| Number 4 March 2006 |
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Colin Gillam, the owner of the Sunlizard solar air heater business, informed me last week that he has just received a trial order of four sunlizards for use in Afghanistan. Apparently the purpose is to heat community buildings there, where there is no gas or power for heating at the remote location, but there is plenty of sun. We wish Colin success in his first export order of the wonderful sunlizard solar air heater.  Following a successful trial period of opening on saturdays, we now offer this service every week at our Melbourne shop, whilst our customers require it. If it's not Ray that's in attendance, then Ernest will be there to answer your questions. In either case, you will be able to get some straight answers, or that missing part to fix your solar system at home, during the weekend. Many people prefer to plan their new solar system in the relaxed atmosphere of a Saturday, rather than during the week. That way, all the family can be involved in the decision to go solar. New Shop hours at our Burwood shop are Monday to Friday - 10 till 5pm, Saturdays from 10 to 2pm. Outside these times you can leave a message on the answer machine, or email.  Australian Made Rubber has now released its new range of coloured solar pool heating collectors. The new colector type is made in Victoria, and carries a 10 year warranty. It is the same physical size as the very successful hydromatt solar collector strip, and the price has reduced slightly. Colours available are terracotta, green, dark blue, grey and black. This means you can now have your solar pool heating match the colour of your roof, when installed in a prominent position. As always, black has superior heat collection properties, but the other colours can work just as well, simply by installing more collector area. The material used to make the new collector strip has been proven to be excellent for indoor pools and spas, as well as for normal domestic outdoor pools. We are currently looking for a small number of commercial pools in different areas, for demonstation and monitoring centres. Special pricing conditions would apply for anyone wishing to be involved in this project. For further information, please contact Ernest Gavey on 0418 711204 Every now and then there is a big jump in technology, and LED lighting has been one of these. With the introduction of LED lighting over two years ago, we marvelled at the amount of light that is emitted by these tiny devices that use next to no power. Now we have the next generation. We have LEDS that change colour, 6 metre strips of LEDS, and solar powered LED pavers that contain mini solar cells and a giant capacitor that stores enough energy to illuminte it all night.  These tiny LED lights come in a variety of colours, and this set of three is sold as a marker buoy set - red, green and white. Available in flashing or continuous on, they never need servicing, and will run in all types of weather, every night. Price: $70 each  The driveway pavers can be concreted into the ground, and light up every night. They come in two sizes, and a variety of coloured LEDs. Prices are $240 and $320 each. Initially we have a display in our Burwood shop window, that runs all night, with a similar display to be set up at Marcoola soon. |
Solazone participated in the recent Sustainable Living Festival at Federation Square in Melbourne. Judging by the comments passed by some of the 120,000 attendees, this was the best Festival yet. Congratulations to the organisers and the great team of volunteers, who put in an immense effort to ensure the City of Melbourne had the best display of sustainable living ideas ever presented. Nature-loo owner Stuart, and Ernest Gavey, combined their efforts to present a one-hour seminar on Composting Toilets. The workshop also touched on Greywater systems, and some of the problems people have encountered with some Councils, in order to get these installed. If you missed the seminar, and have any questions, just call Ernest or Stuart, who will be happy to help you out.  Solazone are pleased to report the introduction of a new range of frost-free low voltage refrigerators. Over the past 12 months there has been much development in low voltage fridges, as manufacturers withdrew their cyclic defrost refrigerators from the market. Having been left with no refrigerators to convert to low voltage, our fridge engineers went to work, and developed an entirely new concept. The new models not only contain the latest and most efficient Danfoss low voltage compressors, but also have an extra cooling coil (fan assisted), a small low voltage internal circulation fan and a defrost heating element. All of this is fitted to completely stripped down Electrolux or Fisher & Paykel refrigerators, which are available in white, or stainless steel finish. The result of this work is highly efficient refrigerators, that will work virtually anywhere that there is a battery. The benefit is they work so well in all climates, (much better than gas fridges), and the need for fewer solar panels and less batteries to run the fridge. We have installed these fridges in houses, camper vans, buses and houseboats - all with excellent results. Lately we had a new Vestfrost fridge converted in a similar manner, with the bast power usage results ever! For details of models available, see our fridges page, or call us for more information. Aires Almeida, our agent in Dili, has announced that he will now be keeping a stock of 12 volt and 24 volt compact fluorescent lamps in Dili, suited to the local electrical fittings. As with many things that we take for granted in Australia, it is very hard to obtain parts and fittings to repair solar systems in East Timor. If you have a need for any such parts, you can contact Aires on 724 2748, or timor@solazone.com.au If he does not have the parts in stock he will happily order them in for you, and he is also pleased to assist if you have a solar system that needs attention, anywhere in East Timor.  Following the recent move into the new 'Earth Garden' offices in Trentham recently, Solazone staff member Ernest Gavey visited the new building to check on the output of the 1500 watt BP Energiser grid-connect solar power system, and to see how the newly finished offices felt to work in. The story of the construction of the building, and the magazine staff's input, featured in the final two episodes of channel 7's show 'Hot Property' on Sunday 12th and 19th February 2006. It was quite disappointing that the TV show only allowed about two seconds air time to mention all the solar gear, including the solar grid-power system and the sun-lizard air heater, but I guess it illustrates that TV people also need educating as to the urgency for us to actively start to repair the damage to our planet, and how to go about doing it. One result of the visit was that the data logged on the solar power system was showing about 600 watts average hourly output for the time that it had been operating, including fine and rainy days. The sun's angle of incidence is less than ideal due to the roof orientation and the big row of pine trees nearby. We plan to monitor the power output from this system over time, and there will be detailed articles about the performance in coming editions of 'Earth Garden' magazine. It is well worth getting hold of the current issue, for details of this straw bale building. All good newsagents stock 'Earth Garden' magazine, but if you can't find one, you can order it from Solazone. Solazone super-salesperson Zane Haig has just arranged for us to supply the Noosa Council with a grid connected solar power system on the roof of the new Noosa Youth Centre. The 4 KW power system is to be used to power the facilities on site, but when the centre is not in use, it will return power to the grid, until the power is needed later. We will bring you more details as the project progresses, including some installation photos. |
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