If your children are on school holidays and you’ve been monitoring your energy usage, chances are you’ve seen quite a spike and are dreading your next electricity bill.
During the school holidays, it’s common to see a rise in energy usage within a household as people are at home more frequently. Whether it be that they are cranking the air conditioner, playing video games or just watching the tv and leaving the lights on, it all adds up!
So, what’s the best way to tackle this high energy usage before it gets out of hand?
Get The Kids Outside
An obvious one, but nevertheless worth being said that getting the kids outside is going to cut down their energy usage considerably. Sending the kids out in the garden, taking them to the park or getting them in the pool, is going to not only prevent the television being left on all day but also the lights and the air-conditioner. Not to mention getting some fresh air is a bonus.
Get The House Cool Without Cranking The Air Conditioner
Air conditioning is one of the highest energy-consuming appliances, especially when used carelessly so reducing the need of it will make quite an impact on your electricity bill.
While there is no doubt in Australia an air-conditioner is practically a necessity with our 35+ degree days, it’s not the only way to keep ourselves and houses cool.
So how do you stay cool without running the air-conditioning non-stop?
- Close your curtains during the day to keep rooms cool
- Wear breathable clothing
- Make sure your windows and doors are sealed (so the cold air from your air-conditioning doesn’t escape)
- Use a fan when possible
- Have a BBQ outside to avoid heating up the house with your oven or stove
- Keep sipping refreshing cold beverages to keep your body temperature down
Alternative Cooking Options
The stove and oven are both extremely high energy-consuming ways of cooking and the school holidays can sometimes mean entertaining and cooking for visitors. But have you considered a BBQ or a slow cooker as a cooking alternative?
While both will be better at minimising your electricity usage, they’ll also prevent heating up the house on an already hot day!
Invest In A Solar PV System
If you’re looking for a more effective and permanent way of reducing your electricity bills, then investing in a solar power system may be the solution.
If you know a little about residential solar power systems, then you would have heard that they will reduce your electricity bills from generating free solar energy for you to use within your household. What you might not know is that households, where people are at home during the day, benefit the most from having solar power systems. This is due to solar power systems generating energy during daylight hours, meaning they can directly cover the energy usage of a household during the day, instead of you paying for energy from the electricity grid.
Not only will this greatly help you during the school holidays, but you’ll also continue to benefit once everyone’s back to school or work. Continuous running appliances like the refrigerator and appliances with timers such as your washing machine and dishwasher can run during the day, making the most of your free energy. You can also maximise on your daytime usage by charging items like your vacuum and laptop during the day or even investing in a slow cooker to avoid using your stove and oven at night.
Any excess energy can be stored in battery storage which is an optional component to a solar power system, or if you don’t have battery storage you will be reimbursed for your excess energy in the form of a feed-in tariff.
By using free energy generated from a solar power system a household can reduce bills by up to 80% and save thousands per year!
