Sustainable home designs that don't cost the earth
If you’re building a home or renovating, there are a lot of design features that can help save energy and keep your electricity bills down, from insulation to orientation. But what if you’re not building, or you can’t afford the latest energy saving technology? At Simply Energy, it’s our goal to provide you with simple and smart ways to manage your energy efficiently. Here are a few solutions and energy saving features that won’t cost you an arm and a leg.
-
Give your home an Energy Check Up
Understanding how much energy you use is the first step to saving it. Our online Energy Check Up is a quick way to work out how much energy you use, and where you use it. Start by recording your energy details from your latest bill. Select the details of your home – when it was built, what type it is, what type of roof and insulation you have etc. From there, let us know your hot water setup, what sort of heating and cooling you have and how long you use it for. After that, come up with a rough indication of how many light bulbs you have in the house – and what kind they are – and how old your appliances are. Once you have done that we will produce a free report for you, with a few tips on how you can save energy, and money. And the great part about it is you don’t have to be a Simply Energy customer to do it.
-
Monitor your energy use in real time
While having tips and ideas is great, being able to monitor your energy use – and seeing how much appliances are costing you – in real time can be a great way to save energy. The Simply Energy store sells products that can monitor your usage. They can tell you how much energy that second fridge or your clothes dryer really uses. Identify which appliances are costing you a bundle to run and using a lot of energy, and you can manage their use better. These kinds of products are relatively cheap and simple to use.
-
Control your energy usage
How do you control the temperature in summer or winter if your appliance doesn’t have a digital thermometer? The answer is to use a plug-in digital thermostat. You can just plug it into the power point, set the temperature you want, and plug your heater or cooler into it. It will turn your heater or cooler on until the room gets to the desired temperature, and then it turns it off. When the temperature drops or rises one degree from where you want it, it will come back on. You won’t even notice the difference.
-
Save water
Yep, saving water can help you save energy. If you’ve got an electric storage hot water system, a couple of dripping hot taps around the house can make a difference to your energy bills. Having to boost your hot water service regularly because you are running out of hot water can add up. But what about the other times when you end up using more water than you have to? Using a water saving shower head, or a tap water saving device could help reduce your hot water costs over time.
