11 tips to cut your food waste

Published 29 November 2011 Steplight 1 Comment
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The festive season is just around the corner and for the next few weeks many of us will be planning a gathering or two. There are Christmas dinners, summer barbeques and New Years parties and with that – plenty of food. Last year Steplight addressed the issue of e-waste, this year we’re focusing on wasted food.

Food waste is a major issue in Australia and around the world and during the festive season this waste increases. A national poll commissioned by ‘Do something’ found that 59% of Australians admitted to wasting more food than usual over Christmas. This is a lot of waste, especially when you consider that at any other time of the year we discard up to one in every 5 shopping bags of food.

In fact about 3 million tonnes of food is driven to landfill in Australia each year. This not only wastes our money (about $616 per household per year), it also wastes resources and generates methane (a greenhouse gas more potent than CO2) as it rots away in landfill.

Food waste per person per year in Australia

Perhaps the biggest waste of all is that good food is being thrown away while others in our community will not have enough food to share with their families and friends.  The good news is, if we all minimise our food waste it can add up to make a big difference and this festive season is a great time to start.

The Worldwatch Institute (USA) recently published an article addressing food waste and foodwise.com.au is a great resource for tips on how to reduce your impact. Below is a summary of some useful tips.

Shop smart

  • Plan out a menu and try to get an idea of how many guests to expect so that you can prepare the correct amount of food. There are a few online portion calculators such as ‘Perfect Portions’ that can help you with this.
  • Write out a shopping list and make sure you check for ingredients in your kitchen before you head to the shops to avoid doubling up. Make sure you stick to your list. Making a shopping list that corresponds to your menu also means you less likely to miss something which saves you from making several trips to the shops.
  • There are plenty of ‘2 for 1’ deals and offers at Christmas time that could lead to purchasing more than what you need. Only buy the quantity you need.
  • Never shop while hungry as you are more likely to make impulse buys.

Serve smaller

  • The look of all your delicious food presented on the dinner table can lead your guests to feast with their eyes and pile loads of food (unlikely to be finished) onto their plates. The simple solution is to use smaller plates and utensils. Guests are welcome to seconds and leftovers remain in the serving plates and are more likely to be reused.
  • Encourage guests to serve themselves. This reduces the amount of unwanted food on their plates.

Save leftovers

  • Store leftovers safely so that they can be preserved for future meals. Leftovers are also more likely to be eaten if stored in several small containers that are convenient for quick meals on the go.
  • Leftover meals and ingredients can also be used to make new meals. For example, Christmas eve ham and roasted vegetable leftovers can be turned into a delicious Christmas day cheesy bake.
  • Compost your food scraps. This will stop your food from filling landfill and will instead fill you gardens with nutrients and fertilisers – read our composting blogs for more information.
  • If your party is catered, donate leftovers to a food recovery program. There are several programs running throughout Australia such as ‘Oz Harvest’ that collect leftovers from catered events, restaurants and cafe’s and distribute it to those in the community that need it most. This service is usually free for the donor.
  • While raiding your  kitchen for ingredients for your party, take note of any non-perishables that you won’t need or use and donate them to your local charity. Those few forgotten cans of food can be donated to a charity that makes up Christmas hampers for the disadvantaged during Christmas. Contact your local charity for more information.

    OzHarvest logo and phone number

    Many options now exist to reduce food waste at a commercial level (such as OzHarvest 'food rescue')

- Alegria Alano

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Watts Clever Wireless Energy Monitor FAQ

Published 15 November 2011 Steplight 6 Comments
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Watts Clever Energy Monitor and TransmitterDo you have questions about the Watts Clever Home Energy Monitor (EW4008) or Watts Clever Solar Energy monitor (EW4009)? Read our frequently asked questions and answers below.

Will it work with 3 phase power?

Yes. To measure three-phase power you need a total of three sensor clamps. All you need to do is buy two extra clamps with your energy monitor (see purchase options on the two pages linked above).

Can I carry the monitor around my home?

Yes. Unlike other energy monitors which are only mains powered (and stay in one spot) or only battery powered (and run out of batteries all the time), the Watts Clever monitors are both mains powered and battery powered.

This means you can walk around your home with the monitor and observe changes in energy use as you flick appliances on and off. When you return it to mains power don’t forget to remove the batteries to prevent them from going flat. Running on battery power alone the screen will only last a few days.

Can I use the energy monitor to look at individual appliance usage?

Yes. You do this by observing the difference in consumption when the appliance is turned on and off. The screen updates every 10 seconds.

To monitor individual appliance consumption in detail we recommend using the Plug-in Power Meter.

Can I download the data?

Yes. You will need to buy a USB Data Cable from the home energy monitor page.

