Maybe our recent, ongoing experience, might help others struggling with power bills...
We've had a couple of horrendous power bills in the last 6 months.
Which caused us to start asking questions of power companies, and ourselves!
Energywatch,
http://www.energywatch.com.au/ advised that we could save 7% if swapped to AGL, which we agreed to.
A few days later our current supplier, Origin, came back and offered us 10%, which we agreed to!
Lesson, talk to Energywatch, find out what you can save by switching to a new supplier, then arm wrestle your current supplier!
We also asked for a review of our account, the way metering was being done etc.
We discovered we were not on the correct plan with regard to off peak metering so we should start saving a fair bit more as soon as they change our plan.
We contacted a few Solar Hot Water companies and asked for quotes for a system that, we are told, would have a significant impact on our bills.
One company, EcoSmart in Bendigo,
http://ecosmart.rtrk.com.au/?scid=45..._id=4914339142 sent a rep down who spent the best part of two hours drinking coffee and giving us lots of advice. Good value! She was horrified at our last bill!
Three things she suggested...
1. Change all our light bulbs to long life energy savers immediately.
2. Get a Centre Meter device to monitor our electricity usage.
3. Install special power sockets in hard to get at places to turn off devices that stay on stand by.
1. Has been done, we will see what the effect is, but just on the smaller wattage of these bulbs we know there will be a difference.
2. Checked on Centre Meter devices, made by Clipsal, $299 retail, or $179 on eBay! Found a couple of alternatives whilst researching, a device by 'Trec', on eBay for $99, and a monitor called Watts Clever for $75 plus $7.50 postage, also on eBay!
Finished up buying the Watts Clever unit. Now installed and giving us lots of information, and a real time insight on what goes on in our home! Picture attached.
The unit doesn't require installation, just a clip on sensor unit that clips over the supply cable in the meter box. Then there is a wireless monitor which we've put beneath our kitchen light switch as that gets used more than any other, and we thus get to be aware at all times of how much power we are using.
Tip, after clipping on the Sensor clip in the meter box, place the transmitter unit outside the meter box, especially if the meter box is metal, as high as possible we found best, and out of the rain.
Whilst it will be another 3 months before we see what effect these actions will have, the immediate awareness provided by this unit means we are switching things off all the time. We are so much more aware; for example the microwave is now switched off at the wall, we never tell the time by the clock on it! The electric jug uses 2000 watts, so we are very careful not to heat more water than we need! Denise has started cooking more with the electric fry/grill pan rather than the electric stove which is a major consumer of power. The list goes on and on.
We have an 18 year old grand daughter living with us, so we involved her in the initial setup and I suspect that was a very wise move. She now checks out the monitor and goes around turning lights off, unplugging things on standby, etc. It's been character changing!
The last suggestion above, number 3. will have to wait until our next trip to Bendigo to check out the remote switching power sockets, apparantly available from Harvey Norman for around $40. We are going to put one down behind the TV unit/complex, and another in the study where we have computers, printers etc.
Anyway, a bit of a rant, but we think we are going to save hundreds of dollars each quarter as a result,
Maybe you could save a bit for the new scope by giving the exercise a try? Involve the kids, switching things on and off, saves a lot of walking!
Note. The quote for solar hot water came today, $4,000 including the rebates.
So now we have to sit down and work out how long it will take us to recoup the investment, will we still be living here then? etc!
Anyone with any more suggestions for saving power, please post to this thread, we can all learn and save!
Cheers
Chris