Fire action week commences in Victoria

In an attempt to be better prepared for this year’s fire season Victorian Premier John Brumby is working with local councils and communities to bring awareness to real hazards of bushfire. “This week is a call to action for all of us. No-one can afford to be complacent,” Mr Brumby said.

Fire action week will include community fire guard meetings and various local council fire expos. Bushfire Protect will be exhibiting at the Warrandyte CFA fire expo on Saturday 17th October (http://www.bushfireprotect.com.au) showcasing the innovative sprinkler and sensor design, otherwise known as Flamesniffer Technology^TM.

AUSTRALIAN TECHNOLOGY USED TO PROTECT HOMES FROM BUSHFIRES – HERE AND OVERSEAS

In the wake of the devastation and loss caused by the Black Saturday bushfire, home and business owners are looking for a solution that will help protect their property while they head for safety.

Bushfire Protect™ is an advanced system that removes the difficult decision of whether to stay or go.  The system will ‘fight the fight’ enabling property owners to flee from the danger zone.

Features of Bushfire Protect™:

• Developed in consultation with bushfire protection design group – members include CSIRO, state fire services and fire engineers.
• Innovative sprinkler design capable of efficiently dousing any structure with water in all directions.
• Flame Sniffer Technology™ sensors detects ember and flame attack.
• BlazeTamer™ is a non-toxic and environmentally friendly fire retardant. It is automatically mixed into the water when the pump is activated.
• Automatically starts and operates without human intervention.
• Energy efficient and completely standalone without the need for externally supplied power or water.

Storm Sustainability will be simultaneously launching Bushfire Protect™ in Australia and California. “With large fires in Europe and North America, Australian experience in bushfires is increasingly sought after. With Bushfire Protect™, many home and business owners will now be able to protect their homes and lives.” said Jerry Gross, CEO.

For more details contact:

Karen Betts

karenb@stormsustainability.com.au

1300 791 915

About Bushfire Protect: Bushfire Protect™ is supplied and installed throughout Australia and America by Storm Sustainability. Storm Sustainability is a consulting, contracting, design and installation company with a long standing reputation for delivering sustainable water, solar and monitoring solutions of the highest standard. www.stormsustainability.com.au

Give your playing fields the KISSS of life

Are you considering replacing your grass playing fields with artificial turf? In the face of the ongoing drought, many Australian schools are considering giving up the struggle to maintain their grass playing fields and taking the drastic option of replacing it with artificial turf. It’s an option that is not only a tragedy for our kids, but one that can carry significant risks. Storm Sustainability, your educational environmental resource, has researched a much better option. It’s called KISSS Subsurface Textile Irrigation and it’s a cost-effective, water efficient way to keep your school’s playing fields fresh, green and natural. KISSS Subsurface Textile Irrigation is an Australian invention. It is manufactured by an all-Australian company and is already in use by dozens of schools around Australia. In fact, it’s even being used in Canberra to keep the gardens of Parliament House green – and Canberra is known to be one of the worst drought affected areas in the country.	Storm Sustainability 1/435 Malvern Road South Yarra VIC 3141 1300 791 915 Website Contact Form Visit our website for more information and case studies: KISSS Information
*Information source regarding artificial turf: http://www.blogcatalog.com/blog/grass-synthetic-info Storm Sustainability has referenced comments, observations and research created by third parties. We are not responsible for the comments or allegations made by others. We encourage those considering artificial versus natural turf to conduct their own research and this content is here to assist you.

Camp Hill Primary School powers up on solar

The Advertiser, Thursday July 16th 2009

Portable lighting solution

The innovative  integration of a high performance marine navigational solar beacon into a robust steel  bollard for land use is the perfect design solution for lighting pathways and landscaped areas or providing security lighting. This simple solution can be installed almost anywhere and avoids the time consuming and costly installation of underground or overhead cabelling.

Features:

• Mono crystalline solar panel, batteries and lights the product is brought together into one unique package
• Self cleaning solar dome
• Sealed unit, providing waterproofing and vandal resistance
• Ultra bright LED
• Easy installation, no cabling or trenching

The benefits speak for themselves:

• 3.6 kilometres of visibility
• Energy efficient
• Waterproof and corrosion resistant
• Easy on-site programming capabilities
• Brighter light output
• Easy relocation
• No electricity bills
• No maintenance

St Michael’s Grammar School in Victoria will be installing 3 solar bollard’s to light their school grounds as an alternative to using traditional mains electricity.

St Michael’s Grammar solar power installation

Before

After: 27 x 205 watt solar modules

Sisters Building: 20 X 205 watt solar modules

The installation of the school’s new solar power system on the Sisters Building is now complete. This latest addition to the school’s sustainability portfolio comprises 47 x 205 Watt high efficiency solar panels capable of producing  9.635 kW under peak conditions. The system is forecast to provide an annual average of 38.5 kW hours of energy per day whilst preventing approx 15 tonnes of Greenhouse Gasses  entering the atmosphere annually.

Funding for the complete system was provided in its entirety by the Australian Government’s National Solar in Schools Program in conjunction with the Victorian Government’s Victorian Solar in Schools program.

