Have you recently received a large power bill? Perhaps you just want to do more for our planet? Electricity prices in this day and age aren’t cheap, so it’s good to be able to save energy and power where ever you can.

Did you know that Australian households actually produce about 21% of Australia’s carbon emissions…Yep, burning oil or gas for home heating and cooking, or using electricity generated from coal, oil and natural gas releases tonnes of greenhouse gases!

Being a Central Coast electrician, we have learnt quite a few simple tricks to not only lower your power bill but, reduce your carbon footprint too! The best and easiest ways to reduce your power bill are simple, just be smart about your consumption. Here are some tips to save on some money and reduce your electrical bill.

Water heating

Water heating is one of the biggest electrical consumers in your household, using up to 25% of your total household energy use. Without realising, we often use hot or warm water. Whether it’s showering, washing the dishes or using the washing machine. This uses large quantities of water and the power consumed to generate the warm/hot water is often quite large.

So here are some tips to lower your water heating energy consumption:

• If you have an electric hot water system, make sure your hot water system circuit is connected to an off peak relay. You will only have access to hot water during the off peak times.
• Maybe it’s time to upgrade your hot water system? Try switching to a solar hot water system!
• Washing clothes? Try using warm water instead of hot, or better yet, use cold water!
• Slightly turn the thermostat temperature down on your hot water system. Decrease the level the tank has to heat to, this will, in turn, decrease the power needed and you probably won’t even notice the difference!

Appliances

The energy efficiency of the appliances in your household is vital, in order to keep energy consumption and reduce the cost of your electric bill. If you are looking at purchasing a new appliance be sure to check the energy star rating. Something more energy efficient may cost a little more but, will save you money in the long term with their life expectancy and running costs.

Here’s some information about some of your large household appliances:

• Fridges

Fridges run all day and all night long, 24/7… Just like us at Coast Complete! Fridges are heavy consumers of power, especially an older fridge. If you have a fridge from the 90s and upgraded to a new energy efficient fridge, you would save nearly $200 a year! Also, if you keep the fridge full, everything inside will act as an insulator and keep the coldness more consistent. Therefore it needs slightly less power to reach the set temperature. Finally, if you have 2 fridges. Do you really need the second one?

• Televisions

If you have a plasma TV you should definitely consider changing over to LED/LCD. This simple switch could save you over $100 per year on your bill.

• Washing Machines And Dryers

Washing machines are a necessity but it does require a large amount of power… Your best solution is to do your research and get an energy efficient front loader washing machine. A front loader washing machine will use less power and less water. Make sure it’s energy efficient and wash your clothes with cold water for the optimum clothes cleaning energy performance. Dryers on the other hand, like washing machines also use a large amount of power. However a dryer is typically more of a luxury item than a necessity. If you really want to save power, hang the clothes out on the line. If you really have to use a dryer, make sure you put a full load in to get your money and carbons worth!

Heating And Cooling

Air conditioners as you know will definitely add a noticeable amount onto your electricity bill. They are good to have for those unbearable hot days but, you would probably find that decent ceiling fans in your rooms would suffice for a fraction of the cost!

Did you know that a quality ceiling fan also comes with Summer/Winter switch? These are brilliant! In Summer, you want your fan to rotate clockwise in order to blow the air straight down, creating a cool wind effect. In Winter, hit the switch and keep it on a low speed. The fan will slowly draw the room air up which will force the warm air back down!

If you do turn to your air conditioner for fairly frequent use, follow some of these tips to be as energy efficient as possible!

– Be sure to close all the doors in your house. This helps isolate and maintain your desired room temperature.

– Be proactive and clean your air filters monthly. This will help with added backpressure resulting in more current being drawn.

– Also be aware, every degree makes a considerable difference, so choose your temperature wisely!

Lighting

Reducing your power bill and emissions can be achieved by through changing certain aspects of the lighting in your home.

Here are some of the most efficient and modern ways to reduce your electricity bill:

Upgrade to LED!

As a Central Coast electrician we go to many jobs where our customers want to upgrade to LED. From an electrician’s point of view; This is one of the best things you can do for your home!

These are just a few reasons why you should upgrade to LED lighting:

• An Led globe will run at about ⅙ of your standard halogen globe whilst outputting the same amount of lumens (light) as the halogen.
• If you choose to upgrade your home to LED downlights, you will decrease your power usage and give your home an entirely new, modern look!
• LEDs never actually burn out! After their ‘lifespan’ of about 15 or so years, they simply just keep getting dimmer until you can no longer can see the light being emitted. The lifespan of an LED light will generally be about 20X longer than a halogen globe. This means you never have to worry about changing blown globes!
• 80% of the electric energy drawn from an LED will be converted to light, opposed to an incandescent that would only convert about 20%.
• LEDs are 100% recyclable (besides some of the packaging).
• LEDs give off very, very minimal heat. The heat given off in comparison to a halogen or fluorescent light (that can often be too hot to touch) it is virtually nothing.

Dimmers

You can use dimmers on your lights to power the output being supplied to the lights. This will, in turn, decrease your households power usage. Although, if you have converted to LED you won’t really notice much difference, as the power consumption is already so low!

Outdoor Lights

If you have outdoor lights, it’s a good idea to get them connected to a motion sensor. If they are connected to a motion sensor, they will only be energised when someone is in the area. Assuming the light is only necessary when someone is outside. This is a great way to cut down on your power consumption, rather than just leaving the light on all night.

Installing A Solar Power System

Although installing a solar power system to your home, with solar panels on your roof is probably the most expensive option. This will be the most beneficial investment and reduction of your power bill! It can save you a lot of money. If your system is big enough and if you convert more power than you use; you can even make money!

Firstly, you should do an energy audit of your house and see where and when you use the most power. Then you can offset your solar for during those peak times. It will be most beneficial to utilise the solar power in your home rather than selling it back to the grid, as you sell it at a lower rate.

Next, you need to make sure your roof will support solar panels. By this we mean, they will get sufficient sun for the maximum amount of time. If you are investing in solar you want to make sure you get your money’s worth!

Most companies who install them will give you a 20-25 year warranty. So once they’re installed you’ll just need to worry about replacing the inverter every 5-10 years.

Also, remember to get a professional to clean your solar panels. This way they can collect and convert the most sunlight to energy.