Grand Design Home show.

Last Friday (oh my, it's been a week!), we took a day off work to go to the Grand Design home show in the Sydney Exhibition Centre. We had been big fans of the show as it show case many up to date eco designs with lots of renewable and green energy focus. And since we have a house to renovate, why not go there for a peek to get some good ideas on how we can be environmentally conscious in our renovation. 

Good job on Eric getting this bargain ticket months in advance. =) It's FREE! Ticket at the door were $80/each I think. 

Sorry if you are looking for photos of the exhibits, I didn't take any! =P There are just booths n stands. So nothing much to look at. We sat in at a few short seminars, listening to the speakers on:

Rainwater Harvesting

How can I make sure my new garden is sustainable?

How to incorporate a geoexchange system into a residential project

How lighting can change your interior

Decorating with small places.

The Rain water harvesting was our 'surprise' attendance as we arrived not long into the exhibition centre, and it just so happened that we stumbled upon them where they had it going for the last 10 mins. I would so love to have a few at home, collecting the waters during those stormy weathers and use the waters for the gardens and vege patch. At my current rate of using waste water from my vege and rice washing, my plants would have died already. haha.

I received a good tip from the guy doing the sustainable garden seminar. I am having this white fly outbreak at the moment. I tried 'luring' ladybirds or even a praying mantis, but they don't like to stay and eat up all the white flies. =( 

So his tip is: I need to make a house for them! 0.0

By putting a few sticks in a pile at the corner, they can feel safe n secure and start populating there and be my white fly predator. He says it's no reason why there's food for them but they are not staying. So I shall try building mini houses for ladybirds. hehehe.

The Geoexchange system is an interesting ecofriendly concept that I personally don't think it is possibble for us due to the cost. What it does is to tap into our earth's ground heat exchange, for heating and cooling our house. Because the earth's surface temperature are pretty constant throughout the seasons, so it helps to reduce the energy needed to cool or heat up the houses in winter/summer. Personally, the cost of implementing this system into our small residential house is not as economical as those big buildings like the Sydney opera house, Bukinham palace eg. which uses this technology to save on heating and cooling bills.

We are particularly interested in the new technologies in Solar heating. Currently, we have a government rebate going on for installing solar pannels. My mum n dad had installed some for my Perth's home, and it is awesome. It reduces the energy usage by almost half and they are not worried about turning on air-con/cooler/heater in those extreme temperature days. 

So Eric is also thinking of installing these solar pannels in our future home. Expecially if we are going to be working from our home clinic, it will come in useful. =) However, there is a setback on installing Solar panels. If there are no people at home using those green energy that the panels are producing, it will just be fed back into the electricity grid. And when it comes to night time (where everyone will be home and electricity usage high), we have to use normal electricity, thus not saving much with the electricity bills. 

I had been wondering about using 'batteries' that can harnest and save the charge for night time use for a long time. And each time, Eric will laugh at me and say, it's not possible as the technology is not that advance yet. 

Well, we found someone with the same vision as me at the centre! neeoQube!!!

They are big bulk batteries which can stores your green energy in the day, and use it at night for the times where we use electricity the most, for cooking, lighting, tv etc. How cool is that! 

However, the setback is that this technology is still quite relatively new. Even the sales guy told us to just put the solar panel on first, wait for 5 years, before installing the neeoQube. By then, hopefully the technology would be more advance and can help brings down the cost of each unit. (yes, currently they are quite expensive to own)

We walked around from 10am -4.40pm. 

Here's some photos of what we did AFTER the exhibition. =P

The original Sydney Exhibition centre is now under major renovation. So that's why the temporary marquee area at this little island of Glebe. Even thought it's temporary, the structures are very sturdy, and I love how we can catch a free ferry ride from Circular Quay to the island. Adding to the special-ness of the trip. =)

That's the Anzac bridge.

Hopping onto Captain Cook cruise ship!

We sat on the upper outdoor deck to absorb the nice harbor view. Look, the Sydney harbor bridge!

It's a nice warm evening. The weather is getting too hot for comfort lately.

Coming into Circular Quay. It's a nice 10mins ferry ride.

Passing by the Maritime museum. That's a decommissioned submarine next to the warship. =)

In Circular Quay.

Our dinner that night. We wanted to have the mini bowls again. But the queue was sooo long and there's limited seating. So we head to it's neighbouring stores 100m down the road. This place have mini bowls too, and they are equally yummy!

From left to right:
Salmon with salmon roe rice, beef rice, teriyaki chicken rice. And with the stewed egg. YUMM! The total cost of the rice comes to $3.90x3=$11.70!! Plus $1.50 for the egg.

We were satisfied with the portions. It seems like the hot weather makes us not want to eat too much these days. Does anyone living in the hot weather countries felt the same too?

On the way back, we stop by our friend's place to pick up the free chocolate cheesecake =)

She worked in Lindt cafe. And had been giving us free expired cakes from her cafe. (the shop would ask the employees to bring them back instead of chucking them away, and I think her family had a little too much cakes lately. haha) Sadly, she is now working in a full time office job. So this is our last Lindt cake for a while. Chocolate Cheesecake.

If anyone is interested, the White Chocolat Framboise from Lindt is highly recommended. It's our favorite gourmet cake =) (we thought it was a strawberry cake?) The fruits makes it quite light and not overly sweet like those milk chocolate ones (aka the one above).


kcan