What are your best power-saving tips? $$$

[alishakihn]

With elec prices thru the roof, my boyfriend recently asked if he could turn off the fridge during peak time to save money. That's a really dumb idea, but I would like to hear some good ones. The stingier the better!

I always use the timers on my washer and drier to only run them at cheap times, and I never overfill the kettle (uses a surprising amount of power to boil a full kettle)

[David_AGL]

Great question @alishakihn and very timely, I've been looking at a lot of these sorts of tips myself lately! I'll pin this one to the top of the Neighbourhood for a little while and we'll see what people have to share.

[larvar]

Don't run an empty fridge. If you've got a second fridge sitting empty all the time switch it off. Any fridge will work best when its 75% full so don't cram them chokkas either

[Mortal]

For sure getting into stingey territory but you can sometimes save a chunk of power by switching some appliances off in the wall. Some of them are little power vampires even when theyre switch off (standby mode). One downside of having so many "smart" devices that access the internet over wifi is they always on. Not that smart really.

[NeilC]

@alishakihn 

Only put as much water in the kettle as you need.

If you have mixer taps always push them to the right unless you want hot. When you have them off the right side they are using hot water.

Only use cold washes. Buy a good detergent and put on the shortest cycle.

Filling your fridge just means that when you open it you lose less cold.

If you don't have the fridge so every one knows where everything is, you end up staring until the fridge alarm goes off.

If you don't have energy saving globes buy a pack of 4 for the next 3 pays and you will be saving before you know it.

Get your boyfriend to take you out for Dinner more often and promise him the world when you get back...

Walk down the shops, you will only buy what you really need.

Take your lunch to work with you, then you can't complain about the food.

Make a choice to ONLY BUY ONE CUP OF COFFEE A DAY.

Only go to the pub during HAPPY HOUR and leave when it finishes.

Bite the bullet and catch public transport to work. You might meet some new friends and save heaps on fuel etc.

In winter a 20 deg day is great, so why not wear a bit thicker clothing and warm the house to 20.

Same goes for summer 24 degrees is better than trying to get the house to 18.

[John-T]

@NeilC  has basically covered most if not all savings.

My only addition is when you buy power saving globes a little quality for a bit more goes a long way.

When we first moved into the house all bedroom globes were of the 15watt spiral fluro bayonet type globes.

Bunnings has a smorgasbord of globes i was looking at several different brands 9watts, 7watt 806 lumen globes then cam across the Phillips product 840luman at 4 watt consumption upside 50yr life time globe under normal conditions. Though a little more expensive. I shaved 11 watt per globe off.

My Daughter & I had a nasty habit of leaving our desktop wireless mobile phone chargers on so we turn them off when not charging.

In this day and age every cent counts i guess. I was boiling full kettles of water until NeilC got me up to speed on only boiling the minimum amount the kettle requires as that usually covers a coffee or tea.

Regards

John

Plan:    Solar Savers

Dist:     Endeavour Energy

State:   NSW   

[NeilC]

GOD supplied a dryer. Use it when you can.

[mirk]

I switch off the NBN and modem when I go to bed at night and only turn them back on when I wake up in the morning. Switch off all power points that are not needed, e.g. for chargers, kettle, toaster, washing machine/ dryer when not in use.

[Ttt]

If you could opt to hang dry the clothes instead of using the dryer thats a alot of energy you could save. 

[David_AGL]

@Ttt the dryer is a big one for sure.