The biggest power users in your home
No one likes receiving their electricity bills. It seems to be an unwritten law that your power bill must be higher than you were expecting. However, it is possible to lower the cost of your electricity consumption. This is done by simply identifying which appliances are the biggest power users in your home. You can usually find a means of calculating the electricity usage of the different appliances on an electricity provider’s website. You can then formulate a plan for replacing the culprits with ones with a higher energy efficiency rating, or use them more responsibly to lower your bills. The following appliances are usually the highest users in a household.
Air Conditioner
If you live in a warm climate, air conditioning will eat up a large portion of your power usage. Some users have said their air conditioning makes up
24% of their bill total. You can save on this by using your air conditioner less often, and by decreasing the temperature to 25 degrees Celsius. You don’t need your house to be icy cold, just a nice, comfortable temperature. Ceiling fans are also a huge help!
Refrigerator/Freezer
As these run 24 hours a day by necessity, they are naturally one of the biggest power users by this fact alone. Your fridge will typically be about 13% of your electricity bill. The main way to save on fridge power usage is to downsize to a smaller one, as larger one will obviously use more power. If it’s not practical for you to downsize, look at where you have placed your fridge, and what you have in it. Your fridge and freezer should be in an ample sized recess with enough space at the back and sides to avoid overheating. In turn, this would force them to work harder to keep cool. The amount of food in your fridge and freezer also affects their efficiency. It requires more work to keep empty spaces cold than to keep food cold.
Clothes Dryer
Clothes dryers are one of the biggest power users in homes without a doubt. Therefore, it can be the least needed if you are serious about reducing your power bill. Take advantage of the free sunshine and breeze to dry your clothes. That is, unless you live in a cold, rainy place where it’s next to impossible to line-dry your laundry. However, if this is the case, go out and purchase a clothes horse.
Pool Pump
It takes lots of energy to keep pool water clean and circulating, especially if you use a one-speed pump running at the same rate endlessly. Use less power by using a multi-speed pump that operates at a higher speed when doing tasks like filtration or cleaning. Doing this can cut your power use by 80% and save you big bucks.
Use the following tips to offset the amount of electricity your high energy appliances use.
- Turn appliances off at the wall when not in use
- Lower the temperature on your hot water heater
- Install dimmer switches on your lights / swap to LED lights
- When buying new appliances look for those with the highest efficient energy ratings
- Watch your general power usage.
You can significantly reduce your next power bill by monitoring your usage of the biggest power users in your home.
If you’d like a professionals help with making your home or office more energy efficient, contact the highly skilled Gold Coast electricians at MC Power on 0432 022 294. We know what works well and how to start saving today!