Coordination of the project has been the work of Melanie Johnson. Her work on this project has spanned over 10 months and involved lengthy communication with Federal and State  government agencies, electricity network operators and others.

Design and installation services were provided by Storm Sustainability. Storm provided an end to end solution ensuring  a sensitive design solution and a  high quality outcome.

A key element of Storm’s system is the ability to capture performance data from the system together with environmental data from instrumentation installed adjacent to the array.

This data is presented graphically  in real-time on a web based educational platform created by Storm called Sunskool.

Sunskool enables teaching staff to take the solar power off the rooftop and into the classroom.  The Sunskool site also contains engaging  animations describing how solar panels work as well as other educational resources.

Another key element of the system is that it also monitors the entire power consumption of the Sisters Building in real-time so we can understand how much energy we are using and look at ways we might improve our use of this resource.

St Michael’s Sunskool dashboard is available on this link: http://www.sunskool.com/school/stmichaels.aspx

Complete Excel format data sets are also downloadable via a secure login. These sets will be useful to use in higher level classroom activities once sufficient data is accumulated. The login details may be obtained from Melanie.  If anyone would like a detailed demonstration of the Sunskool portal, this may be provide by Storm Sustainability.

10kW installation St Michaels Grammar School

Storm Sustainability are currently completing a PV installation  at St Michaels Grammar School. One of our largest  and certainly our most technical. The panels have been integarted into the architecture (see image)

In  addition to the array on the images there is another going in at the rear of the building.

The installation went ahead over the weekend in 45+ knot winds. More details after the completion of the project.

For more details please contact us unsing the online for call 1300 791 915 (int +613 8825 5100)

Sunskool at ATRAA

Sunskool is exhibiting at this year’s ATRAA conference showcasing real time solar monitoring technology.

Sunskool will be unveiling an improved dashboard, showcasing capabilities for displaying ambient irradiance, air and cell temperatures. Additional displays will allow students and teachers to compare solar energy generation to environment variants such as air temperature. This upgrade puts Sunskool on the National Solar Schools Program DCSVS Approved Components List – giving your solar installation business the competitive edge in the $500 million school market.

As of June 1, 2009 it is mandatory for all schools participating in the NSSP to include an approved DCSVS as part of their PV installation. Sunskool is the world leading DCSVS for the school environment. Developed in Australia by Storm Sustainability in partnership with the global leaders in online PV monitoring, Fat Spaniel Technologies Silicon Valley USA, Sunskool has revolutionised the way renewable energy is visualised and understood in classrooms.

By specifying Sunskool, you will be armed with a key marketing tool and peace of mind that the equipment has been designed and tested for harsh school environments with over 3,000 installations worldwide to date.

The elements that make Sunskool shine:

1. Sunskool is a web portal that does not rely on the school’s server or PCs to capture and store data.
2. Real time data allows students to access and instantly view the amount of solar energy currently being generated from the school’s solar system, the current consumption, the resulting greenhouse gas savings, and trends emerging from historical data.
3. Information is presented in an engaging and interactive format to enhance participation and help make the learning process fun and rewarding.
4. Sunskool provides an extensive sustainability curriculum that can easily be integrated into the current school curriculum and can be customised to your project site with the addition of text, graphics and photographs.
5. Students can access and analyse the results of other national and international Sunskool participants and learn how energy generation can vary between different geographic locations and according to seasonal and environmental changes.
6. Sunskool shines through bringing solar energy to life, ensuring the entire school community is conscious of the critical environmental need to create sustainable solutions.

Visit Sunskool at the Welcome cocktail evening Thursday 30th July or at stand 44 in the exhibition hall.

www.stormsustainability.com.au
www.sunskool.com
For instant updates follow us on twitter: www.twitter.com/stormwatersolar

Heathmont East Primary School warms to solar energy

HEATHMONT East Primary is among the first schools in Maroondah to harness the power of the sun through a Federal Government program.

The National Solar Schools Program offers schools up to $50,000 to install solar panels in a bid to fight climate change.

Heathmont East secured funding and had 24 panels up and running on June 24. Read more. 

Heathmont East Primary monitor their solar power generation and consumption via Sunskool’s monitoring portal click here to view.

Leader news, 09 Jul 09 @ 07:14am by Shaun Campbell

Sunskool is compliant with NSSP’s mandatory data visualisation and monitoring standards

As part of recent consultation with the renewable energy industry and state education agencies, the data requirements for renewable energy systems funded by the National Solar Schools Program (NSSP) have been clarified. These requirements are documented in the Data Collection, Storage and Visualisation System Requirements and Specifications (DCSVS).

The DCSVS have been prepared as a ‘minimum specification’ to meet the NSSP requirements for the collection and storage of schools’ electricity consumption data and renewable energy generation data, as well as the visualisation of this data within schools.

Storm Sustainability is pleased to announce that the Sunskool solar in schools monitoring system has received approval for six key DCSVS components. All NSSP claims made by schools after June1 2009 must include approved components to be valid. To view the Sunskool system live go to www.sunskool.com