Andrew is one of Canberra’s leading energy efficiency experts. He has been the director of PowerHaus – previously AJP Engineering – for eleven years, working to improve the energy efficiency of Canberra’s buildings. Andy’s personal mission is to improve the way we use energy.
After project managing multi-million dollar mine expansions in regional Australia, Andrew felt compelled to turn his engineering skills to a more sustainable objective and reduce energy use.
After many conversations with people both inside and outside my industry, I realised there was a great opportunity to apply my background in thermodynamics and applied engineering to tackle energy reduction in buildings, and climate change.
Andrew specialised in renewable energy and sustainable building design, with a Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) and a Bachelor of Science. He trained through the Australian Building Sustainability Association as an energy assessor and applied his engineering knowledge to the thermal systems of buildings. He has undertaken energy-efficiency ratings for over 1,000 Canberra homes, undertaken 350 energy-efficiency home retrofits as part of the ACT Government’s Actsmart Home Energy Outreach Program, and provided expert advice to the Australian Government YourHome program and ACT Government public housing renewal program.
Andrew is committed to creating houses that use less energy: he has turned a standard brick-veneer 1970s Canberra home from an energy rating of 1.5 stars into a high-performing house of more than 7 stars, on a tiny budget. One of my key roles is to understand the problems people building homes are facing, and to set the goalposts and vision for where we’re heading, and to stay focused on solutions to the challenges of energy use in buildings. 40{79051017feef4f5ff944d10cc916092b24ee4afe247e0d33115042d116ff4652} of all energy used happens in buildings so there’s a real opportunity to have a big impact and make a difference.