Hot water cylinder - if you all have showers in the morning then you can usually get by turning it off in the morning and back on to heat overnight when the rate is cheaper. Might mean boiling the jug for dish water after tea, but can save quite a bit. Also get a cylinder wrap to keep the heat in.
MD..my father works for one of the major elect. co. in NSW...it was his job many years ago to advise people how to save money on their bills, and how to reduce them etc. One of the biggest energy munchers is obviously heating and cooling....a/c's, heaters, ducted etc. Heating is much more expensive than cooling (your a/c works harder). If (like in middle of winter) you must have your heat on, dont haveit on the highest temp, reduce it a bit. Reverse for cooling....
Leaving appliannces on (eg kettle turned on at powerpoint etc), whilst we've been trained to turn the switch off, it costs like nothing to actually have it on.
We got a huge bill last winter.... Our energy company went thru every item in my house that i may use day to day....the culprit. Aircon...approx $7 per day (over winter, we have it on every day)....times that over a 3 mths period, along with the rise in energy costs...and this explained an awful lot.
Curtains! Draw them at last light to keep in the heat, and draw them in the morning to let in the light. Separating rooms with doors to "zone" the house for cooling / heating. On hot days, don't put on the aircon, head to the library. And insulate. If your house is lifted (eg garage under the house) then spend a little time putting in insulation. And if you own, then instead of putting a permanent structure up, grow grape (or other deciduous) vines to shade in summer and allow light in winter. Plus they are really cooling with the moisture from the leaves. Use drying racks whenever possible.
We made a rule that we don't use the air conditioner unless it is 40degrees and we don't turn the heater on till 4pm in the afternoon. When DH is on night shift (which is for 4 nights in a row every 8 days) during winter I always turn the heater off after I put the kids to bed and if I get cold I get a blanket to put over me. We onl have reverse cycle heating/cooling so we have to minimise it's use. We also build an insulated shed around the hot water system as well. And we only heat and cool the loungeroom, but that is really out of our hands because our house design means it's nearly impossible to heat and cool the rest of the house anyway.
BellyBelly Life Member - Love all your MCN friends
Jun 2004
The Festival State
3,008
Marydean, i went to a savings workshop this week, and the suggestion there was for all participants to get "energy audits" done of our homes, to reduce power bills. I found out about a REES (acronoym) scheme, which is operated by various power suppliers. My supplier for e.g is AGL, so i rang them, they took my details, when enough people in that area request an Energy Audit, i will be contacted and they will come out and do an Energy Audit in my home. (a few weeks they said). APparently they put some kind of meter on all your appliances, so that you can be aware WHICH ones are the high energy consumers, and which are actually low energy users (and adapt your usage accordingly).
the person running the workshop, gave an example, of one workshop participant, who had bought a $15 heater, and each quarter, it was costing her $720 in electricity, to run the $15 blow heater! So once she had the Energy Audit, apart from being shocked at this, she changed how she heated her home.
I have just changed from having EVERYTHING on standby (what my ex insisted on), to living in my own place, where i turn some things off now - like you, with a powerboard with multiple things plugged in, and all with individual switches. I turn the powerboard off at the wall, so for eg when i go to bed, i turn off EVERYTHING in the living room for the night.
i think the house you live in has alot to do with it too. i feel very fortunate to live in a place with gas for water, heat and cooking. I know if i lived in an all electric home, my bills would be much higher. i've been told it's too exxy to retrofit gas, the home is either built WITH the gas in it, or the home never has it.
I have met homeowners who installed enough solar panels, that they stopped receiving electricity accounts and actually sell their excess power to "the grid". not applicable to many, but wouldn't it be great to be able to do that?
as a renter, i am pro-active with the things i CAN do, like using extra clothing and blankets BEFORE switching on heating.
I worked for Energex over a decade ago, in Qld. I used to take a lot of calls involving people's bills increasing or being higher than they thought they should be, that was when the price per kWh didn't change so often. So back then it was things like extra freezers and fridges, dryer use amongst other things.
I am lucky in the past few years I have saved up and paid cash for a new fridge-freezer and new air conditioner, so both of those are very efficient ones. I have a larger capacity fridge which runs at half the cost of my old one; and my air conditioner in my unit is a 3.5kw inverter, so it slowly ramps the power up and down as required. I also run the air con at higher temperatures and dress for that. So on a very humid 35 degree Brisbane day, I might run the air con at 26-28 degrees and just keep that room closed.
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