Mount Alexander Sustainability Group has completed its home retrofit pilot.
In partnership with Common Equity Housing Limited, the local pilot saw 10 houses retrofitted according to the guidelines established in MASG’s ‘Zero Emission Retrofits in Mount Alexander Shire’ plan.
The target is to retrofit 500 older houses, that is, those that have been built before the introduction of the mandatory building energy ratings.
This document can be viewed on the Mount Alexander Sustainability Group website www.masg.org.au. It has now been updated with the results of the pilot.
MASG’s pilot project was partly funded by a Lord Mayors Charitable Foundation grant. Existing state and commonwealth rebates and grants were also accessed where possible through CEHL, to fund the physical retrofit of the houses. These houses were selected to be representative of the older housing stock in the shire.
There are about 10,000 houses in Mount Alexander Shire and most of these were built before 2005, when energy efficiency standards first came in. MASG anticipates that 7.6 tonnes of CO2e emissions per annum will be saved on each of these houses.
The pilot has demonstrated that a net zero emissions over the year is achievable, with all of the 10 houses reaching nine or 10 stars using the Residential Efficiency Scorecard assessments.
One of the householders, Bev Mead, reflected on their experience, “Just got my first electricity bill since solar, amount payable – nil, amazing! My home is more comfortable after all of the retrofits. My sincere thanks to all the wonderful people who allowed this wonderful venture to happen.”
MASG is now working towards launching the program, utilising loans enabled by the Clean Energy Finance Corp, to the broader householder community of the shire. Negotiations are now under way to seek the best financing arrangement possible. MASG will then seek the first of the 500 households to be included in the program.
The group expects to target up to 100 houses per year. MASG is working together with other Mount Alexander community groups as well as groups in sister organisations in other shires. If you would like to support MASG in this endeavour, contact them via the website at www.masg.org.au. The group would love volunteers and of course, financial support.
