Jenergy — Energy Efficiency Champion 2023
On Wed 24th May during the National Energy Efficiency Conference gala dinner at the UNSW Roundhouse, Jenny was named 2023 Energy Efficiency Champion. A science communicator and public-good-scientist at heart, Jenny was not going to miss the opportunity to give the crowded room a quick lesson in cost-effective, health-transformative retrofit.
We have a tendency to overthink things, or be distracted by shiny things, in the residential energy space. If we are serious about maximising impact, we need to go back to basics before jumping onto shiny tech solutions. Together, energy efficiency (the ugly duckling) and renewables (the sexy swan) will have massive impact. Energy efficiency alone will have a profound impact on the comfort, climate resilience and health of Australian homes and people. Jumping on the electrification bandwagon without doing the dull stuff first, or at the same time, would be a huge and tragic missed-opportunity.
As Jenny asked the audience on Wednesday night: “Do you want to help massively reduce Australian residential energy use, improve the climate resilience of our housing stock and have a profound impact on the comfort and health of Australian households?”
”And do you want to do that as cost-effectively as possible?”
Then DIG this! Repeat after me — 1, 2, 3.
Draught seal
Insulate
Get off gas
Please take the time to listen to my speech (click on the first image) or check out some of my articles, webinars and blogs before telling me I’m a luddite. I love PV. I love double glazing. I love heat pumps. I love LED lighting. I love induction cooking. I love HRV. I love all sorts of cool technology and I understand the relationship between airtightness and ventilation (and I love them both). You will not convince me that basic draught sealing and insulating should not be the priorities in the Aus resi sector. I’ve been doing this with hundreds of homes, and thousands of people, for 15 years. I’m not selling stuff and I share my experience for free because I want to create positive change.
I also think there is a big role for women as we try to rapidly, retrofit Australian homes to make them energy efficient, climate resilient and all-electric. Hence the female focus on the slide I used in the short presentation I gave on Thursday at the conference (see below). I’m aiming to record that talk some time soon and will share it when I do. Meanwhile, if you are a woman that DIGs this then think about how you might get involved in the retrofit industry… its new, young and ripe with opportunity. People need trustworthy independent advice and then trusted trades to help them implement changes. Unfortunately, right now, that’s the hard part. Want to be part of the solution? Maybe I’ll start a group called “Women who DIG energy efficiency”.
