Are there any more appliances in the house that you might want to target to reduce your electricity bill? We’ve gone through the biggest energy consumers, heating and air conditioning, we’ve talked about heating up water as well. If you’ve already made an effort to target those major appliances, you’re doing a good job. You can expect to have a much reduced bill.

Do you watch a lot of TV? Although the popularity of television has been dropping steadily, it should still be targeted. If you’re serious about taking as much off as possible from your electricity bill, you will have considered what you can decrease in terms of your digital entertainment.

We’ll look at the most popular screens that are on the market right now and how much electricity each one uses up:

1. Cathode Ray Tubes (CRTs) aka old-school televisions

These are the colour televisions that were all the rage in the 80s and early 90s. The bigger ones would weigh up to 15 kilograms. Since digital television is being phased in to replace all these old CRTs, they’re fast becoming an extinct race. That isn’t to say that they’re not still used in a lot of households.

These TVs were actually quite efficient, both in terms of electricity usage and loss of energy through heat. A typical size for CRT TVs back then was about 19 inches. These only use about 80 watts.

2. Plasma TVs

Plasmas brought about a revolution in screen clarity but not at a cost to consumers. They were anywhere from 32 inches to 60 inches and are basically big space and energy hogs. These can potentially use up a lot of electricity indirectly. Why indirectly? The heat produced from using plasma TVs is that phenomenal that you would turn on the air conditioning to cool down a room. You’re looking at 500+ watts… VERY energy hungry.

3. Liquid Crystal Display (LCD)

These are the most energy conservative out of the three. They can be as big as plasma TVs as well; some typical sizes for LCDs are 32 inches, 42 inches and 52 inches. These LCD sizes use 125, 210 and 280 watts respectively. People don’t really like going for LCDs though because they don’t have the best contrast. In an effort to combat this problem, newer models are built with a backlight.

Obviously, you are going to choose a TV that will suit your needs and priorities. If you’ve come this far with reducing your energy consumption but you love your television, then it doesn’t matter that much if you buy a plasma. As I mentioned earlier, the amount of energy lost from watching TV is minimal relative to the amount of energy that’s used up from heating and air conditioning.

This article is just here to give you an idea of your choices in terms of home entertainment. Note that I haven’t gone over speakers, DVD/BluRay players, etc. They all contribute to your energy bill but again, unless they’re on 24 hours a day, they probably wouldn’t be too much of a problem.

In the previous article, “How To Save Electricity By Going Tankless (Part I)”, I introduced the tankless water heater and how it was more efficient than traditional hot water systems. I also talked about the significant advantages of having a hot water system installed instead of a traditional hot water system. In Part II, let’s first look at the difference between gas and electric tankless water heaters.

Gas vs. Electric

Bear in mind that regardless of which option you choose, from a physical point of view, the same amount of energy is used. The only reason why the costs might be different is that the tariffs for using gas or using electricity might be different. That’s just something to keep in mind.

The cost of gas is, on average, lower than the cost of electricity. That’s why even when you’re burning more gas to heat the water up, it will cost less, assuming you use the same amount of water. This is on top of the fact that by default, more gas does have to be burnt to heat up water because there is a vent on traditional water heaters that’s there to let the gas out.

Having said this, electric tankless (and traditional) water heaters are the easier and safer option: easier installation-wise and safer due to the fact that you can never get a gas leakage into the house. Also, it’s better for the environment (marginally), since you aren’t releasing (as much) toxic fumes into the atmosphere.

How Much You Can Save By Going Tankless

We already discussed the installation costs in Part I. In Part II, we’ll discuss how much you can expect to save with the tankless variety. From a source in the US, electric tanks usually cost around $40.50/month to use. The tankless variety will only set you back about $37/month. This quickly adds up to savings of $42 in a year.

Gas tanks cost less than their electrical counterparts: around $30/month. The savings you yield from switching to a tankless version is about $9 a year (the cost is around $21.10/month). That’s a good $108 saved a year.

Remember that for both gas and electrical tankless water heaters, the average lifespan is 20 years. You set and forget about it and let the savings roll in. Multiply the yearly savings by 20 and you’ll see why tankless is becoming more and more of a popular choice amongst consumers.

How To Choose The Right Tankless Water Heater

Obviously you want to choose one that’s within your paying capacity. The most important factor however is the flow rate, which is basically how much water (in litres) is flowing every second. In essence, if you have a bigger family or you require hot water from multiple sources during the day, you might want to look for something that have a high flow rate.

You should also count up how many toilets, sinks, showers, bathtubs and dishwashers you have in your house as well. Ideally, you want your tankless water heater to be able to provide hot water to all of these appliances at the same time.

