There's what I'm going to do -
* Not using the clothes dryer until April next year. Even then only for urgent use.
* Get the electric fans out of the shed at the end of November. Evap cooling will only be used when really hot.
* Not using the lights in the bathroom when having a shower unless it's dark. This means getting my girls to have a shower before tea when the sun is still up.
* Limiting use of the tv.
* Reminding everyone to turn standby lights off.
* Turning the outside light on 10 minutes before Darren is due home from work, not when he rings ( he's 1/2 an hour away ).
* Charging my laptop every few days when I'm using it.
* Having tea a little earlier so that we don't have to turn a light on.
* Double use of the oven when possible.
* Getting the girls to go to bed earlier, therefore the lights, tv and laptops will be turned off.
* Doing some online research for more handy tips.
* Making use of our curtains and keeping them closed on hot days. ( when they finally arrive )
* Getting Darren to turn the hot water temp down a little.
* Using the thermos to store boiled water.
If I think of anything else I'll keep adding to the list.
Will anyone join me in reducing their electricity bill ?
When I get my next bill, I'll post any changes - good or bad . I keep my bills from the same time last year, so I'll be able to compare costs.
Hi Wendy,
ReplyDeleteWe now use less power than we did previously BUT the cost of power has gone up so the bill is more!! Good tips for reducing use.. doing all the relevant ones. Many thanks, Cheers, Jo
Hi Wendy, this is a great topic and those are some great ideas. We have done a few things around the house to make our electricity bill stay low. Our neighbours are jealous that our bill is so low. This is what we have done:
ReplyDelete* changed all downights to LED, these use a fraction of the electricity than the regular downights and standard light bulbs.
* All other light bulbs in the house are energy saving
* We have a nightlight at night for the hallway, it barely uses much electricity and it automatically turns off when there is enough light. No other lights are on during the night.
* use the dryer only as needed
* put only the needed amount of water in the kettle before boiling (thermos is a great idea, we are usually out during the day and don't boil the kettle apart from the morning).
* turn all appliances off at the wall where possible
* we use the oven wisely and not everyday
* We have sensor lights that turn on when a person/car walks on our drive way and is only on for 2 minutes.
* we are thankful that our water is heated by gas (cheaper than electricity so far).
We used to rent a property a few years back with a really old water heater that would heat all day. Our electricity bill per quarter was at least $600 and that was us being as frugal as we could be! The system was so old we couldn't adjust the temperature. However we could turn it off so we did that when we went on holidays or if we were going to be out for a day or two and that helped. I don't know how efficient the newer electric water heaters are. I'm sure you'll figure out how to get that bill down Wendy!
Amy
I will join in. We have investigated solar panels - but at the moment there is so much concerning info that means I cannot work out a break even point. I also set a goal 2 months ago to reduce our daily usage by 2kw and did everything possibly but it didnt budge. Very disapointed.
ReplyDeleteHi Wendy,
ReplyDeleteWe use our hooded gas Barby for a lot of our baking. Saves on electricity and also means the house doesn't heat up. We have solar powered fairy lights on the veranda and eat most of our meals out there. It's also much nicer and cooler so we tend to spend our evenings relaxing out there. I have pomegranates in large pots growing along the side of the house that cops all the morning sun. These trees are still young but I'm hoping to have a little less baked brick heat coming in through the walls come summer. The heat will also help the pomegranates to ripen up. We don't have any air con and we don't have a dryer. We don live in the Fraser Coast Qld so we have lots of an all year round. Mind you it does get very hot. We only have ceiling fans for cooling.
Our bills are still too high. We are exploring going off grid with solar.
i will join you in lowering my electricity bill and see what my next bill will be.
ReplyDeletethanks fiona
Hi Wendy,
ReplyDeleteI too decided recently to try to get our electricity bills down. Each night for the last month I have been taking a photo of our water and electricity meters and then recording the results in a spreadsheet to see how we are going with our daily usage. This seemed to be working really well until my husband decided to take the photos of the meters for me and dropped my phone while taking a photo of the water meter and cracked my screen. This happened two days before my birthday so guess what I'm getting for my birthday (which is today) - a new screen for my phone. So much for trying to save a few dollars. Oh well, I guess I don't have to come up with a birthday gift idea now. Kind Regards,Suzanne
Count me in too Wendy,remember when i had no electricity for 4 days?,if this happens in your area you can contact your electricity provider for a discount but you need to ask,ways i try to save power when getting up during the night i use a torch,we are lucky that we have gas hot water or those 4 days would of been a nightmare,i also always have my hot water bottle i dont believe in electric blankets but that is just me
ReplyDeletehave a great week x
Use a stove top kettle on your gas burner.
ReplyDeleteWe are with AGL and can login to our electricity account and check daily usage and solar generated. It also gives a rough estimate of the bill. Check if your electricity provider does this.
Ask to be billed monthly. You can check if your "power saving" measures are working sooner, rather than wait for a bill every 3 months.
Good luck.
Tonia
Hi Wendy,
ReplyDeleteSo timely this post as I also received my bill last week and nearly died and we have solar panels also.
Count me in. If you use an electric kettle , I was told when I had an audit to save power, that they chew up heaps of electricity, hair dryers and hair straighteners.
Maureen
I am always trying to lower my bill too. Nice tips♥
ReplyDeleteHi Wendy. Thanks for lots of great tips. It would be good to save some more $ on electricity costs. We have had solar hot water for long time and and now have solar panels (3kw). To get the best value out of our panels, we try to minimise our power usage at night as we have to use grid power then. So, we do little things like load dishwasher at night but not run it to morning, we wash clothes during day and not at night and so on. I bake during the day but have to get better at cooking meals then and only re-heating at night. This summer, I plan on lots of salads as minimal heat/no heat required to make those. We recently compared our usage for same time last year and it has dropped somewhat which is good. I think it is these little things, as inconsequential as they seem individually, that are making the difference. Meg:) p.s. We've started to eat some meals by candlelight too. Our boy thinks this is very cooool!
ReplyDeleteHi Wendy,
ReplyDeleteWhat about a solar oven. I have seen plans on You Tube? Would you have enough sun.
Patti
Hi, Wendy,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the ideas! Like many of the ladies, I've been frustrated by seeing my efforts to cut the electric bill go seemingly unrewarded. Our new house has two fireplaces, so I'm hoping that using them will help keep heating costs down this winter. We installed some LED lights, too, so hopefully we'll see results from them as well.
Blessings, Leigh