Category Archives: Event

Events run by us or others

Sustainable Homes Day bus tour

Posted on September 9, 2014 by | 1 comment

Transition Town Guildford has formed a Sustainable Homes action group and this month we will be touring houses as part of the National Sustainable Homes Day (http://sustainablehouseday.com)

Sunny's House Safety Bay

We thought it might be a good opportunity to hire a bus, tour a few houses together and in particular visit some homes further a field that we wouldn’t often get to.

The plan is to depart Guildford at 10:30 am, visit two houses in Safety Bay and then another 1-2 houses on the way back. Returning around 4-5 pm. We will be stopping at a cafe/park to have lunch, so please bring extra money for that or pack a lunch.

Itinerary

  • 10:15 am – Meet at Guildford Train station (far eastern end) & board bus
  • 10:30 am – Depart Guildford
  • 11:30 am – arrive Sunny’s house (Safety Bay)
  • 12:30 am – lunch and toilet stop at a nearby cafe/park (BYO/ pay for own)
  • 1:30 -3:30 pm – visit another house in Safety Bay and 1-2 houses in freo on return trip, TBC
  • ~4:30 pm – return to Guildford station

We can only fit 24 people on the bus, so please make sure you register. We are charging for this event as we need to cover the cost of bus hire and fuel. Luckily Sustainable Home group co-leader Colin is a bus driver and providing his services for free 🙂

RSVP essential, please purchase a bus ticket here

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Posted in Energy, Event, Sustainable Home

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September movie night – The Power of Community

Posted on August 20, 2014 by | Leave a comment

Transition Town Guildford September Movie night – The Power of Community

Power of community poster

The September movie night will be a special night on food and Kitchen Gardeners – The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil – It’s an oldie, but a goodie, a must see if you haven’t seen it!

“The documentary, “The Power of Community – How Cuba Survived Peak Oil,” was inspired when Faith Morgan and Pat Murphy took a trip to Cuba in 2003. When they learned that Cuba underwent the loss of over half of its oil imports and survived, after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1990, the couple wanted to see for themselves how Cuba had done this. During their first trip to Cuba, in the summer of 2003, they traveled from Havana to Trinidad and through several other towns on their way back to Havana. They found what Cubans call “The Special Period” astounding and Cuban’s responses very moving.” IMDB rating 7.6/10

As usual, the second Tuesday of the month – Tuesday 9th September

@The Stirling Arms Hotel, 117 James street, Guildford

6 pm onwards for food and drinks, Movie starts 7 pm

Entry by donation

Please RSVP via Eventbrite, so we can let the kitchen know how many to expect.

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Posted in Climate Change, Community, Energy, Event, Kitchen Gardeners, Movies, Peak Oil

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Sold out July Sustainable Home tour

Posted on August 1, 2014 by | Leave a comment

Over 25 people attended a house tour held by Town Transition Guildford’s Sustainable Homes Group on the weekend. Group member Martin Chape opened up his house in Bellevue where he explained to them a number of ways of moving off the electricity grid.

Martin's modern, but Federation style house

Martin’s modern, but Federation style house

The Federation style home has passive solar design features and includes solar and wind charged battery banks to run low voltage lighting and other features throughout the house.

Admiring the solar PV, vacuum tubes and wind turbine on Martin's north facing roof

Admiring the solar PV, vacuum tubes and wind turbine on Martin’s north facing roof

The SMA Sunny Island system which allows disconnection from the electricity grid but continued use of regular 240 volt appliances was explained, as well as the importance of understanding where and how electric power is used in order to design such a system. A demonstration of the Current Cost power monitoring system showed how to track and measure power use for this purpose or to merely help reduce power use by identifying which appliances should be replaced to save energy costs. There was also a discussion on utilizing the Sunny Island system to create micro-grids for small groups of homes that wanted to disconnect from the electricity grid.

The audience watching a video on how a micro grid can work

The audience watching a video on how a micro grid can work

Two solar-powered evaporative air coolers were also on display and an absorption cooling system that utilizes excess heat from a vacuum tube driven solar hot water system during summer. Finally members were shown a soon to be completed solar-powered hydronic home heating system also driven by vacuum tubes.

Some of Martin's set up and projects

Some of Martin’s set up and projects

The systems demonstrated may be viewed on Martin’s Facebook page and several are the subject of his articles published in Renew magazine.

The high demand to attend the house tour (there was a wait list and several people missed out) shows people want to learn more about how to reduce their electricity bills, increase self-sufficiency in energy and live more sustainably.

Full house, unfortunately we have to limit numbers to make things manageable and fit, so please RSVP for future events

Full house, unfortunately we have to limit numbers to make things manageable and fit, so please RSVP for future events

The Transition Town Guildford Sustainable Homes group aims to be a forum for people to ask questions and share knowledge about all things related to building, renovating or renting a sustainable home (especially in the eastern suburbs of Perth, WA).

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