Reducing your power bill

[Jason]

It's nearly winter and the temperature is starting to drop, particularly at night. Unfortunately, when the temperature drops, our power bills tend to rise dramatically.

In the discussion below, please share your tips for saving energy and keeping your power bill as low as possible. 

What are some of the ways that you save energy in your home?

Jason

[Prof]

If anyone has one of those old box type air conditioners that you stick in the wall or window..get rid of it as soon as you can!
I recently bought a house that 30years old and so is the air con.!
It still does a good job of cooling and heating the house but
I've never had such huge electricity bills ever...over $700 for a single person!!
I had an air con service guy look at it recently and he said that's what's chewing up your electricity...
Evidently that type of air con. would only be rated about 1 star..but of course back that long ago there was no star ratings!
So if you've got one..get rid of it as soon as possible..

[Isobel]

Another drastic measure that you could take - A lighter colour roof will reflect the summer sun more and reduce the amount of heat that’s transferred into your home according to this - https://www.bunnings.com.au/diy-advice/sustainability/saving-energy/energy-and-money-saving-tips-for...

[Prof]

Yes..The old corrugated iron roof is great for reflecting sun light..
Unfortunately it also gets very hot and needs a lot of insulation underneath..

[Jason]

Can you believe it's nearly winter? The year is rushing past so quickly.

As the cold weather approaches, feel free to share your tips for keeping the house warm and your energy bills as low as possible.

You might also find the video below useful.

Jason

[Jason]

We got our first post-lockdown power bill a couple of days ago and it's a big one. I'm not looking forward to the next bill now that it's starting to get cold, too. 

What are you doing at your house to try to keep energy bills as low as possible at the moment?

Jason

[Prof]

One thing that helped my electricity bill was changing over my old hot water service to a heat pump system..

These Chromagen systems are not cheap, but it my State they are free!!..Provided for by the State Government..

If you live in SA..definitely worth looking into..Other States may have a similar deal..

[Jason]

Wow, that sounds like a fantastic deal for South Australians @Prof. Many thanks for sharing.

Jason

[gteam]

That's  what I also do. 

[gteam]

I feel the exact same way although I've never heard of hws switch. later on I will look at the fuse box and hope that this hws switch is clearly marked so I know what switch it actually is. Thanks for that little tip. ✌️

[TheSaltyreefer]

we put a fireplace in and our insulation is awesome, and then we thumped a ripper Solar system on, we run massive fresh water and saltwater tanks, so they used to take up a huge amount of power, we have just received our last couple of bills and they are tiny, very pleased