Emergent Group Executive Director – Strategy and Innovation, Dr Glenn Platt, was a guest on ABC TV’s Weekend Breakfast news program on Saturday, where he shared ways to manage energy use.
Glenn was approached by the ABC in relation to spiralling energy costs and community concern over the affordability of gas and electricity. With household energy bills rising, hosts Fauziah Ibrahim and Johanna Nicholson were interested in easy ways to make savings.
Glenn believes that saving energy in the home needn’t be complicated.
“If we think about the stuff that gets hot or cold, you can identify where the biggest savings can be made,” said Glenn.
Even though the federal government has just announced a price cap on gas and coal to help ease the cost of energy, it is still important for all of us to have strategies at hand for reducing the amount of energy we use.
In the average home, about a third of electricity is used to heat water, a third used on heating and cooling and the remaining third on lights and appliances.
Glenn pointed out that our homes are often leaky, in that we allow air that we’ve warmed or cooled to escape through gaps.
“It’s very low-tech but the old-fashioned door snake can plug air leaks under doors and save you quite a bit of money, and they only cost a few dollars,” said Glenn.
Plug-in energy meters are a good way to keep tabs on the amount of energy things like heaters actually use. These can be purchased at department stores and provide a visual reminder of where our energy consumption is greatest.
The colourful door snake was quite the hit of the ABC news segment but it belies the broad expertise Emergent Group’s companies have developed over the years. The team has worked for over 20 years with renewable and new energies; from hydrogen, batteries and solar, to coal and gas.
Glenn and the team at Emergent Group are helping businesses transition to cleaner and cheaper energy sources. They can advise on the benefits of particular energy solutions as well as how to mitigate the risks associated with large-scale energy storage systems (batteries).
Emergent Group develops new technologies that underpin the renewable energy sector and provide guidance as to the safe operation of new and risky energy carriers such as hydrogen. We can help traditional energy industries with transition guidance based on detailed analysis and a long history of applied science.
