Tips to cut energy bills

Simple changes can reduce your energy bills and climate impacts

Changing our habits, doing some easy home improvements and buying smarter can help reduce cost right now. These will add up over time and reduce your carbon footprint.

Using less energy is always the cheapest action to take and has an immediate impact. This can buy you time while you investigate some of the bigger ticket investments like solar, batteries and heat pumps that require time to plan.

Energy bills and retailers

To lower your energy costs, consider these proactive steps to manage your household electricity expenses:
 
  • Make sure that your tariff is suited to the time when you use energy, as being on a plan that matches your habits can lead to significant savings.
  • Visit Understanding your electrify bill to get help with understanding your current usage and costs.
  • Consider switching retailers to get a better deal.
  • If you want help in finding a new electricity or gas retailer, CHOICE can help here.

 

 
Photo Minja Radonja - Unsplash

Lighting and appliances

  • Switch lights off when you leave the room
  • Switch to LED lighting, particularly in areas which are often lit. These come in many different shapes, colors, and intensities. You may be able to take advantage of the Energy NSW discount for LED lighting.
  • Unplug your appliances, electronic devices and phone chargers when they are not in use. Plug items you use regularly into a power strip, so you can easily switch them all off at once.

TVs and computers

  • If your TV has a “quick start” feature, disable this option in your television’s settings.
  • If available, enable ‘automatic brightness control’, or ‘ABC sensor. Since most TV viewing occurs at night, this can make a big difference in energy consumption.
  • Avoid streaming video through game consoles like PlayStation or Xbox.
  • If you own a game console, set it to ‘auto power down’ mode.
  • Set computers to sleep or hibernate automatically after 10 to 15 minutes of inactivity. And skip the screen savers – it’s much more efficient to simply set your monitor to switch off when it’s not in use.

In the kitchen

  • Where possible, swap using your oven for your more energy efficient microwave or air fryer.  
  • Clean fridge door seals and replace if worn, to stop cold air escaping.  
  • Minimise the number of times you open the fridge or freezer, and close the door as soon as possible.
  • Use lids when cooking to keep the heat in and reduce cooking time.  
  • Wait until the dishwasher is full before running and choose to run in energy-saving mode.  

In the bathroom

  • Take shorter showers or aim for 4 minutes.
  • Check that the temperature settings on your hot water storage system is no higher than 60oC.
  • Install a water-efficient shower head and fix dripping taps.

In the laundry

  • Air dry your clothes instead of using the dryer
  • Only run the washing machine when you have a full load. 
  • Save on water heating by washing with cold water.
Photo Naomi Hébert - Unsplash
Photo Rumman Amin - Unsplash

Heating

  • Layer up before turning on heating.
  • Use a heated throw.  
  • Use thicker bedding to avoid running heating overnight.  
  • Allow direct sunlight in to warm up spaces.
  • Ensure blinds or curtains are closed when using heating to keep heat in.  
  • Stop draughts by sealing gaps around doors, floors, windows and skirting boards.
  • Only heat parts of the house you need.

Cooling

  • Use fans in preference to air conditioning.
  • Reduce heat from direct sunlight by adding shade or keeping blinds closed.
  • Open windows or doors to allow air flow when temperatures drop.
  • Avoid turning on your oven during the hottest part of the day.
  • Only cool parts of the house you’ll spend most of your day in.
  • Stick to more moderate temperatures so your system isn’t working so hard.

Home insulation

  • Is your house insulated? How thick is the insulation and is it past it’s best? Insulation can really help to minimise the heating and cooling you need to keep comfortable, so it’s worth investigating. 
  • Adding extra insulation may be something you can easily include within a planned renovation for little additional cost.

Home energy efficiency assessment

  • Find out how to reduce your energy costs, carbon footprint or improve the comfort of your home. An assessment by a local expert can advise you how to get the greatest bang for your buck.

Buying new appliances

When you are looking to buy a new appliance, such as a fridge, dishwashers or television, use energyrating.gov.au to select the most energy efficient option from the wide range of products available. The best appliances can consume as much as half the electricity of the worst and help you avoid costly bills. 

Shopping

  • Buy less stuff! 
  • Buy used or recycled items whenever possible.
  • Buy food from local sources, with low carbon miles, e.g. farmer’s market.
  • Reduce meat and dairy consumption

Minimise waste

Cut waste that goes to landfill

Photo Ave Calvar - Unsplash
Photo Michael Kucharski - Unsplash

Transport

  • Drive less. 
  • Walk, take public transportation, carpool, rideshare or bike to your destination when possible.

Investments

Target investments towards companies that don’t fund fossil fuels – and don’t forget to tell them why you are leaving.

Insulation stories

Photo Mark Gable

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