People compare electricity providers to save money. I know, I do that as well. But have a look at our electricity usage in the graph which compares it to others in our suburb. The graph is provided by United Energy's online reporting service.
The line at the top is the average use of others in our suburb. The bar graph at the bottom is our usage during the month of October. The dotted line is our average use during the month which is 4.9 kWh per day.
As you can see our usage is under half the average use of others and can even be a third or even less.
So how did we do this?
The answer is very simple. I measured the appliances around our home using a cheap electricity meter and understood where we were leaking electricity for little or no gain. We then adjusted our usage without really impacting our lives. Simple things like filling the kettle with the water required, rather than two thirds full. We even bought a bigger and better TV for one of our rooms which will pay for itself in around 5-6 years through electricity savings and got rid of the old clunky TV and set-top box. Little changes in our lifestyle that made almost no difference to how we live our lives.
I wrote this online calculator (Electricity Usage Calculator/) to help me work out costs. Once you know where you're using electricity that you previously didn't know, you're now better armed to make informed decisions going forward.
Of course you can simply shop around for a new electricity provider and that will probably save you 10-20%, or you can look at your usage and save 60-70%. In fact why not do both as we have done.
Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au
The line at the top is the average use of others in our suburb. The bar graph at the bottom is our usage during the month of October. The dotted line is our average use during the month which is 4.9 kWh per day.
As you can see our usage is under half the average use of others and can even be a third or even less.
So how did we do this?
The answer is very simple. I measured the appliances around our home using a cheap electricity meter and understood where we were leaking electricity for little or no gain. We then adjusted our usage without really impacting our lives. Simple things like filling the kettle with the water required, rather than two thirds full. We even bought a bigger and better TV for one of our rooms which will pay for itself in around 5-6 years through electricity savings and got rid of the old clunky TV and set-top box. Little changes in our lifestyle that made almost no difference to how we live our lives.
I wrote this online calculator (Electricity Usage Calculator/) to help me work out costs. Once you know where you're using electricity that you previously didn't know, you're now better armed to make informed decisions going forward.
Of course you can simply shop around for a new electricity provider and that will probably save you 10-20%, or you can look at your usage and save 60-70%. In fact why not do both as we have done.
Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au
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