Each of these water users have their own flow rate, you have to provide a list of the brands and models to your tankless water heater technician so he or she can choose the best heater for your home.

What sort of tank am I talking about? A water tank, of course! Traditionally, water is stored in tanks where they’re heated. The water waits in the tank until someone in the house turns on the hot water tap. Of course, there is the possibility that no one will turn on the hot water again for the entire day; maybe they were just washing a couple of dishes.

The hot water stays there and eventually gets cold, so the coal burnt to heat up the water is essentially wasted. Without even meaning to, you’ve also incurred a higher bill. Tanks are designed this way. Fortunately, there is a way to avoid this. Say hello to tankless water heaters!

What’s a Tankless Water Heater?

A tankless water heater is exactly what you think it is: it’s a water heater that doesn’t store water. Tankless water heaters tend to last twice as long (20 years) as traditional water heaters. They cost a little bit more than traditional water heaters, but the cost of installation is usually what turns people off from having them installed in the first place; it can be up to 5 times the cost!

Having said that, you will pay less over its lifetime. You will also have the added benefit of saving more money not only on your electricity bill, but also on your water bill; you won’t have to wait half a minute for the water to go hot in your shower. The tankless water heater makes sure it’s hot as soon as you turn on the tap.

Advantages Of Using A Tankless Water Heater

There are quite a few advantages of using a tankless water heater that you may not be aware of from the get go that make the decision to go from a traditional tank a lot easier:

• Never run out of hot water ever again: since there isn’t even water being stored in a tank, it’s not possible for the hot water to ever run out; it’s always freshly heated up. This way, you’re never going to have to be the first one to have a shower out of fear that when it’s your turn, there’s just cold water left.
• 0% chance of leakage: there is no water being stored because there is no tank. Since there is no tank, there is no chance of leakages. Leakages are not only dangerous, it’s also extremely costly to repair.
• More space: you conserve more space by choosing a tankless water heater over a traditional water heater. We all know what the latter looks like: a massive box that’s usually higher than 6 feet and roughly a foot wide and deep. A tankless water heater can be mounted to a wall. It’s also about 7 or 8 times smaller. You could literally carry it around with you in a briefcase.

In Part II, we’ll discuss the difference between gas and electric tankless water heaters, how much you can expect to save (in detail) by changing to a tankless hot water system, as well as how to choose the right tankless heater for your home.

What are the main ways that you save money on your electricity bill? If you’ve been reading the previous articles here, you will know by now that it’s reducing energy usage on heating or cooling. This doesn’t just apply to ambient temperature, though. There is another regular household chore that has to be done weekly and that’s the laundry.

There are a lot of savings that can be realised by simply doing your laundry a bit differently, without compromising on how clean your clothes are:

• washing in cold water as often as possible will save on energy otherwise required to heat up water.
• front-loading washers: these washers might be somewhat more troublesome initially to get your clothes into in the first place, but it won’t seem like such a big problem when you look at your electricity bill after you’ve gone and bought one.
• washing line vs. dryer: most of us do hang our clothes outside. It is sort of annoying during Winter when days are shorter, there’s less sunlight and it’s just colder in general, so much so that even when a wind blows, the clothes don’t get that much dryer. It’s a sacrifice some people do make to pay less on their electricity bill.

Washing In Cold Water

If you wash your clothes by hand, washing in cold water makes a difference. Washing in cold water might be a pain in the butt, especially during Winter when you can’t stand putting your hands in cold water. You do save time, as well as money by washing your clothes with your hands and here’s how: you can directly clean clothes and pin point any particular stains on clothes. A washing machine simply pushes water and detergent through clothes, paying no attention to where in particular stains are.

There is also an added benefit of washing clothes in cold water and that’s clothes won’t shrink and they won’t fade. Heat causes the colour in clothes to fade more quickly over time compared to washing with cold water. Unlike metal as well, heat makes clothes shrink.

Front-Loading Washers

These are washers that open up front-on instead of having a lid on top that you just dump all your washing into. The disadvantage of choosing a front-loading washer instead of a traditional washing machine is the immediate cost; look into any catalogue or electrical appliance store and you’ll consistently see that front-loading washers cost, on average, $100 more.

By logic, this means that you’ll want to see at least an $100 saving on your power bill if you do decide to invest in one. If you simply replace your old washing machine with a front-loader, it’s not unrealistic to expect to see $100 on your electricity bills over the next year.

Washing Line vs. Dryer

For people who live in apartments or flats, using a dryer is a necessity. Sometimes during Winter, when you absolutely need to have a particular item of clothing dry by the next day, you may consider going to a public dryer.

