Staying connected – top six energy saving tricks

STAYING CONNECTED

Energy literacy training for front-line community services workers

TOP SIX ENERGY SAVING TIPS

AVOID OVERHEATING YOUR HOME Heating accounts for around half of your household energy usage, so keeping control of the heat is crucial. As a rule of thumb every degree warmer adds 10% to your heating bill. If the room is “toasty warm” it should ring alarm bells.

A thermostat can help control the amount of heat used in a room. Set your thermostat to the lowest comfortable temperature, this is “1 degree above being cold”. You can do this by lowering the temperature a degree and then wait 15 minutes, and lower again until it is ”just comfortable” and then set the thermostat at that temperature.

As a guide, 18-21 degrees in winter is often considered comfortable.

Also turn off the heater when you are not in the area. A timer can help. You can set it to switch the heater on ten minutes before you get up, or arrive home. Set it to turn off at night.

If you don’t have a thermostat and timer use a thermometer to monitor your heating so you don’t overheat the room.

1 18-21 degrees in winter is often considered comfortable.

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USE A LOW-FLOW SHOWERHEAD

2 STOP THE DRAUGHTS Draught-proofing your home is an effective way of reducing heat loss in winter and overheating in summer, as well as keeping your house cleaner.

You are probably aware of the standard draught culprits, such as doors and windows, but draughts can also come in through gaps in floorboards, skirting boards, disused chimneys, light fittings and vents.

A rigid door or window strip can be used to stop draughts around wooden doors and windows. This strip is suitable for doors, including double doors, with gaps of less than 5mm. It is also suitable for sliding sash windows and awning windows.

Hot water usage accounts for around Âź of the average electricity bill. Showers are a big part of this and big savings are possible by using a water saving showerhead which uses less hot water, therefore saves on the amount of water that needs to be heated.

Do you already have a water-saving shower head? To measure your own shower flow rate, fill a bucket for 15 seconds, then multiply the litres measured by 4 to work out how many litres per minute your showerhead uses. A water saving showerhead should use between 5 and 9 litres per minute.

Changing a showerhead is a fairly easy DIY task and will cost around $40.

Taking shorter showers of three or four minutes also helps you use much less hot water. You can use a timer to keep track of how long you are showering.

Adhesive V-flex strip is a versatile product that has a range of applications, including draught-proofing metal sliding windows and steel-framed windows.

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Door bottom seals are a simple solution for sealing up gaps beneath doors. They can be used on both internal and external doors.

Door snakes are a tried-and-true method of blocking draughts from beneath doors. Use them on internal or external doors, and on both sides of a single door to improve their efficacy. You can join two door snakes with rubber bands slid beneath the door to create a door snake that moves with the door.

Adhesive foam tape can also be used to seal gaps around doors and windows.

Draft Stoppa is a nifty self-sealing cover designed to prevent heat from escaping into your roof cavity through ceiling exhaust fans. The Draft Stoppa sits out of sight in your roof cavity over the top of your ceiling fan vent and it contains two flaps that open when the fan is turned on and then close again when it is turned off, to reseal the space.

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4 FRIDGES AND FREEZERS – DO YOU NEED MORE THAN ONE? How many fridges and freezers you have and how well they are set up, can make a big difference to your power bill. Try and consolidate your needs into one efficient fridge. Some small bar fridges can use as much electricity over a year as a larger family sized fridge. The energy rating label tells you how much power a fridge is using.

Choose fridges with high star ratings.

5 INSTALL AND USE THICK CURTAINS AND PELMETS Curtains help trap the heat in your home. The best curtains are full-length (down to the floor) thick or lined. There should be no gaps between the curtain and the edge of the window frame and they should extend well past the sides of the window.

To keep your house warm: when the sun is shining, open your curtains and when the sun is gone, close them.

Simply turn off extra fridges or freezers, particularly if they are near empty or only used on occasions. Remember to add in the cost of running a freezer when buying food in bulk – does it still save you money?

Set fridges at 5 degrees and freezers at minus 15 degrees – use a thermometer to check the temperature if there is no digital display on your appliance.

Pelmets are really helpful for improving the performance of curtains. They trap air between the curtains and the window. They help stop heat loss through the window.

The most common type is a wooden box pelmet that sits over the curtain rail.

A DIY “ledge” pelmet sits on top of the curtain rail, out of sight. It can be made from thick cardboard, foam, or wood – anything that blocks the space between the rail and the wall.

Make sure that fridge seals are not damaged. Don’t place your fridge or freezer next to a heat source (such as an oven) or in direct sun.

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INSTALL ENERGY EFFICIENT LED LIGHTING

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LED lighting is the most efficient on the market today. It has the benefit of being long lasting, comes in many colour options and uses less power than the alternatives. In fact they use around 1/5 of the power that an old incandescent bulb used and can last for 50,000 hours (that’s over 13 years if run 10 hours every night!), which means you won’t need to buy so many replacement lightbulbs.

Choose “warm white” options as they look most similar to the old incandescent light bulbs.

LED lighting is the most efficient on the market today.

Downlights are very popular but are often energy hogs. The Halogen light bulb uses much more power than the new LED downlights. Halogen downlights also create a draft in your roof because the insulation needs to be moved from around them as they get very hot. LED downlights that are rated “IC-F Abutted and Covered” can be installed in the ceiling and have insulation covered all over them. You may need an electrician to do this.

www.tascoss.org.au | 03 6231 0755

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