To download the software for the monitors please refer to the support tab on these pages:

When you install the driver and software to your computer, make sure that the USB cable and display are NOT connected to the computer. After the software has been installed, open the software and plug the USB cable in.

Switch the display off and on again (this ensures the data will be downloaded correctly). Finally, click the yellow connect icon in the software.

Can I enter three time-of-use tariffs from my smart meter?

Yes. These monitors can have three tariffs programmed into them (see manual for details).

Bear in mind that no energy monitor on the market can account for the true complexity of a three tariff system. This is because these tariffs change depending on what time it is, the day of the week and whether it is a public holiday (i.e. the monitor would need a complete calendar in it).

Can I monitor my solar power production using this monitor?

Yes. Make sure you order the Solar EW4009 model to do this. Please note that you will most likely require the assistance of an electrician to make sure you clamp the sensor over the correct cables.

This is a simplified diagram of how it works:

Wireless Solar Energy Monitor Graphic

How far will the transmitter signal travel?

We have tested the signal to about 30 metres.

My meter box is over 30 metres away, can I still use the energy monitor?

Yes. You should be able to clamp over the incoming supply cable before it gets split off into individual circuits at your household switchboard. We recommend using an electrician to do this as it is often ‘behind the board’. If you have a circuit breaker at your switchboard, you may be able to do this yourself (clamp around the cable which goes into the breaker – if this is on the outside of the board).

What size are the sensor clamps?

The internal diameter of the sensor clamp is 25mm (red clamp pictured at the top of this page). This accommodates all cable sizes you are likely to encounter on a residential or small business meter board.

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How thermal imaging cameras identify energy wastage

Published 9 November 2011 Steplight Leave a Comment
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Steplight is now offering for purchase or rent the FLIR i7 thermal imaging camera. It’s the most recent addition to our suite of energy monitoring tools.

What exactly is it good for?

Most wasted energy consumption ends up as heat

The thermal imaging camera picks up on the fact that almost all wasted energy consumption ultimately ends up as ‘waste heat’.

Take lighting as an example: the electricity not converted into visible light ends up as waste heat. As a result, you can see a more efficient light from a less efficient one with a thermal imaging camera.

We run the relatively energy efficiency 20 watt ‘infra-red coated’ halogens in our office. Even so, when you point the thermal imaging camera at the ceiling you can still see they generate a considerable amount of heat. You can also see the waste associated with each lamp’s transformer (the hot ‘smudge’ seen next to each of the three lamps below). This is obviously not something which can be seen with the naked eye.

3 halogens lights and transformers in ceiling thermal image

Here’s another lighting example of the spotlights often used in conference booths and motion sensor lights:

Two PAR38 spotlights thermal image

Having said all that, lighting is not usually the main focus of thermal imaging studies. I was just having some fun pointing the camera at different objects, like my dog:

Jack Russell thermal image

The real value of thermal imaging comes when analysing things like hot water, heating and cooling. This is often where the biggest savings can be made to a building’s energy consumption.

For example, the priority areas for pipe insulation can be seen in this image of the hot water pipes next to a storage tank.

Uninsulated hot water pipes thermal image

Energy leakage through windows and doors can also be identified. In this image you can see three air conditioning vents pumping out 16 degree conditioned air, straight in front of a glass roof sitting at 30 degrees (and it’s not even in direct sunlight).

Infrared image of air conditioning vents and glass roof

This image shows the difference between having a window covered by a blind (right hand side) vs uncovered (left hand side). A six degree difference in this case.

Covered vs uncovered glass infrared image

In summary, thermal imaging cameras are a useful tool when conducting more indepth energy audits. They can uncover energy wastage which you simply cannot see with the naked eye. They are also an excellent tool for conducting ‘before and after’ analysis. This is particularly useful when evaluating the effectiveness of a certain energy efficiency measures.

It is true, however, that these cameras are very expensive and therefore inaccessible to most energy assessors. You can now overcome this hurdle by hiring a FLIR i7 at a very reasonable rate from us.

- Ryan McCarthy

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Passive Cooling to reduce your dependence on Air Conditioning

Published 1 November 2011 Steplight 3 Comments
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Australian homes use up to one-third of their electricity on air conditioning. Of course, every home is different and statistics like this are merely a rough guide. If you want to understand more precisely how much your air conditioning is contributing, your best bet is to install a wireless energy monitor.

Assuming you do have air conditioning, why not consider other options to minimise electricity use without giving up your comfort?

Passive cooling is when the building ‘envelope’ and surroundings are used to cool a home instead of mechanical means. Examples include using the orientation of your home and shading to minimise heat gain from the sun as well as opening up your home to promote natural air flow.

In summer, the sun provides us with up to 1000 watts of energy per square metre. Letting the sun shine directly onto a small area in your home is like heating that area with an electric heater. So, to keep your home cool, it is essential to keep this direct sunlight out.

