Thank you Energy Matters! - Green Living Tips

If you’ve been visiting Green Living Tips for a while, you may have come across my sponsorship page. Running this site is a great joy and a real passion, but it’s nice to get some financial support to offset the costs.

Rather than actively promote a bunch of businesses, I was keen to focus on one company as a major sponsor if possible – a solid company that I was comfortable with, that I could recommend with total confidence based on experience and that offered products and services directly related to sustainable living. That happened recently.

I’m very proud to announce Green Living Tips’ first official sponsor for June and July 2008 – Energy Matters!

Australia based Energy Matters (yes, they service outside Australia too) sells a huge range of renewable energy products and offers a ton of useful info on their site; but we’ll get back to that; there’s an interesting story behind this sponsorship.

How the sponsorship happened

Since I was a kid, I was in total awe of solar power – the idea of making electricity from the sun just blew me away. It wasn’t just the solar part of it, but the “power” – to gain some degree of energy independence. I blame my interest in self-sufficiency on a TV show I used to watch back in the 70’s – Grizzly Adams :).

For the last couple of years I saved my pennies for my first mobile solar power rig for use when I’m in the Aussie outback. I’ve been looking at various companies as potential suppliers during that time – literally dozens of them.

It can be a real maze – what sized panels would I need? What’s the role of a solar regulator and what type should I buy? What about deep cycle batteries? Wiring? After sales support and warranty? It can all get pretty confusing if you’re a newbie to renewable energy.

In March of this year, I settled on Energy Matters as they had a great site, huge range, excellent pricing, comprehensive information and their staff were extremely helpful – they didn’t try to sell me what I didn’t need. I wound up purchasing a 120 watt solar panel, a 100 amp gel deep cycle battery, a compatible solar regulator and associated wiring. Hooking it all up was pretty simple and the system has exceeded my expectations!

Niki the Wonderdog vigilantly guarding my Energy Matters
supplied 120 watt solar panel.

Now at this point, the Energy Matters team didn’t know about Green Living Tips – I was just another client. And that’s what makes this sponsorship particularly special for me – I was a very satisfied customer months before the possibility of sponsorship was even mentioned.

In fact, it wasn’t until a couple of weeks ago that Max and Markus from Energy Matters contacted me after checking out Green Living Tips and expressed an interest in sponsoring the site this month!

Why has Energy Matters sponsored Green Living Tips?

Aside from the exposure and wanting to (naturally) sell more renewable energy equipment, it’s part of Energy Matters’ commitment to support environmentally themed projects that aim to help others reduce their impact on the planet. These guys walk the talk – it’s not just a money making venture.

Energy Matters’ support of GLT over the next couple of months will allow me to write more tutorials and helpful articles; and I’ll also be writing a series of guides on renewable energy related topics which you’ll be able to find under the “energy” section.

Pumps, Panels, Batteries, Turbines – Energy matters has it all

Additionally, you can keep up to date with what’s happening in the renewable energy industry via their blog and gain comprehensive information on various solar energy rebates available to residents of Australia.

While you’re visiting their site, check out the amazing Energy Matters solar system builder. There’s a great range of calculators to help make sizing up a system a great deal easier:

The Energy Matters site is so much more than just an online store; it’s a treasure trove of solid renewable energy related information – be sure to check it out.

The Energy Matters Team

Thanks again to the Energy Matters team for sponsoring Green Living Tips!