When the summer has passed and winter approaches, you want to make sure you enter a warm house once you have been sitting/ walking in the cold.

Here are a few tips on how you can achieve that.

Proper coat of paint

Having a good layer of paint on your walls helps your house insulate and protect against the cold and the heat. It also prevents your house from rotting, which makes the cold come through even easier so don’t play cheap with a coat of paint. As replacing the wood is a lot more expensive than giving it a coat of paint

In house insulation

Proper insulation in between walls is a major factor. However if you can’t change anything about this there are a few workarounds. Make sure there are no gaps between the floors and bottom of the doors that connect to the outside. This will make it too easy for the cold air to come in.

Double glazed windows

Having double glazed windows put in when you are building will save you a lot of money on the energy bill. If this is not an option, repeat the option above. Make sure there are no gaps between the walls and the windows

Be romantic or just practical

Sometimes you just have to make sure you have that extra sweater in the corner. If you don’t have this, why don’t buy a large blanket? If there are two of you, this might be something romantic too… unless you are roommates then it would be awkward and better buy two blankets.

Dry your clothes in the evening.

Having one room hot and the others cold might be a deliberate thing to do. But once you go to bed that other room will be very cold. One practical tip for those who have a build in laundry room. Open the door when you turn the dryer on, the heat of the dryer will actually warm up quite a bit of the house. This helps you to dry your clothes AND warm up the house.

We hope these tips will be of some assistance in battling the electricity prices around Australia. If you are not in Australia, obviously these tips will still help you reduce your monthly electricity bill.

During summer it becomes everyone’s mission to get as much sun as possible to get a nice tan, however when it comes to the temperature inside the home it is a different thing.

Everybody wants to come home to a nice cool house after being in the heat during the day. So what options are there to make sure you get the coolest (this time literally) house on the block.

A good paint job.

Having a good layer of paint on your walls helps your house insulate and protect against the heat. It won’t make a 10 degree difference but it will however make sure the heat stays out as much as possible. It also helps to protect your house against rotting and molding so, a decent paintjob is worth a lot down the track.

Insulation

This is for people who are just building their house, having insulation might be a lot more money to spend upfront, it will however protect your house during both seasons. During winter the house will remain a lot warmer (this is in regions where it freezes) and during summer the walls will impact the temperature a lot less inside because of the insulation.

Double windows

This is also quite a new thing in Australia, but having double glazed windows put in when you are building will save you a lot of money on the energy bill. As windows are the shortest way heat can come through and come out, this won’t happen as much with double glazed windows.

Decent Blinds

This tip is mainly for when you are renting or can’t alter the build. Buying some blackout/block out blinds will help your home stay a lot cooler during the summer times. It gives the rooms a lot more shade and this is always cooler than direct sunlight.

Proper ventilation

If more rooms are cooler than the main room, consider opening the doors so that the cooler rooms can cool down the warm room. Having circulation will cool down the whole place as the air will be travelling and your main room won’t become a boiler of hot air.

We hope these tips will be of some assistance in battling the electricity prices around Australia. If you are not in Australia, obviously these tips will still help you reduce your monthly electricity bill.

Electricity Tips Showdown: Air-conditioning vs. Shade

In Australia in particular, it can get pretty hot so the majority of the new apartments and houses would have air-conditioning (AC) installed.

Obviously this is a great luxury and certainly knows how to cool an apartment down but this also comes at a price. If you haven’t seen the latest electricity prices, some of these have increased by 200% which can just looking at the bill will leave you pretty red faced.

So what is an alternative to AC?

The easiest obvious solution is shade, and this is free if you can do it right. Else I’d suggest a trip to the local hardware store to get some blinds might help reduce your bills quite a bit.

By lowering your blinds you actually block out the sun, which as a result doesn’t start warming up your home once the summer is starting. This can save you a lot of money for the extra power the AC needs to cool your house down.

Do make sure you buy some proper blinds, if you don’t have blinds all together go to your local hardware store and buy some quality blinds. Alternatively you can search sites like eBay and Gumtree for some second hand blinds.

They might need a little DIY-ing but at least you can save some money on both sides of the fence with keeping your house cool and also lowering your electricity bill from having your AC on all day to keep your house cool.

Make sure you close doors so that the AC only cools the rooms you actually use, all the other rooms are just a waste of air and money

If you enjoyed this article please share this through FB and Twitter so that others can enjoy the other electricity tips too and perhaps save some money.

The kitchen, a place in the household with the most electricity appliances centralised in one location. Since this is one of the most used locations in a home. Here are a few tips on how to decrease your energy consumption and footprint.

Only switch on a full dishwasher and use the economy cycle. This seems like an easy one for some energy saving tips. Just like the energy tips for laundry you only need to use it when it’s full.

If your dishwasher can generate its own hot water, use this function – it’s more efficient than using hot water from your cylinder as this goes into larger quantities and it might take a lot longer to heat too. So it can save you time and money by having something close.

Defrost food naturally instead of using the microwave. It is a lot healthier and it also doesn’t use power. So it’s an easy win here.

