Power to the people: the home owners with $3.65 electricity bills

says Bill Keramidas about his family. Until December last year, they lived in an energy-hungry 1970s house in Donvale, east of Melbourne, where the homes are palatial and the lawns manicured. “We probably put out more carbon into the atmosphere than anyone else,” he adds, in a matter-of-fact, guilt-free way. Then Keramidas and wife Helen decided to build a new, multi-generational home for their two 20-something children, their partners, and Keramidas’s mother.

It’s a sunny day in late July and chilly: 13 degrees, with biting sea breezes outside. But inside this 8.7-star super-energy-efficient house, it’s 22 degrees. The heater remains off, as it almost always is . Hendry, whose business Adapt Design Group has designed 10 of The Cape’s existing or planned houses, says his last quarterly winter energy bill was $3.65, but annually he’s in negative bill territory, with his solar panels generating a net income of $100.

Each of The Cape’s first 23 homes – there will be 230 by 2025 – averages over eight stars. Ten stars means you virtually need no heating and cooling, while an eight-star rating means the houses are using about half the energy for heating and cooling compared to a six-star home in the same climate zone.

We knock on the door of one sleek, modern house and a smiling man dressed in neat, casual clothes opens the door. “Welcome to my energy freedom house,” says Joe Spano. He’s referring to his divorce from fossil fuels . He shows us his iPad on the kitchen bench. “I always love watching this,” he says. It’s a depiction of his home’s current energy use. It shows that the rooftop solar panels are now generating 3.3 kilowatts of power. He’s using 2.

Lyndall Parris, founder of Narara village on the NSW Central Coast, has watched her vision for a better community become reality."For me, it's so joyful."Twenty years ago, when Sydneysider Lyndall Parris turned 50, she delivered a speech to friends and family. Two of her friends’ husbands had died suddenly, leaving them to raise children with little community support. As an accountant, Parris had watched small-business clients work long hours, never seeing their families.

It costs $30,000 to become a member at Narara, which acts like a land deposit. Residents must donate 52 hours’ work a year to help the co-operative, while homes must have an energy-efficiency rating of at least seven stars. House plans must be approved by the building design working group and immediate neighbours.

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