A Peek Into Permaculture: Principles

Throughout the day yesterday, the wind swirled and howled outside and torrential rain, from the lingering "remnants" of a tropical cyclone that crossed the coastline much further north, drummed heavily and loudly on the roof. Our region had a month's rain in just one day!

Pouring, drenching rain falling from the heavens.

During this unusual rain event, as I watched gutters and drains overflowing with precious water, I have been thinking about what happens to all the "liquid gold"  that falls on our property.

Water lost as it flows downhill into gutters and drains.

(Our house is at the top of this little street.)

In the Introductory Permaculture Course I recently attended, taught by the enthusiastic and inspiring Morag Gamble, who writes over at Our Permaculture Life, we were introduced to David Holmgren's twelve design principles. One of those principles encourages you to think about how to catch, harness and store energy; energy that is embodied in things such as sunlight, wind, seeds, food and water.

Water gushing from one of our neighbourhood's storm water drains.

A lot of rain fell in our area, over our land, yesterday. Looking out my misty windows to the street, venturing out to the soggy backyard and beyond under umbrella cover, there was much that I observed. While some of that rainwater poured off our roof and into our tanks, there was much that pooled in the circular "impression" where our old trampoline used to be, that trickled along the edge of the veggie patch like a little mini waterfall,  that flowed in under the house where it will no doubt be very muddy for a while, and that was lost as it gushed downhill into our street's gutters and drains. 

Yesterday's rain turned a dry brook into a swift stream.

The challenge as I understand it, remembering that I am just beginning to develop my understanding of Permaculture, is to find ways to capture more of the different energies that fall upon or move across/through your land. For example, when the sun is shining, we have solar panels to capture the sun's energy though the cost of batteries prevents us (at the moment) from storing that to use at night or in times of heavy cloud. We have a worm farm and compost bins that capture the energy stored in our food scraps and convert it into a form we can use in the garden. Our large sash windows, glass sliding doors and french doors help to harness the breezes we get here and bring them inside. In terms of the precious water that rain brings, we have one large tank under our house and another much smaller one under our back verandah. Water that doesn't fall on our roof and into our tanks, flows downhill as our land slopes sharply at the front and gently at the back. Some of that water soaks into our soil but a lot is lost in run-off. So I need to think about how to:

          *  slow that water down to give it more time to soak into our soil;
          *  use areas where the water naturally pools on our block of land;
          *  direct water into drier areas;
          *  direct water away to stop it flowing under our house.

One of the many large mushrooms popping up in moist soil.

I like the way in which the different Permaculture principles provide a framework for me to think about things and they way they throw up questions about how to build sustainability practically into our life here. I think they are applicable as much to my little suburban home as they are to the largest property. I think I'll sit with each one for a while, ponder them, learn more  and then see to what decisions they lead.

Meg

p.s. If you experienced the wild weather over the past few days, here in Queensland or Northern NSW, I hope that you are safe and dry this morning. My best wishes and thoughts to all those whom Cyclone Debbie impacted this week.  Xxx

Sunlight and Solar

In our subtropical part of the world, we have an abundance of sunlight streaming down from the warm sun in the sky. 

Sunrise off our back deck this morning.

Over a year ago, we put a 3 kilowatt solar panel system on our roof to take advantage of nature's solar energy. This was in addition to our already existing solar hot water system. We took a long time to decide on the size of the system suitable for us and we are so glad that we didn't jump in and put the largest system we could afford on the roof. That would've been a 5 kilowatt system and many more panels than what we eventually decided upon. Without even seeing our bills or visiting our site, a couple of energy companies were recommending larger systems but one small installer took the time to go through our bills with us, looked at our roof and talked with us about the times of day when we use electricity the most. That installer recommended a 3 kilowatt system with capability, through our inverter, to add further panels later when battery storage becomes more affordable. I was a bit confused by this advice at first. Wouldn't it be better to just put a big system up there? In short. For Us. No. 

As I was driving to the market the other morning, listening to a talkback radio caller telling the radio host how he wished he hadn't put a 5 kilowatt system on his roof at a cost of around $8,000, I felt very grateful that we had listened to our installer. That poor talkback caller felt he would've been better off not having solar at all and putting his $8,000 in the bank instead! Because he and his wife both work during the day, they use the bulk of their electricity at night when there's no sunlight hitting their panels and so their system isn't producing anything. The tariff, at around 6 - 8 cents per kilowatt, down from around 40c per kilowatt initially, is what they get paid for the excess they generate from their system. They have to pay around 24c per killowatt for the electricity they use at night.  Their very expensive system saves them very little compared to their investment with the talkback caller estimating savings of between $60-$70 each quarter.

Our system, with high quality panels and inverter, cost us $4,800 and saved us $577 last year. That saving comes from less usage of electricity from the grid and from the 6c we get for each kilowatt we return to the grid. We think our investment will take between 7-8 years to pay for itself and the life of our panels extends well beyond that to approximately 20 years.

Our solar panels.

We are paying for the electricity that we use at night. We have 'tweaked' our patterns of usage by making little changes to try to reduce the amount of electricity we use after the sun goes down. So, the dishwasher is packed at night but isn't started until the sun hits our panels in the morning. The washing machine lays idle at night and is started up later in the morning. And I am constantly reminding our young boy to turn the light off after he leaves a room! These are small changes but each helps to reduce the amount of electricity our family uses at night. Those small changes add up to savings.

What we saved by not choosing a 5kilowatt system is sitting there waiting for when battery storage becomes a cost-effective reality for ordinary folk like us. And that time is getting closer.

Do you have solar on your roof? Are you happy with your choice of system? Why/why not?

Meg