Australia Network - English Bites - How green is your house?

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Previously on English Bites we visited a Darwin home with a man who checks to see how environmentally friendly, or green, the house is. First he looked at the lounge room. Today he’s looking at the bedrooms and kitchen.

STEVE BEAGLEY: Well here we are in the son's bedroom - a well-ventilated room, however …

LIV CASBEN: Good use of louvres.

STEVE BEAGLEY: Good use of louvres, good cross-flow ventilation, but we've got a computer, which if left on all the time is about $100, $150 a year.

We've got the air conditioner, which is left on, runs most nights, I believe.

LIV CASBEN: So even with the computer on stand-by, is it going to chew up that much electricity?

STEVE BEAGLEY: No, if you go on stand-by it is better, but even on stand-by, it'd be using power. Our recommendation is that you turn the computer off when you're not using it.

In the kitchen the areas that we need to look at are the stove, the dishwasher, and the refrigerator. They're the high-energy use.

LIV CASBEN: So, the stove - how do they rate?

STEVE BEAGLEY: Gas - great. A lot better than using an electric stove, a lot less greenhouse gases generated by it.

LIV CASBEN: The dishwasher?

STEVE BEAGLEY: The dishwasher. They're a fairly inefficient unit, high-power users.

There's ways of making them more efficient, by only making sure you use them with a full load, and using an economy cycle.

That makes them a much more cheaper unit to use.

ANNETTE BURKE: Well, Steve, how did we rate?

STEVE BEAGLEY: Well, not bad, but we found some areas where we can pick up some savings straight away.

LIV CASBEN: And Steve, how much money could the Burkes save as a result of these changes?

STEVE BEAGLEY: Well, just my first initial look at it, I'd say about $800 without a great deal of effort.

ANNETTE BURKE: Oh wow! Really? That's a trip to Bali! Excellent.

well-ventilated
The word ventilated comes from the noun vent.

A vent is a small opening that lets air into a room

If a room is ventilated, it means that fresh air can move easily into the room, and through it

Using the word well- before a word such as well-ventilated is today's spotlight.

ventilation
Ventilation is a system that provides fresh air and breeze in a room.
You need good ventilation in a kitchen.

on stand-by
The phrase on stand-by means being ready or prepared for something.

It means the computer is not completely turned off and can be started again quickly.

stove
cooker; oven gas natural gas, an alternative to electricity

greenhouse gases
The word green can be used to talk about something that is good for the environment.

But greenhouse gases are gases that are bad for the environment.

Greenhouse gases are gases that cause the Earth to warm up.

inefficient
If a machine is inefficient, it doesn’t run as well as it could.

It wastes energy and money.

with a full load
when they are full of dishes

an economy cycle
a setting that uses less water, less power and less time

pick up
gain
The bike will pick up speed as it goes down the hill.

For more uses of the phrasal verb pick up, follow the link.

more information: pick up : phrasal verb

well-

We use well- before past participles to form adjectives that mean that something is very good, correct or thorough.

more information: past participles

well-ventilated
Well here we are in the son's bedroom - a well-ventilated room.

Here are some other examples:
well-done
cooked thoroughly
I like my steak well-done.

well-fed
having a good diet
Our dog is well-fed.

well-known
widely known; famous
His face is well-known.

well-lit
fully lit; full of light
The room was well-lit.

well-liked
liked a lot by many people
She is well-liked.

Notice that we usually use a hyphen (-) in these contractions:
well-ventilated
well-lit