Home, sweet green home
Liz Clarke spoke to an environmental activist about her mission to reduce dependence on ‘toxic’ electricity
storm water/attenuation tanks, the planning approval department gets nervous. We have walked this tricky path for many years and now know that mindsets and traditional practices are difficult to change.”
When the department was convinced by a stormwater management firm that the water harvesting system, with a carefully calculated overflow system and a guaranteed one way flow of water (ie nothing flowing back into eThekwini systems) would suffice, this ele- ment was eventually approved.
It was eight years ago that Troughton and her partner, Greg Courtney, bought a fairly pedestrian-looking home, one with a distinct 1960s slightly Spanish feel.
“It wasn’t about destroying what was there,” she says. “It was about re-engineering the space and using the original materials for a more modern eco friendly feel.”
The result is quite amazing. You arrive at the front door via a recycled plastic composite pathway spanning a fish pond packed with tilapia the waste from which provides nutrition for the vertical garden.
The interior is modern, vibrantly colourful, edgy even. But it is not the interior of the home that makes her excited. It’s the outside. It is the deep pit where a “Meccano-like” system of modules receive, store and aerate the rainwater. It is filtered several times, pumped back into the house and used for all purposes including drinking. The shower and washing machine water is then plumbed out of the house through a magic green box in the garden, which takes this “grey” water for irrigation.
“A truly sustainable double use of the rain,” she says. “What a pity most of us send our rainwater down drains and then spend a fortune purchasing water from the city. “
On the roof of the couple’s home are 20 solar panels. The system includes inverters and batteries which supply all the family’s electricity needs.
“We generate more electricity than we use. However, we decided on installing a system that is tied into eThekwini rather than off the grid. We saw the opportunity to lobby the city to set up systems to pay residents for their excess electricity.”
This practice, she says, has been standard in many countries. There are also successful pilot projects in other South African cities. “We know that if we could get that happening, more people would be motivated to invest in solar systems as the return on investment would be much quicker.”
In the meantime, they are oblivious to load shedding and, more important, sleep well at night knowing their electricity needs are not being met at a cost to the health of the planet.
lizclarke4@gmail.com JACKIE Houston is empowering women in a practical way. As a volunteer at the Robin Hood Foundation, she recently held a two-day conference in Inanda for women titled “Future Women of Africa”.
The conference brought together more than 1 000 women, aged 15 to 36, and she identified women from impoverished communities and inspired them to achieve their goals.