Cairns Solar Power home transformed with into a sustainable way to save money

Cairns Solar Power

One way of having a money tree would be to create a sustainable home which doesn’t carry massive overheads.

Simon Thompson and his wife Martina have spent over $10,000 to transform their 1960’s Manunda home into a Cairns solar power energy efficient home.

The family of four uses only 16 per cent of the power generated by the array of 16 solar panels on the roof.  They are set to receive close to $1400 each year from Ergon Energy for the electricity which they feed into the grid.

“For every kilowatt of power we export, we get 44 cents back,” Mr Thompson said.  The Solar Feed-in Tariff is one of many Australian solar incentives.

As well as the solar panel installation, the Thompsons have also installed R3.5 insulation batts, painted the roof white, Solar hot water system,  as well as replacing the air conditioners with fans and louvers. Cairns solar power has seen massive increases in the last few years and solar power is becoming a large part of the cities residential culture.

The Thompsons solar house will be on display next month alongside eight other Cairns solar power homes across the region as part of the Sustainable House Day.

The day is organised by the Tropical Green Building Network and the Cairns Far North Environment Centre aims to promote smart, sustainable design features of homes.

The Author

I took an interest in the Australian energy sector close to ten years ago and since then have monitored the trends, technologies and direction of the Australian Energy Market. I was drawn to the Australian solar market in 2008 and since then have worked heavily in the field. I am partnered with national and international solar energy companies, from manufacturers of solar panel and inverter technology, online software developers that introduce tools to quote, monitor and manage solar power systems and media organisations who like myself, closely monitor the solar and renewable energy sector.