Radio Live Green Smart Launch Transcript

Title: Transcript of the Launch of Radio Live Green Smart
Presented by: Emmanuel van der Meulen
Date: 1 May 2017
Number of Speakers: 1
File Duration: 26:28
Transcriptionist: Jacqui Jonk

Links are at the end of the transcript.

Transcript Breakdown:
00:01 Introduction to Radio Live Green Smart.
02:12 How to promote the radio station using #LiveGreenSmart?
02:56 The birth of Radio Live Green Smart.
05:27 The hype of green living.
09:10 How to start living green.
12:44 Return on Investment of a smart green home.
16:40 The benefits of living in a green smart home.
22:48 Wrap Up

00:01 Beginning of recorded material:

Emmanuel:

It’s 16h00 GMT time or 18h00 SAT time. Welcome, this is our first presentation of Radio Live Green Smart. If you wish to call us you can on +27, that’s South Africa, mobile number 082 651 4273, I’ll repeat that + 27 082 651 4273. Or you can call on skype emmanuel.van.der. meulen (phonetic spelling follows), please call us anytime with questions about green living or to share any of your own contributions.

Radio Live Green Smart is launched today formally and we will have regular presentations, interviews, adverts, regular shows where anybody is welcome to contribute, [during the phone ins] during the interviews phone ins will be available. And it’s a forum about green living, eco-friendly living and then importantly where anybody experiences first hand where the environment is not [expected] respected we would like your contributions about such disrespect to the environment. We will assist to expose such environmental disrespect in various ways, we would also like people in the areas to join us and to assist us with such environment disrespect. In the time being you can send your details via the contact us and that will send an email to our back office and from there will address all such information that we receive. Top

02:12 How to promote the radio station using #LiveGreenSmart?

The radio station will be promoted using the #LiveGreenSmart as a mouthpiece for green smart living, eco living [friendly], eco friendliness, consciousness towards each other and the planet we inhabit.  Anyone is welcome who is interested and curious about living green and it is our contribution to reduce the carbon footprint of each user, each inhabitant of planet earth, as some people are saying we are currently getting close to using the carbon footprint of one earth and by reducing this we’ll extend the life of the planet and also enable our children and their children to live on this planet in the future. Top

02:56 The birth of Radio Live Green Smart.

The birth of the radio station came about as a result of building a green smart home. It is a home with a difference; it was built as a speculation home where as usually people who [live, buy,] who build green, build it for themselves. So, in other words the owner finds a contractor and then builds a home. In our case it’s different, we built a home ready built and this started for us from the recycling of plastic, metal, cardboard, glass and tin and also composting at home and then eventually building a home for the reason to reduce the cost of water, the cost of electricity which is steadily rising and also becoming independent of the grid as far as possible. Our approach was to build a luxury home with green smart features, which I’ll come to a little bit later what the green smart features are, now the interesting thing is we built the home and our approach was that we would do it as a proof of concept to see if there’s a market for green smart homes that are ready built and we found that it didn’t sell. The idea is possibly too new the main [the main] reason that we feel is that buyers do not believe a green smart home is cost effective or that it has a solid return on investment, that’s another topic I’ll also get to later on, and as a result of this home not selling we decided to spread the word and hence this radio station is launched today, Radio Live Green Smart. Top

05:27 The hype of green living.

The next question I’d like to cover is what is the hype of green living? It’s about preserving our natural resources, via our everyday choices. Another part of what the hype is about is saving the planet. One thing is becoming clear we all have a large stake in preserving the planet of the natural resources. A further part is our health, green living contributes to improving our health, and then furthermore the generous savings and investment in the future. So, living green would start at recycling 1 plastic bottle and slowly over time the momentum will increase and we’ll end up [or we could end up and we would end up] living in a green smart home, driving a green smart car, working in a green smart office and eventually living in a green smart city. This might all be farfetched but there are already signs that there’s traction towards this type of living and thereby improving our lives. And at this stage it’s still very [very] expensive and over time the costs will reduce and it will become more affordable and eventually implemented on a larger scale. Some of the numbers, some statistics for instance reported by [tream] team Tree Hugger in June of 2014: 86 million tons, [that’s 78 000kg] of material was recycled instead of ending up in land fill. Further 113 000 [cans, aluminium cans were recycled and by using the recycled cans 95% of the aluminium is saved] aluminium cans were recycled every minute of each day, 95% of the aluminium was saved. So, all these little bits over time will improve, increase and contribute to us conserving the planet [while] whilst having all the benefits of living green. Top

09:10 How to start living green.

How do we start living green? The latest discussions all revolve around recycle, reuse and reduce. And as I mentioned a little earlier on starting with recycling 1 plastic bottle, a tin, a glass bottle, cardboard and paper to eventually living in a green city, and with time collection and drop off points are springing up in different places making it easier to recycle. And it’s not about getting anything or being paid for it, those options also exist, there is even money in making available collection and drop off points as business opportunities, however in the meantime just by doing it from home recycle, reduce and reuse all contributes towards conserving the planet. Another easy way of doing it is replacing taps and shower heads to low flow. Taps and showerheads – those are small and inexpensive ways to reduce water usage. Another easy way and inexpensive way is LED lighting to slowly replace all [globes throughout the house] downlighters, globes with LED lights and another interesting way of reducing resources is by catching rainwater. Rainwater harvesting is getting traction and there are 2 fairly easy ways, the 1 is just tanks, placing a tank or various tanks underneath gutters and downpipes and then with a small pump. Installing a small pump this water can then be distributed through garden via irrigation or in a more formal and expensive way with automated irrigation. Rainwater tanks can be installed underground. Rain water is harvested via the roof and from that harvested rainwater on a much bigger scale automated irrigation is possible. It’s possible to save water when flushing toilets and also for the laundry, this is an expensive option but it is possible and it is of course required ideally when the house is being designed for all the harvesting and piping and plumbing to be installed during the construction of the house. Top

12:44 Return on Investment of a smart green home.