If you simply use dryers because you don’t like hanging up the washing remember, the only thing it costs you is a bit of time. You could be savings hundreds in a year’s time off your electricity bill.

Have you already looked at the tips to reduce energy consumption from air conditioning and heating? If you have, this article will address the next biggest energy guzzler and that’s electricity and light bulbs. You will learn things like:

• the sorts of light bulbs you should be installing to reduce your electricity bills by up to $250/year,
• why turning off a light (or any electrical appliance for that matter) really doesn’t use up more electricity than leaving the light on, even if you leave the room for only a couple of minutes,
• have particular rooms that face the sun during certain times of the day? Consider getting a skylight installed to make the most of the daylight, minus the heat.
• and more!

Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs (CFLs)

These are the light bulbs that you should be replacing with all your current light bulbs with. There are several benefits about them that not many people are aware about:

• they last up to 10 years, A LOT longer than regular light bulbs,
• they generate less heat than traditional bulbs, meaning that if you get too hot from light bulbs, you won’t have to turn on the air conditioner to cool down,
• they are generally brighter than regular light bulbs.

Depending on what sort of news you listen to, you might have also heard that you shouldn’t use CFLs because they contain mercury. Well guess what: they do contain mercury, but not nearly enough to kill you. A typical CFL contains only 0.07 micrograms (that’s 7 hundred millionths of a gram!)

Leaving The Light On vs. Turning It Off

Are you one of those people who drive your roommates or family mad with your seemingly obsessive-compulsive habit of turning the light off, even if you’re leaving a room for only a couple minutes? Don’t worry, you’re doing the right thing, especially if you’re paying the electric bill.

Some people believe that the surge that occurs when you turn on a light would counter-balance the electricity you might save in that short instance that the light is off. This isn’t so; any time you do leave the light off is time that there is no electricity being clocked up in your meter.

We all know that the speed of light is extremely fast; the surge that accompanies a light being turned on is just a bit slower than that. That speed doesn’t allow a lot of electricity to be used up to get the light turned on.

Skylight vs. Electric Light

A skylight is a great way to make more use of natural light, especially if you have certain rooms in the house that are exposed to sunlight for more hours during the day. It’s also quite a nice change in decor and adds a breath of fresh air to an otherwise listless room.

If you’re afraid that a skylight is just like a window in the ceiling, don’t worry; people who install skylights can choose a material that has minimal heat conductance, meaning that you get the light, but don’t feel the heat. It might cost a bit up front, but for the savings on your house, it’s worth it, isn’t it?

During the Rudd Government, did you get insulation installed into your roof? There’s a good chance that you did, since it was free anyway. It was one of the things that brought about his prime ministerial demise; rough numbers show that for every one million homes that had the insulation batt installed, up to 250,000 could be dodgy.

The insulation supposedly was meant to help homes keep cooler in summer and warmer in winter. I’ve had it installed in my home and there hasn’t seemed to be much of a difference; it still seems just as warm as it was before now that it’s summer.

Has it really made that much of a difference to our electricity bill either? Electricity bill prices only seem to be shooting up and up; there’s really no advantage of even having the insulation there in the first place.

If anything, the scheme has been more problematic than it has been helpful.  There were a number of deaths involving people who were actually getting the insulation installed, as well as house fires caused by insulation that hadn’t been properly installed.

For example, in a special event, Tony Abbott was on the campaign trail, visiting people in their homes who had had the insulation installed into their roofs. He spoke with them about the ordeal, the manner that they had been contacted about the free insulation and generally how the installers went about their job.

In Christine Mikolajczak’s case, there already was insulation put into her roof. Despite knowing this, the installers put more in, placing it directly over her downlight. It was believed that this caused the fire in her roof to start.

In the end, Christine was $500 out of pocket, having to claim through her private home insurance to get the repairs done on her roof. Her private home insurance company was trying to get the excess fees for her, but they were having a bit of trouble getting through the bureaucracy that was the Federal Government.

Although the project might have been free at face value, everyday Australians would have definitely paid for it indirectly through their tax. That is the true monetary cost of this project that was managed poorly.

The voters weren’t really happy learning that their money was being spent on something that really didn’t pay off, hence Rudd standing down from his post, maintaining whatever semblance of dignity he could salvage.

If there’s anything we have learnt from this botched project, it’s that we shouldn’t rely on the government to take care of our utility bill woes. It’s something we’re going to have to take control of ourselves, as best as we can. Having said this, there’s only so much we can do when the Federal and State Governments allow electricity retailers to run rampant with pricing.

To say that we can reduce how much we pay on electricity by turning things off at the switch and using more energy efficient appliances is an insult to Australian’s intelligence.

