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.