insulation had fallen down (the result of my inadequate staple gun for 40 year old joists...) so I thought I'd use my thermal camera to check if you could actually see the affect on the temperature of the floor. The results are quite stark - the sections of floor without insulation can clearly be seen, because they are about 2 degrees hotter than the insulated sections.

And this is despite studies finding that in hot climates such as ours (Northern NSW), floor insulation doesn't always provide a positive year round outcome, in part because in hot weather the subfloor of a home is usually cooler than the ambient temperature. There's a lot of variables affecting this conclusion however, including the circumstances at my house today, where the temperature differential between inside and out is high enough that the subfloor is significantly hotter than the internal (air conditioned) temperature.

15/07/2025

A lovely write up here in Tweed Shire Council's Environment and Sustainability Newsletter about a Residential Efficiency Scorecard assessment I provided to a couple in Pottsville. They won the energy review by yours-truly in a competition at Council's Power Pop Up Stall, at Tweed City last month. It's fabulous that Tweed Council gets involved with initiatives like this, supporting the community to improve energy literacy and address the risks of energy poverty.

https://www.tweed.nsw.gov.au/council/news-updates/latest-news/general-news/Energy-assessment-winners-share-low-cost-bill-reduction-tips

More than 50 other people visited Council’s Power Pop Up stall hosted at Tweed City in May 2025. Council staff helped visitors read their energy bills, review their energy plan and find out more about energy rebates

05/07/2025

🤷🏼‍♂️ Do Tradies Need Utes? 🤷🏼‍♂️Really?

"Australia has a big ‘big car’ problem, we have too many SUVs and utes and we keep getting more of them. In 2023 all ten best-selling new car models were either SUVs or utes, over half of all new car sales were SUVs (55.8%) and nearly a quarter (22.5%) were light commercial vehicles (a category mostly representing utes)...
It is clear the massive increase in SUVs and utes is not due to more tradies ..., but because our tax system [has] encourage[d] the purchase of these behemoths to the detriment of our roads, our safety and the climate." (The Australia Institute, Jan 2024).

When I replaced my VW diesel van with an EV hatchback last year, I must admit I was a bit concerned that I would struggle to carry on my side-business of cleaning solar panels. I know I probably wouldn't qualify as a fair-dinkum tradie... yet I do have quite a bit of gear to carry around, including a 4.8m ladder, multiple hoses and a 4m window-cleaning pole and water-fed brushes (see pic). The solution for me was not to buy a bigger car, but to get better, more compact equipment! In particular I got myself an extendable fibreglass pole, and a good quality fold up ladder.

Of course, some tradies need to carry big things, like solar panels, cement mixers and the like, but I'd like to question if this is true for the majority. In short, I think tradies get utes because they are more "manly". .. I'd also question why everyone things they need a 4X4, or AWD. How often really are they driving through deep sand or mud? I did a few rural jobs yesterday and the EV was totally fine going down some rough driveways and over muddy grass.

In the meantime, Australia's love of big cars and utes is holding back the country's attempts to reduce emissions, of which transport is one of the largest contributors. And even though EVs made up 9.5% of new cars in 2024, it was more than offset by the high proportion of big vehicles in the remaining sales.

And btw, in my book you don't get off scot-free by buying an electric vehicle. A large EV (increasingly the trend) or hybrid, will consume considerably more energy to travel the same distance as a compact, efficient model. Less is more.

28/06/2025

☀️💸UNDERSTANDING THE 'SOLAR TAX' (two-way pricing), effective 1st July 💸☀️

If you have solar PV, or are considering getting it, it's a good idea to understand "two-way pricing" whereby you can be charged for exporting excess solar power back to the grid. It's currently being phased in, with some significant changes from 1st July 2025. I'll do a brief summary of the financial implications, and ways to avoid it, with links below to more detailed information for NSW residents on the Ausgrid and Essential Energy networks.

In effect, two way pricing means homes with solar won't always receive a credit when they sell their solar power to the grid. Gone are the days when it was financially viable to cover your roof in solar panels and pay for them in a few years by exporting most of the power they produced back to your energy retailer. That doesn't mean that solar is no longer a good idea financially, you just need to be more strategic about the equipment you install, relative to the power you need.

⚡HOW MUCH will we be charged?

The amounts charged for exporting solar energy will quite small, and depend on where you live, which determines which network provider supplies your energy, for example Ausgrid in Sydney area or Essential Energy in the rest of NSW. These providers have indicated how much they will be charging, but ultimately it will be up to your energy retailer (who bills you) to determine how they pass this on to you. It likely that the amounts will vary depending on the retailer and the plan you're on. As a guide though, here's what Ausgrid and Essential are indicating the prices will be:

💸 Ausgrid: 1.2 cents per kWh, between 10am - 3pm
💸 Essential Energy: 0.7 cents per kWh (10-3)

There are however 'free thresholds', so you only pay these fees after you have exported some energy for "free". For Essential that's 7.5 kWh and Ausgrid it's 6.8 kWh. Sounds reasonable, until you remember that until now you've probably been earning about 5 cents per kWh for that energy, rather than nothing.

⚡WHEN will this start?

