While the Alternative Technology Association (ATA) turns 30, John Morgan’s involvement with all things renewable spans a lot longer than three decades. Jacinta Cleary visits one of ATA’s first members in his energy efficient home.
On July 29, 1981, households around Australia were gathering around televisions to watch the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana. Belinda Morgan, like most people, was preparing a big night in (with champagne and chocolates) to watch the wedding with a couple of friends and her husband John. John had other plans though, and went to a seminar about heat pumps held by the newly-formed Alternative Technology Association. That night around 40 members met to share stories about heat pumps and their possible applications in homes. While the royal marriage was over by the mid 1990s, John and Belinda’s own union is still going strong, despite a different opinion on what constitutes a ‘good night’.
John Morgan joined the ATA in its first year in 1980 and has been a member ever since. While that involvement has spanned three decades, John says his interest in renewable technology has been more like 50 years, first triggered by an article in Radio Television and Hobbies magazine in 1960 (price two and six pence) about a home-made solar hot water system. John, completely taken by the article called ‘The solar heater, how to build it’ showed it to a friend in Fremantle where he was living at the time. His mate built the system, having previously heated his water with a wood heater. This experience triggered John’s interest in all things renewable: “Fifty years ago we didn’t have systems like this,” he says.
Pioneer
John describes himself as an “electronic hobbyist since the year dot.” Another apt description might be that John is ahead of his time, a pioneer of sorts, for solar power.
John’s first career was as a teacher, starting with a primary school class of 73 students in 1956 and then moving on to secondary schools, specialising as a physics teacher. In 1976 he devised a major project on solar power for his Year 11 physics class, with students building solar-powered appliances such as solar ovens and water heaters, using parabolic dishes as solar collectors. The students roasted a chicken in their very own solar oven and the project was repeated in years to come. John continued to lead the way on sustainability education, incorporating climate change topics into his classes from the mid-1980s. “Kids would go home, read the meter and report back,” he says. “My main point (back then) was that when students got married and went to build a house, that they would build a sensible house.”
Future-proof housing
John’s own passion for a low impact future shows through three homes he has designed, two of which he built. While there is renewed interest in buried pipe cooling systems today, John installed a simple buried pipe system under his new home in 1982. The Morgans were rebuilding after their Dandenongs home was destroyed in a house fire. When the drainage contractor was digging a trench for the new home John saw an opportunity to lay some interesting pipe work. “Do me a favour and dig that thing a foot deeper than usual,” he said to the contractor. John lay some 90mm PVC pipe in the trench. The contractor came back the next day to install the drainage pipes on top and filled it in with dirt. John’s PVC pipes came up through the slab floor and vented cool air into the house. “It was an idea I had in mind for years,” he says. “It worked well enough but was soon abandoned as the house was able to manage to stay cool itself.”
John’s next house was at Musk near Daylesford. It was built during the recession in 1992 so a combination of friends helping with the build and using recycled materials kept the costs down. John and Belinda installed a RAPS system on this home, a 2kW photovoltaic system, and have been living off the grid ever since. The property featured a micro hydro turbine until it was decommissioned in 2004 when rainfall dropped substantially. The reverse brick veneer house was the site for the first Sustainable Living Fair in 1998 (now known as the annual Sustainable Living Festival) when 6000 people visited over two days. The organisers expected around 600 people. Nevertheless John was more or less the perfect host, showing as many groups around the property as was humanly possible.
While the design for his current home, completed in 2008, was going through the planning process, it achieved a home energy rating of 9 Stars according to the FirstRate software. “It’s probably at least 9.5 or 10 Stars now with these drapes I’ve added.” I tell him that I haven’t come across any other Australian homes with such a high rating (a new compulsory 6 Star rating is only just being introduced in all states). “No I haven’t either,” he says casually, quite comfortable to be ahead of the pack.
The house looks to the future both in name and intention. It’s named Galaxy Hill because the local area has good skies for star gazing; he hopes to build an observatory at home one day. “It’s a climate changed house,” he says. “I’ve designed it to take on board changes in the climate.” The house has views of the 129 turbine Waubra wind farm just fifteen kilometres to the east. A few kilometres to the south of his property, possibly visible above the treetops, will be a smaller 29 turbine windfarm. It’s fitting that John’s retirement property will end up with views of wind turbines on two sides, although he chose the site because of its excellent solar and wind power potential.
Read the full article in ReNew 112.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010 at 12:24 pm