With all the recent news about the rising cost of electricity, who hasn’t considered switching providers, even if it means going through a whole lot of annoying paperwork? There are plenty of companies out there who are jumping on this trend of helping consumers find cheaper power providers. How do they go about doing this, exactly?

There are a variety of sites that provide this sort of a service:

• MakeItCheaper.com.au
• ElectricityWizard.com.au
• EnergyWatch.com.au
• GoSwitch.com.au
• SwitchWise.com.au…

The list goes on. Most, if not all of these sites provide a service where you either leave your contact details for them to contact you through, or you call them up yourself. Besides the cost of the call if you make the call, the service is free.

They then go about suggesting retailers who can offer you a price that can vary from 5-10% cheaper than your current provider. What’s more, if you give them the green light, they’ll go ahead and pass on your details to the cheaper provider they suggested so that they’ll contact you and help you switch over to them.

Basically, these “middle-man” services do all the work for you.

OK. So it seems like it’s pretty much win-win for the electricity providers and for us consumers; they make more money with new customers and we pay less on our next electricity bill. If you’re a cynic like I am, then there will be one thing that’s probably bugging you…

What’s in it for… them?

Why on earth would they provide a service that provides so much up front value, but gives them supposedly nothing in return? That’s where some theories come into play:

• they probably get a commission from the companies who they refer your details to.
• with your permission, they send you relevant advertisments/promotions that could help you reduce your electricity bill further, eg. solar panel installation, etc.

Of course, there are always going to be catches that neither the middle-men nor the electricity providers are going to point out until it’s too late. Luckily, you’re going to find out about this fine print on the next line (you can thank me later):

• Exit Fees: electricity providers are collectively shaking in their boots. They watch the news as well. They know how much consumers are hating these prices increases as well. Exit Fees are their way of taking a final chunk out of your bank account.
• GST: this three-letter acronym can make even the most amazing savings seem rather mediocre and frankly quite not worth the paperwork (if there is any). Users of the middle-men services are adviced to add on 10% of the price, as they are often not GST-inclusive to give the impression that you’re saving more money than you really are.
• Different meters have different tariffs: a tariff is simply an extra cost that everyone pays. You can almost think of it as another form of tax. These services don’t know what sort of meter you have and since you probably don’t either, they assume you have the most common one: a continuous consumption meter. Different meters can attract higher rates, meaning that you might not save as much money as was communicated across to you.

There is a bit more fine print on these sites; by all means, go ahead and check them out carefully for yourself. These services are definitely worth checking out. I mean, savings are savings, right?

Did you receive a nasty shock when you opened your latest electricity bill? Many people are paying through the nose not only for electricity that’s increased in price, for also for electricity that supposedly they were using. I say supposedly because most of these people who are paying high prices don’t know how they’re using up more electricity.

It’s not like their usage habits have changed; some might even be intentionally disciplining themselves and not using the air conditioning or heating system, sweating it out or shivering to keep themselves warm. Yet on their electricity bill, it says that apparently they’ve used up more electricity than the last period.

If you’ve just purchased a new appliance and found that it’s particularly draining, then that’s probably your problem. However, if nothing has changed AT ALL, then it is a possibility that your power meter is broken. If it is broken and your bill has gone through the roof, then it’s most likely that the meter is not only showing higher than average numbers in terms of your electricity usage, it’s also sending off this information to your electricity retailer and being recorded down as your actual electricity usage. This is how you can go about seeing whether it’s broken or not:

The first thing that has to be checked is that the meter is still not spinning when all your breakers are off. The breakers allow current to be passed around your house; switching them off physically prevents electricity from coursing through your wires and cables. If you switch them all off and your meter’s still running, it’s broken.

You might want to record yourself doing this as well and use it as video proof that your meter is broken if your electricity company isn’t going to budge on the matter (they probably won’t). Be sure to show the date, the time, your address, your identity, anything you think will help to further validate your claim.

If the meter is at 0 kWh when all the breakers are off, you should now turn all the breakers on. Switch on the breakers one by one. Unplug all the appliances in your residence to clarify that nothing is receiving any electricity. The meter, if not broken, should still have a reading of 0.

If you’ve done the previous two steps, there is still one more thing for you to do. Now you should go and systematically see if you can pinpoint which appliance is causing the extra kiloWatt hours to show up. With all the breakers on, plug in and turn on each appliance one by one, checking the meter to see how much electricity its using up. Make sure to turn it off before you look at the next appliance, so that you always have the base value of 0.