Priority #1 keep direct sunlight out

If you are designing or building your home it is worth considering its orientation. In summer, the sun shines at low angles (low enough to shine through windows) from the east and west. To avoid this heat gain, particularly from the hot afternoon sun, try to position living areas on the northern end of your home. Rooms such as the garage and laundry can occupy the western end of the home as they are used infrequently and can provide a heat barrier for the rest of the home.

If your home is already built and has living areas on the eastern or western sides, there are many ways to keep the sun out. Most of the sun’s heat enters homes through windows. Expensive measures like double glazing won’t actually achieve much in the way of keeping heat out (it’ll just keep it in). External shading, on the other hand, is a relatively cheap and effective solution (note: eaves do not provide adequate shading since the sun shines at low angles to the east and west).

Vertical external shading, such as external curtains, blinds and even vegetation can stop heat gain through these windows. Internal shading from curtains is not as effective as external shading. This is because the window glass still absorbs and radiates solar heat into your home.

Other approaches

Another way to keep your home cool is cross ventilation. Air movement increases evaporation which keeps us cool. Air movement also keeps the building cool, particularly in the evening when cool breezes set in. To maximise air flow, open up both ends of your home to allow for cross ventilation. Portable fans can also be used to supplement breezes particularly when the air is still.

Of course, the best approach will depend on the climate in your area and a range of other factors. For a comprehensive discussion on passive cooling options see the Your Home Technical Manual – Passive Cooling.

The following videos also provide more information on the principles of passive cooling and how to promote it in your home. They were created by the Dusseldorp Skills Forum who also collaborates with Steplight on the igreen and Y Green programs. Although these focus on building new homes, many of the ideas can be applied to existing homes.

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- Alegria Alano

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Fast recycling facts

Published 13 October 2011 Steplight 1 Comment
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Household recycling has been a common practice since the introduction of kerbside recycling schemes in the 80’s and 90’s. Planet Ark’s National Recycling week (November 7th – 13th) is a good chance to revisit some fast facts on how, what and why we should be recycling.

Plastics

Most plastics are not biodegradable so if they end up in landfill, or worse, in our natural environment, they will persist for many years. Not all plastics are recyclable either. Those that are can be identified by a number inside a triangle of arrows that is stamped somewhere on the product. Lids should be removed because they are usually made from different plastic and need to be separated for sorting. If you are not sure what is recyclable and what isn’t, check with your local council. Here are the various symbols used for recyclable plastics.

Plastic recycling codes

Paper and cardboard

Paper and cardboard are some of the most widely used consumer materials so it is important to recycle as much of it as possible if we are to reduce waste. Using recycled paper and cardboard to make new products not only saves trees, it uses up to 99% less water, 50% less energy and produces 90% fewer by-products (toxic chemical waste, for example). Almost all paper and cardboard can be recycled including writing paper, packaging, envelopes with and without plastic windows, telephone books, magazine, cereal boxes, cardboard packaging, toilet rolls and Manilla folders. Some councils also allow pizza boxes (check with your local council first and don’t forget to remove food chunks). A common non-recyclable is wax-coated cardboard e.g. some fruit boxes.

Glass

Glass is infinitely recyclable and a lot of energy has gone into its production so it is a waste to have it sitting in landfill. In Australia, most glass products contain a substantial proportion of recycled glass, so your used containers can be easily re-used. Using recycled glass to produce new glass uses 75% less energy as it lowers the required production temperature.

Like other recyclables, it’s important to recycle glass correctly to maintain environmental and economic effectiveness by avoiding contamination. For example, heat treated glass can contaminate recyclable glass. Examples of heat treated glass are drink ware, ceramics, window glass and Pyrex. All contaminated batches or recycled glass are sent to landfill, so it is important to separate glass products properly before recycling. You can recycle all glass jars and glass bottles but make sure you remove lids and caps. You should scrape out large food scraps but the label can be left on. Broken glass is not recyclable, so to dispose of it properly, wrap it in some newspaper and throw it in the regular bin.

Aluminium

Aluminium is not found in its metallic state in nature – it must be manufactured from another metal using a complicated and very high-energy process. Like glass, aluminium does not degrade through the recycling process, which means it can continually be recycled. The energy costs of recycling are far less than the energy costs of producing new aluminium. Aluminium drinking cans, foil and food trays are can usually be recycled by your local council, although it is always a good idea to check. Recycled aluminium is used for vehicle parts, bicycles, boats, computers, cookware, wire and many other things. Aluminium drinking are usually recycled into aluminium sheets for new drinking cans.

To find your council’s recycling requirements and you nearest drop points for non-kerbside items visit the Recycling Near You website.

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