Cutting back on your power bill can seem like a scary task, and you might feel like you’ll have to lose comforts or essentials in order to achieve it. But with little tips and tricks you can have a real impact on your finances, without any huge sacrifices.
Laundry
There are a few appliances in your home that will always be responsible for much of your monthly power bill, and the dryer is one of them. Air drying your clothing is free, it only costs time and space, and in the summer that time is even less.
Washing your clothes in cold water instead of warm will also drastically reduce your power usage. Even if you have gas-powered hot water in your home, the washing machine still uses extra power to keep that water warm when it’s running a cycle. Switching to cold is simple but effective, and it can extend the life of your clothing too.
Kitchen
Boiling water uses a huge amount of energy, but you can lower that a bit with a few tricks. If you’re using the stove, always keep the pot covered, it’ll boil faster and use less power. Or better yet use an electric kettle, then just transfer the water where you need it.
Make sure you’re only boiling as much as you need, either on the stove or at the kettle: the energy wasted boiling an overly full kettle in a week can power a tv for a whole day! If you’re not sure how much you need, try measuring it out in a cup, then just add a little to account for evaporation.
When you can, try to cook with a microwave or slow cooker. The oven and stove are great tools, but they use far more power than either a microwave or a slow cooker. In fact, a slow cooker uses less power even than a lightbulb, and can create incomparably delicious meals.
Make sure the seal on your fridge is still strong and is keeping the fridge insulated. Never put hot food straight into it; the fridge will have to work extra hard to cool it down, and cost you more money as a result.
Insulation
Beyond lowering your heating and cooling bill, there are many health benefits of having a dry, properly insulated home. Government, Community Trusts, and Local Health Boards all recognise that so they’ve made available funding to help homeowners bring NZ houses up to better, healthy standard of living.
Grants covering two-thirds the cost of insulation are currently available to low income homeowners (owner-occupiers). If you’re not sure if you qualify, or what exactly they can do for you, you can view the criteria and or book a free assessment right now.
And from July 1st of 2019 a new Heating Grant will be added, provided your home is insulated and you meet the criteria.
For more advice on how you can save on power, speak with one of our financial mentors:
Phone: 0800 345 123
Text: 4029
Email: help@moneytalks.co.nz
Live chat: www.moneytalks.co.nz
We are available to help Monday to Friday 8am to 8pm, and on Saturdays 10am to 2pm. We are here to help you.