Use a microwave or toaster instead of the oven or stovetop whenever you can. As an oven takes a lot of time to heat up (which means a lot of energy) the microwave can be a better option. Avoid opening oven doors too often – each time you do the temperature drops by up to 15°C. So this increases the time to get your oven heated up and takes a lot more time and energy to get your food ready.

Fridges and freezers operate most efficiently when they’re full but not overloaded. So try not to stock too much in the freezer. Set your freezer at -18°C and your fridge between 2°C and 5°C for greatest efficiency. This will still freeze your food the way you want it so all good there. Leave space around the back of your fridge or freezer for air to circulate. This will help to use the freezer in the best possible way and most efficiently. Avoid placing your fridge or freezer next to your oven or stove, or in direct sunlight. As this will affect the temperature and performance of the freezer.

Here are a few electricity saving tips for your home when doing the laundry. As you usually do laundry once or twice a week a few dollars per week could be a few hundred dollars per year that you could save. So here we go and we hope you find these electricity savings tips for your laundry useful.

Wash full loads as the washing machine will use the same amount of water and electricity no matter how much you put in there. So make sure every laundry session counts and you use it to its maximum potential.

Choose a front loading washing machine. These are usually the best in drying technology and most efficient in energy consumption. So keep that in mind when you are shopping for a new washing machine.

Use shorter wash cycles, unless you have very very dirty clothes. You can usually choose a few settings with every wash so try a shorter cycle as that can save you money and water with every cycle.

If you’re using the clothes dryer, fill it – it’s more efficient to dry a full load. If you are in an apartment you can use the heat that comes out of the dryer to heat your place. Keep a the door from the laundry open to circulate the “waste” of warmth to heat your place. You kill two birds with one stone.

Clean the clothes dryer lint filter after use. This makes sure the machine works to its fullest potential but also decreases fire hazards.

Use the low heat setting on your dryer whenever you can as this will lower your electricity bill. Speaks for itself.

Switch to cold water when you’re doing the laundry. A lot of the washing can be done with a cold wash and the washing powders these days work just as well in warm as in cold water. This will save you from heating the water for your washing machine.

Another common area that you use on a daily basis is the Bathroom. Here are some Bathroom energy saving tips that you can apply straight away. If you have a few other tips, please don’t hesitate to share these in the comments.

Living areas are usually the hardest to heat. They are usually the biggest and you frequently use them, so you want to keep them warm. Here are a few living room energy saving tips so you can still keep your living room warm but not spending a fortune to maintain this.

Capture the sun’s warmth by opening curtains during the day and closing them before it gets dark. Sun light and warmth is free so why not use that to heat your house or living room during the day. As it gets nice and warm, just keep those doors to other rooms closed so the heat doesn’t get lost.

Keep doors, curtains and blinds closed in heated rooms and in the evening. This will make sure the heat won’t disappear. As the temperature outside is colder, the windows are also colder and can lower the temperature from your living room. Closing the blinds creates a barrier which keeps the warmth inside a bit better.

Place heaters away from windows. Again, like the above argument, you will have less interference with cold and warm air if you put your heater away from the window.

Block off unused fireplaces as these usually have drafts and can be a significant loss to your heating. If you use your fireplace that is great, if not, make sure it doesn’t leak heat.

Use the thermostat and timer on your heaters so they automatically turn on and off as required. As you won’t need your house to be heated when you are sleeping. You can set a timer to start heating the house about half an hour before you wake up, instead of during the whole night. This can save you thousands a year in energy and money.

Don’t heat rooms you’re not using. This seems like an easy win. If you are not there, you don’t care.

Unplug unused appliances or switch them off at the wall. Even standby mode uses energy. This is a well known one, as even your TV is on standby mode all the time, but it might save you some dollars every year. It only takes a few seconds so it’s worth a try !

Seal off draughts, as you will be heating and spending a lot more when you don’t need to. You can buy a few anti draughts strips at Mitre10 or Kmart for a few dollars. These can save you a lot of money during a year. Known area’s are front / back door areas and windows. Using a lucifer (blow it out so it smokes) you can find draught spots in your house.

This might be a weird or strange way to make you save some energy but if I’m not warm and fuzzy I can’t sleep.
Being warm in bed is obviously a necessary thing for a good nights sleep.

I sleep when its a bit chilly but when I see frost on my bed things have gone too far.  So here are a few tips on how you can make your Bedroom hot and steamy… uhh… yeah….more on that later.

Here are some Bedroom Energy Saving Tips!

Prepare a hot water bottle

This may sounds a bit old skool for a few people but back in the day before centralized heating this was used very frequently to make sure you stay nice and warm when you hop into bed. 

Put an extra blanket on the bed instead of using your electric blanket

This is an easy one. Put another layer on your bed when you feel cold. This will help you feel warm very quickly and it’s cheap too. There are electric blankets out there but they are a electricity guzzler and very old ones a fire hazard.

Take out the Long underwear

You won’t win a sexy award with these things undergarments but at least you will feel warm during the night. Even if you hop out of bed and back in, the bed won’t be as cold Double WIN!

