Warm up this winter
Save on lighting
Lighting is one of the easiest places you can save energy around your house. Turn lights off when you’re not using them. Replace incandescent light bulbs with energy efficient ones and save $100 or more a year on electricity in your house.
Save on hot water
Heating water is expensive, so using less hot water has a big impact on your energy bills. subhead: Use an efficient showerhead It still gives you a great shower, but uses much less water. To check the flow rate of your shower, put a 10 litre bucket under the shower - if it fills in less than aminute, your showerhead is wasting water. An efficient showerhead has a flow rate of 9 litres per minute, or less.
Reduce shower time
A 15minute shower costs around $1, a 5 minute shower around 33c. A family of 4 could be saving around $18 aweek just by taking shorter showers. That’s $900 a year.
Use cold washes
Unless you have an especially dirty load. Modern washing machines and detergents clean well using cold water. A hot water wash uses 90% more electricity than a cold wash
Save on appliances
Appliances left on standby can cost you more than $100 a year on your power bills. Major culprits are home entertainment appliances, like TVs, stereos, game consoles and computer equipment. subhead: Plug them all into multi-plug boards so they can all be turned off properly at the same time. Turn off other appliances like whiteware at the wall too.
Heated towel rails
If you have a heated towel rail, only use it when needed. By having it on for 4 hours a day rather than all the time, you could save $130 a year. You can buy timers for towel rails that come on automatically at certain times of the day.
Fridges
If you have a second fridge only to chill a few drinks, it could cost you $200 a year to run if it’s an old, inefficient model.
Consider turning it off or getting rid of it. Check your fridge door seals - if the door doesn’t seal properly, your fridge will use more energy than it needs to. Formore Energywise tips see www.eeca.govt.nz