Earlier I mentioned about the return on investment with a green smart home; so, let’s explore that. What I’ve come to realise over the last number of years, is that the market is not ready for green smart homes ready built and that’s not due to it not being a solid investment, my view is that is not well known where and how it becomes a good investment. So, let’s take this example: a traditional house has certain costs, for instance the initial building costs, the loan costs, the registration costs and the monthly water and electricity costs. Now if we take all of that together on a traditional home and we compare that with a green smart home it also has the initial costs and let’s say the traditional home being compared to a green smart home is the same size, so the initial basic cost would be the same, then added to the initial cost would be the green smart costs. Then the higher loan costs and the higher registration costs of those loans or loan and then it’s important to note that the water and electricity costs would be much [much] lower, and another important point is that if you compare the traditional home with the extra costs of the green and you say let’s go and invest the additional spend on the green home as an investment and take the yield of that investment and how does that compare then to a traditional home? So, if we take these in summary over a ten-year period the traditional home has the initial costs, the running costs and a certain increase in value.

And in the same way the green smart home has the initial costs, the lower running costs, the increase in value over the ten years the loss of not investing the difference in the initial costs, and when all of this is taken into account the green smart home out performs the traditional home by quite a margin in the sense that the green smart home covers all its costs, covers the yield of having invested the money rather than using it to build the green smart features into the home. And in a future presentation I will break down those costs with figures so that it’s easy to understand that taking all those different costs into account and taking the savings into account the green smart home out performs the traditional home. Top

16:40 The benefits of living in a green smart home.

Now just at a very [very] high level what are the benefits of the green smart home compared to the traditional? Well first of all the home temperature is managed throughout the home, throughout the year in a cost-effective way due to the low running costs of the green features being built into the construction from the design. The smart technology used enables the monetary and management of each aspect of the consumption of such a home and as a result of the technology being used to monitor and manage the usage. It is possible to have heating and cooling across all the seasons during the year and throughout the home, and having this benefit fully maximised with no need to hold back whereas on a traditional home due to the costs the much higher costs of heating and cooling in conventional ways, the choice is usually made to keep the managed temperature to a minimum and to use it sparingly. So, in the case of the traditional home it’s used to the minimum the managed temperature, and also sparingly whereas due to the cost effectiveness and the low costs due to monitoring and managing the consumption of electricity to heat and cool the home there’s no need to use it sparingly, there’s no need to hold back and therefore the whole home throughout the year is monitored and the temperature is managed at an optimal level throughout the home.

A further aspect of comparing a green smart home to a traditional home is the green smart home allows less sound into the home and that’s simply because of the various insulations that is built into a green smart home, starting off with the ceiling insulation, the floor insulation the external wall insulation and the double glazing throughout the home and the external glazing so this means that the house has an envelope keeping elements in and keeping elements out, and therefore keeping the sound out as well and this insulation also contributes to the temperature of the home that can be maximized due to using very little energy. Then the green smart home is a healthier home, this is achieved due to the heating and cooling being radiant, in other words it radiates out of the floor, the hydronics which is the feature that’s used, its piping inside the floor is radiated out of the floor and does not use any air flow therefore debris [different debris] that might be blown through the air does not happen. Dust does not collect on heaters, germs that might be in the home [is] are not blown through the air and the temperature is stable throughout the home throughout the year.

So those are just some of the benefits, there are more these are the big ones. Another smaller one which is not really small, but it’s a huge [huge] electricity saver and water saver and that is hot water immediately on tap.  What that means is that a linked looped plumbing system is installed and whenever any hot water tap is opened the water is hot within 2-3 seconds. That is winter and summer. So, the linked loop plus water pipe insulation, the hot water pipe insulation, brings hot water to the taps within 2-3 seconds that means it’s less energy, less water wastage and you have the comfort of not having to wait for hot water to first run through all the pipes to the particular tap. Top

22:48 Wrap Up

So, the summary of all the green smart home features just at a very [very] high level is: harvested rain water is used for flushing toilets, for laundry and garden irrigation. In your green smart home, you would have an indigenous garden. Harvested rainwater reduces the use of water by roughly 60% over the year. Optionally photo voltaic solar panels are installed and combined with the comprehensive insulation results in a momentous saving of 50-95% in current energy utility bills. This is a grid tied system which maximises electrical stability and savings and when the house cannot produce its own electricity, because its grid tied it can then draw from the grid and also where the house generates [exce] electricity in excess of what is uses, that excess can be pushed back into the grid for a credit from the service provider. The comprehensive insulation covers the floor insulation, the roof insulation, double glazing, exterior wall insulation, water pipe insulation and that creates the envelope throughout.  The hydronics radiant heating and cooling provides for managed temperature throughout the home throughout the year. The hot water linked looped system provides hot water at each tap in 2-3 seconds, winter and summer and saves significantly on water. Materials used in the home is low maintenance and highly renewable. Products like bamboo, stainless steel and aluminium. In combination, such a home produces momentous savings on water and electricity and then of course while you are saving you are living in comfort due to the various features, and last but not least is the lower carbon footprint that such a house produces. So, effectively the home provides luxury living, covers all its own expenses, provides a profit and as a result also reduces the carbon footprint of the inhabitants of the house. Well that concludes this presentation, be sure to listen in on future presentations by Radio Live Green Smart- and over to some music.

Links:

www.livegreensmart.com

End of Transcript Top