Sunny days are here again

My quest to save the world, one very small step at a time, began quite recently. Like most Aussies, I felt the pressure to enter the property market and own my own home. So when I first purchased my 'great Australian dream', I wanted to do what I could to reduce my impact on the earth and make my plot as friendly to the environment as I could, without changing my lifestyle.

Now I'm no tree hugging hippy, but between climate change and drought, green is definitely now the new black.

So I began my research, Accredited GreenPower--tick, worm haven compost bin--tick, bucket to collect water in the shower--tick (mostly containing varieties of specialist shampoo and jars of refortifying conditioning hair creme I'm convinced to buy each time I head to the hairdressers for a quick cut and polish). So I'm doing my bit, probably more than most and all was great. My new pad was warm, homely and giving a little bit back. I was happy, until day 92 when I received my first energy bill! Talk about shock. How could it possibly be that much? I searched high and low, up and down, across and under for the energy guzzling culprit.

I'd almost given up; resigned to the fact I'd be living the rest of my near perfect life by candlelight. It wasn't until one day I was out feeding the worms that it finally dawned…the great big tank like object attached to my wall was in fact a very large hot water unit, designed to service a family more like the Brady's, than a single modern day woman with only a four pawed creature to conserve.

So here's my dilemma, removing the tank would only create wasteful landfill and quite frankly, I love my shopping, but I'd rather it be for a new pair of silver strappy's than a silver hot water tank.

So I began my research. I'd heard about solar hot water, I guess everyone has, but how exactly does it all work? My love affair with Google proved once again fruitful and fulfilling, when I uncovered the fact that I could easily 'solarise' my existing hot water system, to reduce my emissions, and my energy bills, all for a one off investment of a little over two thousand dollars. It seemed reasonable enough, in the long term it would help me save money as well as add value to my recently purchased pride and joy.

I did my homework, and was pleasantly surprised to discover that I could easily get a quote from Origin, and place the order simply online in a few short simple steps. All I needed was a north facing roof and my (well worn) credit card.

Within a few short (shower) weeks, my shiny new solar panels arrived ready for installation. The lovely gents scaled the house and connected the panels to my tiled roof, then ran the copper pipe to the tank (metallics are so in this season). Within a few short hours, the heavens had opened up and my solar collectors began feeding from the sun.

My bath that evening was the warmest ever. There's a real comfort knowing I'm realising the benefits of green energy, reducing my greenhouse emissions and, over time, lessening the impact on the environment and my hip pocket. Even more brilliant is the fact that the sun doesn't really need to rear its head too regularly to keep my water hot, because the smart solar collectors are hungry for UV more than the sun itself.

All in all, I couldn't recommend an Origin solarised hot water system more highly. It was quick, easy and effective (much better than the alternative of a daily nude run under the local park's sprinkler).

Get your hot water system solarised at originenergy.com.au/gosolar today, I did!