14 September 2025
LETS Newsletter No 17
Newsletter No.17 September 2025
Committee News September
Hi Everyone,
The brainstorm diagram above just gives a pictorial display of all the things your committee is wanting to achieve this term.
Our main activity this month is the community stall at the Lyttelton Farmers Market on Saturday September 20th. Come along and say hi. Even better encourage your neighbours and friends to visit as well. It would be great if many more harbourside people got to know about our activities.
Here is a link to the minutes from our last meeting on August 25th
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jF4kyKYd41iQaD57M2F9hGsarArv2lUx/view?usp=sharing
Plus a link to our next meeting agenda September 22nd.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wvrZy8E4VYl7Gujp2QzL1grTMaQ1f7IT1HA5e9Td-84/edit?usp=sharing
Hope to see you at an event soon.
Wendy, Dana, Greg, Juliet, Tony, Marie, Margarita, Raymond and Sam.
SunDay - Lyttelton Farmers Market
Join the LETS team to celebrate renewable energy. We will have the community stall at the Lyttelton Farmers Market Saturday September 20th 9-1pm.
Our aims are to:
- Introduce Lyttelton Energy Transition Society to our wider community
- Share some of our solar stories
- Connect with more locals
- Promote what LETS does
- Have a fun morning
LIFT Library will also be joining us. This is a great opportunity to see what the library is all about and to also explore some books about renewable energy. https://www.projectlyttelton.org/projects/lift-library
Pop in and say hello. We will be on the street from 9 -1pm.
Community Activator Catch Up
Thanks to Kate Hodgins, all the groups from the Community Energy Activator met up to discuss how they had been progressing since all their project ideas were launched last December at Tūranga.
There was mixed progress. Some like LETS have found funding still a real hurdle. Castle Hill Community Energy Project has joined forces with their local Selwyn District Council and they seem to be moving forward with the possibility of an EECA grant. The Papanui Youth Project while funded has had unforeseen technical problems, The Te Oraka, Shirley Intermediate School Pool Reactivation Project is finding slow dealings with the Ministry of Education.The Green Lab project has had help with a student from the University of Canterbury and has leased a mobile lab set up in the Rawhiti Domain. Ōtautahi Community Housing Trust is the most successful of all the groups. Their “Three Lanes” project opens in October and has solar installed. They have chosen to sell their power directly to the grid and subsidise tenants in older homes that aren’t so easy to retrofit solar.
Gareth from the Community Energy Network let everyone one know about a new Community Energy Activator starting in Taranaki. In this programme there is a real push to explore Solar Power for schools. He also mentioned the conference that we highlight below.
We met the new local organiser for Rewiring Aotearoa in Christchurch, Michael Anderson. They have developed many new resources which they are sharing freely New Zealand wide. Visithttps://www.rewiring.nz
Sam Elder is no longer at Orion and is now back at her own busines and has been doingsome work for the Energy Authority. She pointed out that if anyone was interested to read the submissions the Energy Authority received on “What Does Localised Energy Look Like”, visit
The next conference that we think may be of interest to some of our members is “Energy Resilience and Affordability Conference”. For more information just click on the link attached to the above picture.
To register for this event, just click on the poster and you will be directed to the Humantix site.
Key Messages from the Eco Designer
Julie Villard’s presentation was most informative. A qualified architect she’s been working for the Christchurch City Council as an Eco Advisor for several years. Her role was established to provide one hour of free eco advice to householders through out Christchurch. That means if you are thinking about how to make your existing home more energy efficient or building a new house you can seek her advice on solutions for you.
Julie views our homes as a system. “If you don’t know how the house functions you don’t get good results.” She used an example of a person wanting to have a heated floor in a new build and then wanted to cover the floor with carpet. The adverse effect is with wool being an insulator the floor heat would be trapped under the carpet and the householder wouldn’t get the result they were expecting.
Similarly she feels many of us need to rethink affordability. It might be cheap initially to not insulate many parts of the house, or not install energy efficient lighting, or not have double glazing but over time in your colder home you will need to spend a lot more trying to keep it warm.
She discussed heating systems because no matter how much insulation you have you still need a heat source to warm your home. She highlighted the different types of heat systems. Radiant or convection heat. For houses with lots of thermal mass a radiant heat source is best. One example of this is a log burner.These homes have the ability to store the heat. For homes that are new, convection heat (heat pump) is generally best because the house is generally quite air tight and the heat will circulate in the space.
A very interesting piece of advice was when heating with a heat pump, a floor based system is better because heat rises. Similarly if cooling a wall based model is best because cold air falls.
Condensation was another topic she discussed. Effective ventilation is essential to get rid of condensation in your home. In the case of a bathroom she recommended turning on the heater prior to a shower. After the shower you then turn on the fan. The heated air will exit faster this way. Not drying clothes inside was also recommended because the moisture from the clothes just gets sucked into the house and humidity levels rise. In Julie’s opinion the optimum humidity in a home is 40-60% whilst temperatures should fall no lower than 16 degrees.
Julie had really interesting information from Rewiring Aotearoa re fossil fuel homes ie those that run on gas and petrol vs electric homes. A fossil fueled home costs the equivalent of $30 per 100 km’s where as the fully electric home is $3 per 100km. ( see graph below Rewiring Aotearoa)
Her advice was to future proof your home with electricity when major items need replacement in your home. This includes your car, installing solar panels to generate your own power, upgrading cook tops, installing heat pumps, better hot water systems so that your energy efficiency and hence your costs are as low as possible. (graph Rewiring Aotearoa)
Interesting Articles for the Month.
Interesting Articles shared in September include:
Powering New Zealandhttps://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/ourchangingworld/audio/2019001418/powering-new-zealand
Solar Solutions for Schoolshttps://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/2019000854/solar-solution-for-schools-energy-analyst
Can utilities replace power lines with solar and batteries in remote areas?
https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/solar/california-utility-clean-energy-microgrids-wildfires
Dates for your Diary
Events coming up:
Sept 20th - SUN Day stall at Lyttelton Farmers Market 9-1pm
Sept 22nd - LETS Committee meeting 7pm
Oct 22nd - Speaker Series Ian Flatley 7.30pm
Oct 27th - LETS Committee meeting 7pm
Nov 8th - Garage Sale Fundraiser 10.00 -1.00pm
Nov 8th - Lyttelton Emergency Hub Expo 1-5pm
Membership
If you would like to join LETS and haven’t yet, here is a link to our membership application https://www.lets.org.nz/files/Membership%20Application.pdf
It’s very affordable, only $5 and you’ll be helping to shape the future of Community Energy in Aoteraoa. Thank you.
All members are welcome to sign up to our LETS Whats App Group. In this group we share networking opportunities and informative articles/podcasts. If you are interested please text Wendy 021 0476144.
Facebook Lyttelton Energy Transition Society -LETS
For links to our web page and email please click on the links at the bottom of the newsletter.
Do you have any news or events energy related that you’d like included in this monthly broadcast? Please email Wendy communityenergylytt@gmail.com
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