Reducing Your Winter Energy Bills
With the colder weather upon us (and interest rates on the rise), it’s time to look at our options for reducing our electricity consumption and energy bills.
Understanding your energy bill
The first step to reducing your energy consumption, and therefore, your costs is to understand your energy bill; “there are many costs involved in providing electricity and gas to your home. These costs and their relative contribution to the total amount payable are not provided in detail on most energy bills.” Energy Made Easy provides information about what’s on your bill along with other helpful information and advice:
- What’s on your energy bill?
- Understanding gas and electricity charges
- Meter readings
- Estimated bills, overcharging and undercharging
- Received a high bill?
- Having trouble paying your bill?
- Disconnections
- Customers using life support equipment
Key factors affecting your energy bill
A range of factors determines the amount of energy used in our homes:
- Local climate,
- The size of the home and whether it’s a townhome, apartment, unit or freestanding,
- The design of the home including insulation, orientation, and the use of passive heating a cooling,
- Features and appliances including the size, number and energy efficiency of major appliances,
- Habits and personal preferences.
The best time to consider energy efficiency is when you’re building a new home or planning renovations to your existing home. But there are always things we can do to improve energy efficiency in our established homes. Energy.gov.au (May, 2023)
How to reduce your energy bills
Again, energy.gov.au details many ways to reduce your energy consumption and bills:
- Compare:
- compare your energy use in the same period last year, look into reasons and consider why it has changed and options for reducing it.
- compare providers using websites Compare the Market and iSelect to see if other providers are offering better rates, discounts or sign up bonuses.
- Consider:
- Consider the times of the day you use the most energy. Move away from using major appliances (like your washing machine and dishwasher) during peak times where possible (your provider should list peak times on your bill, if applicable).
- Take action:
- Use thicker bedding so you can turn the heating down or off overnight,
- Only heat the rooms you’re using,
- Let sunlight and warmth in where possible and close blinds and curtains before it gets dark,
- Use your ceiling fan to circulate warm air,
- Block draughts with window and door seals,
- Avoid using the showers and baths to warm up (keep showers short where possible),
- Turn off appliances not in use off at the wall (e.g. TVs, computers, and consoles).
For more information and to help reduce energy bills year-round check out energy.gov.au’s seasonal advice.
Rebates and bonuses
Stay in the loop with rebates offered by your provider, other providers, and the Government.
At the time of publishing, eligible households can apply for a $250 power saving bonus (between March 2023 to 31 August 2023). The application takes approximately 10 minutes and, if successful, the Government provides a cheque or bank deposit for $250 to assist with your energy bills.
You can find more information and the eligibility criteria and application process at energy.vic.gov.au
Disclaimer: Information contained in this blog is current at the time of publication and is subject to change without notice.
Header image credit: Alex Padurariu on Unsplash