One of the most common misconceptions about reducing your power bill or being a friend of the environment is that you’ll have to suffer through cold showers and live by candlelight.
The truth is that it doesn’t require significant lifestyle changes to cut your energy consumption and save money on your power bill. Rising energy prices in Australia are adding to the pressure on the household budget, but small and simple changes to the way you use your household energy can cut down your power bills significantly.
Here are some simple things you can do to reduce your power bill.
Lighting
By simply switching to energy efficient light bulbs, you could cut your lighting bills by 50%. The traditional but inefficient types of lighting (incandescent) are being phased out. By simply switching to compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs), light emitting diodes (LEDs) and fluorescent lights, you could cut your lighting bill in half. LEDs and CFLs are the most energy efficient of these options. Also, make a conscious effort to turn off lights when you leave the room.
Heating and cooling
Did you know that heating and cooling makes up approximately 38% of every power bill? If you’re in an older home, there are things like your house’s aspect that you can’t change. But there are small things to reduce the amount of air conditioning that you need and use. In winter, these include making sure your house is well insulated, draught proofing all doors and windows with weather strips (only a few dollars per roll), closing off rooms you’re not using and laying down carpets and rugs, particularly on surfaces such as timber and slab.
In summer, there are also ways to keep your house cool. Insulation also helps keep your house cool, so this is again key. Shade your windows from the sun and keep them closed during the hottest part of the day. At night when a breeze is flowing, open up your house and make sure that all obstacles to air flow are removed. By making these small changes the amount of air conditioning you’ll need (and thus the price of your power bill) will fall.
Appliances
Most appliances now come with energy ratings, and buying wisely is a good start. But buying energy efficient appliances alone is not enough. It’s how you use them. Standby power accounts for around10% of your power bill. That means that if you leave your computer or TV on standby mode, it is still using energy. By taking the time to turn them off completely and switch it off at the socket, you’ll be taking advantage of the easiest way to reduce your power bill. This can be particularly effective when you’re going on holidays or know you’ll be out of the house for an extended period of time.
Not only will taking the above measures help to reduce power bills, you’ll be doing your part to help reduce Australia’s emissions and our impact on climate change.
If you’d like to take it further and have an even more positive impact on the environment, you can contact your energy suppliers to find out how you can offset a percentage (or all!) of the electricity you use with renewable energy.
Some good tips there, most people don’t seem to realise that simply by being more efficient in their daily lives they can make significant savings, however, insulation is by far and away the best way to cut your bills, just a look at any statistics surrounding how much heat escapes from an uninsulated home make that clear!
Good tips, especially the energy efficient lighting. Many homeowners don’t realize just how much CFLs and LED lighting can save! Other easy ways to save include using powerstrips, zoned air conditioners and programmable thermostats.
Nice post ! Important tips regarding Power Saving. Use a “smart” power strip to automatically shut off devices when you aren’t using them. Even when you have turned off a computer monitor or TV, the device uses power – even in standby mode. Amazingly this will keep you from wasting $30+ per year.
Simple and effective tips!!! Great ideas and wonderful post. Personally i feel that these are the best energy saving methods that can be used in our house. More over these are very interesting and fabulous. Thanks for post.
There is a new Android App that senses the duty cycle of appliances that use a fixed current when switched on. It is a non intrusive measurement. By just placing the android phone on the cable feeding the appliance e.g. fridge or hot water appliance one can determine the cost of its consumption.
This may assist in both adapting the use of appliances or to be able to measure the effect before and after from any energy efficiency investment and/or home improvement.
What you can measure you can manage.