You may have heard that this is starting from 1st July 2025 for Essential Energy customers, and already started in July 2024 for Ausgrid. However, it has been an 'opt in' program for Ausgrid until now, and for Essential customers will be opt in for many solar households until 2028. There are some circumstances when it will start sooner, such as when you:

* install a battery,
* install new solar, or upgrade
* install a smart meter
* start a new energy connection.

So one upshot is that all the households taking advantage of the new battery rebate will automatically go onto two-way pricing.

⚡ HOW can I minimise how much I need to pay?

Some strategies to avoid paying for solar exports, in brief:

✅ If you're getting a solar system, size it to what you actually need, don't 'oversize' it - be wary of solar salespeople who tell you you need a system that produces much more energy than you could possibly use. One option is to seek independant analyis of optimum solar size but an energy advisor (like me!)
✅ Get battery storage, or an electric vehicle. Batteries and EVs give you a way of 'soaking' up your excess solar power during the day, instead of exporting it. Of course with an EV it needs to be home during the day to do that... And with a battery it needs to be the right size relative to your solar - if your solar is too big and battery too small, the battery will be fully charged by say 10am and then you'll start exporting anyway.
✅ 'Load shift' other appliances. 'Self-consumption' is still the best way to get financial value from solar. That is, schedule when you use appliances so they soak up the solar you're producing in the middle of the day, and you export less. The big players are electric hot water (see previous posts) and pool equipment if you have it.

One last point: the flip side to two way pricing is that there will be an OPPORTUNITY TO EARN more than the usual feed-in tariff if you export power when the grid needs it the most, in the early evening. For Essential customers that will be about 11 cents/kWh between 5-8pm, and Ausgrid: 2.3c/ kWh between 4-9pm. The Ausgrid figure is lower than what most people are getting now. And of course, because these times are mostly after the sun has set you'll only be able to earn these if you have a battery and get export from it to the grid.

It's all a bit complicated! or at least not what we're used to... but I hope that this post has helped clarify a few things for you.
If you'd like a more detailed appraisal of your optimal solar and battery requirements, I'm providing TAILORED CONSULTATIONS to households. The cost is $180 for

Shout it from the rooftops! Renew's Dean Lombard looks beyond the headlines and the hysteria at the details of the proposed new solar rules.

09/06/2025

☀️ A Not-so-Conventional Solar Array to Boost our Winter Generation ☀️

Our house is very shaded over winter - the product of trees to the north that obscure the sun pretty much from equinox to equinox. This not only compromises the solar-heat-gain to keep our home warm, but also our solar generation. Even before we got our modest 5kW battery last December I had anticipated that we would not have enough excess solar energy in winter to fully charge it each day.

So, I went about climbing all over our roof, solar-tracker in hand, to find the optimum location and pitch for some extra panels, specifically to boost our winter production. I found a section of the roof that would get more sun in winter than anywhere else, but it was near the top of a very steep west facing pitch and would need to be "tilted" to face more north and catch the low winter sun. I went ahead and contacted our original installers (Light Touch Solar & Electrical) to put them in.

Despite their unconventional placement I'm happy to say that these panels are producing twice as much energy per day than any of my other panels. 🙌🏼 I know this because we have an Enphase Energy microinverter system that provides panel-level production monitoring. It also means we can have panels pointing in all sorts of different directions without compromising voltage.

What's unusual about their placement? As you can see from the photos, they're at a top of a very steep (40 deg) west facing, and yet they are also on tilt frames to point North! This allows them to pick up a few hours of critical sunlight in the middle of the day when my other panels are mostly in shade. In addition to the micro-inverters the panels are also by facial meaning they can generate power from the underneath as well as top surface, boosting generation.

You'll also notice from the photos that we have other panels on that steep west facing pitch, which is excellent for producing power in the afternoon. For much of the year these panels reach their peak output at about four pm, and produce as much as north facing panels.

All in all we have four arrays, pointing in various directions and pitches, to generate power at different times of the day. The end result is that we can now fully charge the home battery over winter and still have some excess for EV chargine. It's a good example I think of how you can find unconventional ways to optimise a home's solar output, especially on a shade-compromised site! 🌞

02/05/2025

One of the unexpected benefits of opening our home for Sustainable House Day this weekend is that it's spurred me on to complete some actions on the house that I've been procrastinating on for years! I'm a bit like a builder who lives in an unfinished house, I spend so much of my working life helping others make their homes more sustainable that I run out of time to finish my own...

One important action I've taken this week, in time for SHD, is to finally convert our gas cooktop to induction. This is something that is often done last in the electrification process, simply because it can be expensive due to the cost of the cooktop itself, as well as the need to upgrade electrical circuits in some houses.

For a few years now I've been almost exclusively cooking on a single element, portable induction cooker - in order to avoid cooking with gas.

The uninitiated in the movement may well ask: "But why? Isn't 'Cooking with gas', the ultimate?" The short answers are threefold:

1) because gas is an unrenewable fossil fuel (despite the crafty marketing for 'natural gas'),
2) burning gas in a home is now linked to poor air quality and the incidence of asthma, and
3) now that we have both solar and battery storage we have renewable energy available to us for cooking, even at night.

For this step we've taken the middle (and cheaper) path - to simply purchase a two- element induction cooker, that is essentially still 'portable' but is *much* more functional than trying to always cook one pot wonders!

I'll include here some before and after photos that should mostly speak to themselves, but happy to answer any questions you may have about how to do this in your own home. 😊

28/04/2025