Saving $’s on the power bill...

DH and I just got our latest power bill which wasn't exactly a pleasurable experience!

I read on the forum recently someone tried out leaving their oil fin heater on constantly, vs switching it on and off when not in use and they actually saved money by leaving it on. Who else has got some little gems like this one?

How about leaving tv and computer on standby etc, does this save money vs turning on and off? Times of day to use washing machine/dryer/dishwasher? Spill ladies!

Wrap your hotwater cylinder. Especially if like ours it's in the roof which is uninsulated.

Even if you're renting it's worth it. Costs about $40 for the wrap and it's easy to do.

We did it in our last place with a H/W cylinder under the house and it did make a big difference to savings.

Also you can get the temp adjusted on your H/W if it's over 55 degrees (I think it is) so it's not heating extremely hot water.

Check the temerature of your fridge! Like the hotwater, having it at the wrong temp means it has to use a lot of power to get to temperature.

Yeah it's cheaper to turn things like TV's off.

With the heaters the theory is that if you leave it on it costs less money because it costs a lot of money to get it up to temp but not a lot to keep it there, however it doesn't always work, if your house is badly insulated then it will just keep going and going and going like a mad thing and eat all your money. Oil fin heaters are really bad at chewing up power as it is.

If you look to see what type of meter you are on, standard or day night (you will have two meters if you are on day/night or you can ring electric company and ask them what you have if your not sure). If you are on day/night then it's cheaper to run things like the dishwasher, washing machine, tumble dryer at night, if you are on standard rate then it makes no difference. You need to work out how much you will run at night to work out whether its worth having day/night rate as the way it works is that the day costs more than standard rate and the night less so you really need to be able to do at lot at night. We have two hot water cylinder, dishwasher, washing machine and tumble dryer that we only run at nights so it makes it worth our while...just.

Another power saving tip is to turn the kettle off before it boils as it uses tons of power for that last couple of degrees and will you notice if you make your tea with water that is 95 degrees rather than 100? We bought a kettle that you can set between 35-100 degrees and we never put it above 95. Also try not to use the oven too much and buy smaller appliances to do some of the jobs, so don't grill bread when you can use a toaster etc. Cooking in batches if you bake is a good idea as well, same theory as heating, takes all the energy to get the cooker up to temp and not much to keep it there.

And of course, change all your lights to energy saving ones and make sure than non of your hot water taps drip.

I think it was harvey norman, or might have been smith city.

I did a search online and this is a pic and details for it

http://www.ssm-nz.com/index.cfm/SHARK_NZ/Kitchen/Sensor_Temp_Kettle

If boiling a jug for a hot drink only boil what you need why bother filling it up when you only want one cup.

Heat pumps yes they are good but treat them like any normal heater and only have them on when you need them this was advice given to my mum from contact energy regarding them. It does work as last year i had mine on 24/7 and the power bill was quite a bit daerer than this year.

If going away for the weekend then turn off appliances at the wall.

Check what you have your thermostats set at in your heaters and turn them down a degree you really on need a maximum setting of 22

Insulate the floor, ceiling and prehaps look into getting doble glazing as well. None of this is cheap but it will save in the long run and don't forget the resale value of double glazing.

Then there isd always the whole bathing issue you really don't need to have a shower every day neither to your kids a quick wash is proberly all they need unless of course they have been dooing something really mucky.