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SAVE MONEY AND THE PLANET

THESE days $190 doesn’t get you far but for Riverstone GP and Hills resident Dr Kim Loo that’s how much it costs to run both her house and car for three months, including trips to Canberra.

Her renewable energy journey has taken almost ten years but it is a passion she is keen to share and it all started with chickens to provide eggs.

She now has six chickens, one guinea pig, raised garden beds for vegetables and herbs, fruit trees.

“Everything I have done is to reduce the amount of heat in my house.”

Every year has seen her do more to turn her house into a poster project for renewable energy. Changing her 45 halogen down lights to LED down lights almost halved her power bill.

Dr Loo then installed 4 KWH of solar panels, a first generation 7 kWh Tesla battery with smart Reposit technology which enables her battery to trade in the National Electricity Market.

The battery negotiates in the market place and buys energy when it is cheap and sells when it is high.

Her mission now is to show people what can be done by “taking small steps” at a time.

She reached her own goal in August last year when she bought herself a Nissan Leaf electric car which has clocked over 12000 km.

“Why wouldn’t you do it. My car runs on the sun, it’s free energy, why would you pay for petrol.

“I enjoy driving past petrol stations now.” She says while electric cars aren’t in everyone’s range there are things people can do such as plant trees, have a vegetable garden and grow their own herbs.

As a GP she knows full well the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic but says it has given everyone time to reflect on the lessons learned. She is acting chair of NSW Doctors for the Environment, a member of both the Hills Climate Action Group and the Climate and Health Alliance and is part of The Hills Doctors Association.

“The cost of burning fossil fuels is borne by the health sector,” she said.

“The COVID Crisis shows that the government can listen to the health experts and the public health experts and they have acted in the right way in protecting the community and not overwhelming our health sector.

“If they listen to the health experts regarding corona virus they need to listen to the health experts regarding climate change.

“It’s a win, win, we save money by moving to renewable energy, we reduce the amount of air pollution, we reduce the amount of emissions and you make our population healthier because of this.”

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