Seal your window

Having some fresh air going through your bedroom during the night is good, but make sure you only get the amount of air that you want. So any cracks or leakage in your window frame might be something to look into.

Close the door when you leave

When you leave home, you probably have your bedroom door open. It would be wise to shut this as your whole house might be cold by the time you get home from work. If you have a central heating system, it won’t work overtime if you leave all the doors open while you only need a few room heated.

You and your partner could….

If you live with your partner (and sleeping in one bed) you might could use each other to keep warm. Wink wink… Just throwing that out there…

So here you are, a few bedroom energy saving tips that could save you some dollars every month and a lot of them are common sense activities. You can do it!

Talk soon!

These current times call for desperate measures, well not too desperate but every dollar counts and it’s even better if you can put a few things in place so that this goes on autopilot. Every dollar you can save is another dollar in the bank.

And if you are able to save a few cup of coffee’s a week by just changing a few lightbulbs it might be worth it.

So here are 14 energy savings tips that can save you money

1. Star Ratings, if you buy a new appliance check the energy-efficient models with as many stars as possible.
2. Set the air-conditioner thermostat around 24 degrees or higher, in summer you can set this at 21 degrees or lower in winter.
3. If your old air conditioner is on nearly dying then replace it with a split system inverter unit with as many stars in its energy-efficiency rating as possible.
4. Instead of normal globes use compact fluorescent bulbs or LED’s. Turn down your lighting and you will decrease your bill by converting to energy-efficient low-wattage compact LED lighting. These days the light by modern versions is just like any other light.
5. Consider replacing windows with double glazed versions as the insulation is much better.
6. Clean or replace heater and air-conditioner filters regularly, following manufacturer’s instructions.
7. Set the water heater thermostat at 60 degrees or “normal.”
8. If your hotwater is heated by renewable energy make sure your dishwasher and washing machine are using this water supply rather than letting them heat their own water. Even using hot water from your off peak electric system will be more efficient and cost effective than letting these appliances heat their own.
9. Wash only full loads in a dishwasher and use the shortest cycle that will get your dishes clean.
10. Fix defective plumbing or dripping taps. A single dripping hot water tap can waste over 1000 litres of water a month. That not only increases water bills, but also increases the gas or electric bill for heating the water.
11. Defrost refrigerators and freezers before ice build up becomes 10 mm thick.
12. Install shades, awnings or sunscreens on windows facing north and/or west to block the hot summer sun. In winter, open shades on sunny days to help warm rooms.
13. Close the damper when the fireplace is not being used. Try not to use the fireplace and central heating system at the same time.
14. Install an electricity monitor in your home. Locating the display in a high traffic area like the kitchen, creates an awareness amongst all the occupants of just how much juice the house is using. Being able to measure the effects of changes instantly is a positive motivator and also increase your bank balance.

I hope these energy saving tips will help you with your electricity bill and you can even do some electricity comparisons with various energy suppliers in your state.

Electricity is one of the most important things in life right now. Thus, having stable, safe, and cost-effective electricity suppliers is of paramount importance both for households and commercial centers to secure. However, if truth be told, it is quite difficult to find an electricity supplier that can provide all those three factors. Usually, it is a choice between a stable and safe but costly supplier and cheap but unreliable electricity source. Thus, here are three steps to help people maximize or take advantage of all the available electricity suppliers:

1. Know how much electricity you need.

A household owner or store owner should know how much electricity they need everyday. This involves knowing the daily tasks that will be performed in a certain place in a daily basis.

This way, if you only need minimum amount of electricity every day, you can just settle for small-time electricity supplier companies where you can get electricity that is not sky-high in price. However, if you know that you need a lot to be able to run your business everyday, contact big-time electricity supplier companies to ensure the reliability of your electricity resource. Also, you need to ensure the safety of your crew or staff. Going to big electric companies may be costly at first, but after being with them for some time, who knows, you might be able to get cheaper or promo deals from them.

2. Know your location.

To get the best deal on electricity suppliers, you should know the market for electricity on your area. If there are a lot of companies supplying electricity on your location, there is a higher probability that you may strike a good deal in exchange for stable and safe electricity resource. However, if you are located in a place where only one or two companies are allowed to supply electrical energy, there may be lesser chance that you can buy electricity in a consumer-friendly price. However, if that is the case, then, you have the consumer right to demand that you get the full worth of the price that you will be paying. Make sure that the electricity resource that they provide is stable and is not high-risk to obtain, use, and manage.

3. Know what is available.

Some people pay a lot for electricity because they do not know what options are available for them. Understandably, there are people who are so busy that they really do not have the luxury of time to scout all the possible options for them. However, sadly, there are also cases where people just become too lazy to search for information. Thus, just like in any other kind of deal, one should read and understand the benefits and consequences of such deal before agreeing with it. A lot of information is available on the Internet about electricity suppliers. All that one need to do is to open a search engine, type some words, and hit the “Enter” button.

To live and survive well in this age and generation, securing and maintaining an electricity supplier is of insurmountable importance. Thus, it truly pays to know what you need, what you have, and what you can get.