We had a great turn out on Monday for the first of a series of workshops on energy efficiency and electrification. Fifty people turned up to listen to Shae Parker McCashen explain the simple strategies that can make any home or building more comfortable, healthier and cheaper-to-run.
Participants came from as far afield as Mount Beauty, Beechworth and Wodonga and the feedback afterwards was positive – they either learnt something new or refreshed their motivation for long-thought-about improvements. There was a minor hiccup with the light snack not ready at the start, but we served it at the break and the Tuscan chicken soup and pumpkin soup were quickly finished off.
This workshop covered design tips and strategies for renters, minor/major renovations and new builds to achieve a comfortable home on any budget. Our main takeaway for a comfortable house was to fix the fabric or structure of a building first by insulating and sealing against draughts. This not only makes the house more comfortable and cheaper to run (and often healthier), it also means that any other appliance changes are more effective. For reducing operating costs, changing behaviour and the way the house is used is also really important. These are also usually the cheapest strategies to implement.
Shae was impressed with the many questions and is keen to collaborate with us again on a future event, perhaps a more interactive workshop with participants able to ask questions about their homes in short ‘interviews’.
We’ve got three more workshops in this series coming up.
Monday 22 September
Household Batteries
Monday 13 October
Topic to be confirmed
Monday 10 November
Topic to be confirmed
Look out for promotions in the next few weeks. Monday’s workshop participants have been voting for topics for the final two sessions. You can see which ones are favoured below (click through to the third slide). We have started a new poll for the Yackandandah and local community.
Topics Poll – Workshop #1 Participants
Q1 – Attend a workshop? 
Q2 – What workshop topics? 
Q3 – Any other topics? 
Q4 – What are your goals? 
Q6 – Factors in taking action 
Q7 – What clean energy applicances have you got? 
Q8 – What energy saving and comfort measures does your house have? 
Q9 – Would you like an independent consultation to guide you? 
Q10 – Anything else you can tell us?
