February 2017
Cool and Safe Play
Street Coolers and The Athena School, Newtown are working together to combine simple, affordable actions and research to improve the image and safety and reduce excess heat at the school.
This will have the added benefit of reduced energy, water, and waste bills, reduced operations cost, and resolving flooding issues in the school.
Thanks Athena for allowing us the opportunity to work together!
Inner West Sustainable Schools Network
Street Coolers partnered with The Athena School, Newtown to attend the Inner West Sustainable Schools Network, wherein we visited Wilkins Public School, Marrickville.
There were talks from NSW Office of Environment and Heritage, Wilkins Green and Inner West Council.
We were delighted to see the many sustainability efforts of Wilkins Public School, featuring a food garden, chicken run, bush regeneration ridge and Aboriginal planting track. Good Work, Guys!
Hopefully we can take inspiration from your efforts and replicate the success of this project throughout the Inner West Network of Sustainable Schools.
Guide To Urban Cooling Strategies Workshop
Street Coolers was invited to collaborate on a workshop with UNSW's Low Carbon Living CRC workshop to develop a guide for urban cooling. The document will be made public to allow any who wish to be involved in reducing the Urban Heat Island Effect to understand how to do so. Release for public use is to be advised.
January 2017
Preliminary results from the Weather Station install at The Athena School, Newtown showed:
- More than 50% of days had readings in "Hot" and "Very Hot" Categories
- There were many consecutive days with temps above 28 degrees, categorized as "Heat Wave" Level
- Hottest temperatures recorded were between 12-3pm, when children were most likely to be outdoors
Read more here
November 2016
Links between hot days and increased electricity demand in Australia
Derek Fiddler released very interesting data on increase in peak energy loads on hot days of over 1,000 Megawatts in NSW alone, along with an analysis of energy usage in Queensland and Victoria in 2015.
See here for more information!
Thanks so much Derek for sharing your knowledge!
September 2016
Weather Station Install at The Athena
On the 13th of September we installed a new Weather Station to measure dry bulb temperature as part of a larger study in conjunction with UNSW to monitor the Urban Heat Island Effect across the Greater Sydney Region.
from left to right: Francesco Fiorito (UNSW), Street coolers project manager zarah copeland, athena school students
New Intern!
This month Michael Chen has started a ten week internship with us at Street Coolers!
Michael will be collecting data and conducting research into various aspects of the Urban Heat Island Effect. We hope Michael's internship with us is rewarding and positive!
May 2016
Solar Analytics Install at The Athena School
A collaboration between Solar Analytics, Wattwatchers and Street Coolers. See the image inset on the right.
This equipment will enable to to closely monitor energy usage and production through an online dashboard.
Click here to read more about our install to monitor solar power at The Athena School in Newtown.
New Project Manager
We have said a sweet Good-Bye to our last Project Manager Marianna Verlage back to the US and a warm welcome to our new Project Manager Zarah Copeland. Zarah comes to us with a background of Civil Engineering, and is currently completing her capstone with us here at Street Coolers. Thank you Marianna for your hard work and good luck with your future endeavours in the future.
April 2016
Report to Office of Environment and Heritage
This report details new research into the Urban Heat Island Effect. In accordance with our research to cool a city block under a grant for The Climate Change Fund with the OEH, click here to download a copy of our report into cooling our city.
November 2015
Street Garden Installation
This trial Street Garden in Newtown, NSW is designed to divert 30,000 L of otherwise wasted storm-water to irrigate a tree. We are investigating the effectiveness of the design in aiding the tree to flourish and increase canopy cover over the adjacent road, thereby cooling it. Watch this space for new designs and installations. Click here to read about the installation.
Older News
June 2014
Cool Road Trial in Chippendale
