SALA Homes Newsletter - December / January 2008

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Festive Season

We at SALA wish you and your family all the best for the Festive Season and a wonderful 2008.

Our office will be closed from December 21 to January 7 to give our staff time to celebrate with their families.

We urge you to please take care on the roads this festive season and if you are gift giving then please try to be sensitive to your gifts' impact on the environment.

If you are going on an eco-friendly holiday then we would love to hear from you, to share your experience with others, as there isn't a lot of information available about eco-friendly family holidays. Make sure you send us a photo!

All the best from the SALA team!

Tantilising Tips

Thank-you to everyone who responded to our last newsletter's tantilising tip on drying racks in cathedral ceilings.

One of our readers, Emma, tells us that drying racks on a pulley system are common practice in the United Kingdom. She said the frames (called an Edwardian Airer) are available from Recollections in Brisbane.

New tantilising tip for summer:

To keep your electricity bill low this summer, keep your fridge set at 4 degrees, keep your windows closed if the temperature outside is hotter than the temperature inside, and use your windows and drapes instead of fans and air-conditioners.

For more tips on being kind to our environment check out the Queensland Government's Climate Smart website. 

New tantilising tip for heating water: Thanks to Alan from the ACT for this tantilising tip. Alan says “The Building Code now requires a tempering valve on hot water for ‘sanitary uses' – i.e. bathrooms – to limit water to 50 degrees so children don't get scalded. But often the tempering valve is put right onto the hot water system (as this is the cheap way out), so all hot water in the house ends up limited to 50 degrees – not really hot enough for the kitchen or laundry!

To combat this we are taking an untempered line straight off the hot water system to the kitchen and laundry, then the tempering valve is fitted and that line goes to the main bathroom and the ensuite – at opposite ends of the house. Now for the neat trick… As the tempered line passes the kitchen on its way to the ensuite, a line will drop off for the water intake for the Fisher and Paykel dish drawers. Fisher and Paykel specifies a maximum intake water temperature of 60 degrees. So instead of using the dishwasher to heat cold water at the peak electricity rate, our dishwasher will use water heated free by the sun to 50 degrees via the Endless Solar evacuated tubes solar hot water system. Some cycles require water to be heated to 70 degrees, but the rest of the heating will be completely free! I have discussed this with Fisher and Paykel and they've confirmed it's OK. So why aren't more people doing this?”

Email your tantilising energy saving tips to bel@salahomes.com.au

Did you know?

Facts on Polystyrene (courtesy of the Clean Up Australia website)

Fact 1 – Polystyrene is made from petroleum, a non-sustainable, heavy polluting and disappearing commodity.

Fact 2 – Enough Styrofoam cups are used in Australia each year to circle the world at least five times.

Fact 3 – Polystyrene does not biodegrade, it crumbles into fragments that do not break down.

Tip : Take your own coffee cup or thermal takeaway cup to your favourite coffee shop instead of using their throwaway cups.

Jobs

Do you know someone looking for a job?

We are looking for a bright, cheerful person with good organisational skills and a love of the environment to fill a full-time Project Support role. Salary range from $40K to $53K.

News

Another SALA Home Gets off the Ground

The floor of the first "Big House 4" to be built by our own personal Green Team has been put down. The house at Mitchelton is on schedule and is looking good thanks to our wonderful Green Team and our SALA operations team. Watch this space for future updates and photos.

Connells about to move in

The Varley-Connell family will be moving into their two-storey modified "Green House 4" SALA home at Tarragindi just before Christmas. To find out more about their SALA experience read Bruce's blog.

Cassel's home complete

The Cassel family have moved into their modified “Smart House 3” SALA home. The home at Highgate Hill was constructed by a builder employed by the Cassels.

Staff on the Move

Ghis, our bubbly office administrator is on the move to North Queensland. After a year working for head office in Brisbane, Ghis has been thoroughly ‘greened' and is taking her knowledge back to Atherton. But Ghis won't be leaving the SALA ranks, she will be working as our sales agent in North Queensland and we're sure there will be lots of work to do!  

 

Welcome to our Team

As Ghis moves north, we welcome our new Office Administrator, Alison, to the SALA team. Alison has previously worked for the Queensland Conservation Council and prior to that lived and worked in her home country Ireland. We warmly welcome Alison to the team, where she is already proving to be a great employee.

Staff profile - Annie You: Accounts Manager. Annie is another recent SALA recruit who takes care of all the accounts for SALA. You can read more about Annie here.

Want to increase your skills?

The Permaforest Trust - Centre for Sustainability Education, in partnership with the National Environment Centre campus of the Riverina Institute of TAFE, is now offering accredited, specialist sustainability training for transition to a low carbon future from its Byron Bay campus in northern NSW. Permaforest Trust's accredited Certificate 4 and Diploma courses start in March 2008 and include permaculture theory and practice, energy descent planning, community climate change strategies, relocalisation and bioregional planning, food security, community gardens and post carbon transition. For more information email Permaforest Trust, visit their website or phone (02) 6689 7579.

Who on Earth Cares?

"Who on Earth Cares" is a new campaign bringing together Australians from all walks of life who want to see Australia reduce its spiralling levels of greenhouse pollution and help avoid climate change. Visit Who on Earth Cares today and let your friends and family know you care.  

Databuild 

A new computing program gets SALA sorted. Our team have been hard at work to sort out a new estimating software package that will ensure our quotes get to clients more efficiently and our orders are always on time. The new software package, Databuild, is proving to be a godsend, albeit a lot of work to initially implement but well worth it for the end result. Databuild enables us to better estimate houses, track orders, keep an efficient customer database and streamlines the quoting process.

Want to know how sustainable your house is? Check here.

Ecobiz Conference

Our sales agent Wendy, and our General Manager, Bruce went along to check out the inaugural Ecobiz conference hosted by the EPA at the end of October. Wendy said that the two full days of workshops and seminars, jointly sponsored by SALA Homes, were fabulous and she would recommend everyone to take part next year.  

“Tim Moore, the Master of Ceremonies did a fantastic job keeping proceedings running on track. The conference was really well done and there were many inspiring moments,” Wendy said.  

Stay tuned for next year's conference details!

What's On

EcoForum Conference and Exhibition will run from the 27th to 29th February at Conrad Jupiters, Gold Coast, Queensland. The three-day event will include nine conference streams, 500 delegates, 30 exhibitors, an art exhibition and plenty of networking opportunities. 

Green Cities '08 will run from 10-13 February at the Sydney Convention Centre, Darling Harbour. More than 1200 delegates will explore the latest green initiatives and technologies that are currently available and hear from key international and Australian speakers.

House tours

SALA offers comprehensive sustainable house tours, which focus on the products, systems and unique features of our range of energy, water and resource efficient homes. 

Greenbank, Brisbane - 2:00pm on the 3rd Sunday of every month (next one Sunday 20th January). 

Goldsborough Valley, Cairns - 10:00am on 27th December (check website for 2008 tours). To register for the tours click here.

Click here to view previous newsletters.