If the value that’s being showed up is 20% more than what it should be for that appliance, then there could be a problem with either your meter or the appliance, but most likely your meter. How do you know if the value that’s shown is 20% more than what it should be? There should be a value on the side of the appliance that tells you how many kWh it uses. The number shown on the meter should match that number. You might have to do some simple maths to figure this out for light bulbs, etc.

Remember to make sure to record everything as you’re going along. If you can prove everything, you should be able to claim back not only any excess charges that you paid, but to also get your meter replaced free of charge.

When you were at the ballot booth late in 2010, who did you vote for to run our State? It turns out that most people weren’t too happy with Brumby’s performance for his term and decided to give the Coalition’s Ted Baillieu a shot.

Did you see his first press conference just before the Coalition party was sworn in? At the very end, he talked about “fast-tracking” the year-long concession card that will allow for cheaper power bills. This will aid pensioners directly, reducing their electricity bills by up to $100.

If this was so, our Christmas would be that much merrier, not having to shudder at the thought of how horrendous the bill was going to be after the silly season was over. It never used to be this bad. Let’s back track a little bit first to see where it all started going downhill…

It started back when Jeff Kennett was in office. He privatised our electricity network, turning it into a monopoly international companies based in Hong Kong and Singapore are fighting to dominate. As soon as we sold it, we lost control.

The transmission networks that send huge amounts of electricity all over the state are regulated by the Singaporean Government. The prices of State electricity through transmission networks is now free to be controlled by independent electricity retailers, charging obscene prices. John Brumby brought that about.

Brumby is also responsible for fast-tracking the implementation of the smart meter grid across more than 2 million homes across Victoria. It’s been nothing but a headache so far for Victorians.

This has spear-headed the rise in interest in green energy; people now are desperate to try and get whatever savings they can, even if it means spending a bit more upfront in solar panel installation.

How about distribution prices? They’ve shot up through the roof as well. The Australian Energy Regulator gave 5 distributors permission to increase their prices by 34% over the next 5 years. Overall, this is estimated to increase our bill by up to $220 every year.

Baillieu’s planning to stop the roll out of the smart meters to save Victorians some back-end cost; our tax would be put to more useful things. He says that it’ll take place after a proper cost-benefit analysis is performed to see if the project is worth continuing.

He also says he going to put some thought into weatherproofing rental houses, insulating them from the elements, decreasing how much electricity will be used for heating and cooling. This doesn’t mean that he will go easy on people who deliberately use a lot of electricity needlessly; a tariff will be imposed on those who consistently use too much power relatively to everyone else in their district.

The presence of these problems explains why electricity bills have gone through the roof. Ted Baillieu’s got a fair job on his hands if he wants to keep his promises to the citizens of Victoria. We’ll just have to wait and see if he’ll follow through.

Have you ever wondered how much money you could claim back via a rebate if you were to change your current hot water system to a solar powered one? The first thing you have to check on is just where your residency or business is located. In general, if you’re in metropolitan Melbourne, you can stand to claim back $300-$1500 back, while if you’re in regional Victoria, $400-$1600 is not out of the question.

The logic here is that it costs more for the person getting their hot water solar panels installed out in rural areas than it does for people living close to the CBD, eg. someone living in Moe or Sale might have to pay more for delivery, etc.

The fact that the Government is willing to foot the majority of the installation bill tells us something: solar panels are the way of the future. Instead of telling us to switch to solar panels, the rebate lessens the financial impact of getting them installed in the first place.

The real benefit the government gets is the decreased environmental impact caused by Victorian households, businesses and industries heating water. Still, this is a bit of a tangent. What you’re more interested in is whether the solar panel will really pay off down the track in terms of how much you pay per quarter on your electricity bill.

Now since solar energy cannot be completely relied on just yet (cloudy days, poor conversion of solar energy to electrical energy, etc), most people will get a coupled solar-electricity system, which combined offers to lessen the strain.

When you see when solar panel companies advertise their products is usually the solar-gas or solar-electric close-coupled thermosiphon (TS). For the purposes of keeping this discussion simple, we’ll focus on electricity bill savings only on this version of the system.

One more thing to bear in mind before you get to see the costs is that the amounts are averaged over different zones in Victoria, as well as the size of households; the report contains a lot of detail, going down to small, medium and large households and the savings you can expect from each.

I’ll also only be looking at Time Of Use (TOU), which can be liked to “on-peak” usage. In a document released in August 2010, the savings realised by Victorian families were summarised.

For a normal household, the TOU amount you can expect to pay for your electricity bill is $949. If you have a typical solar panel hybrid system installed with minimum efficiency, apparently you can expect to pay $246.

Notice that I said minimum efficiency; there is most likely a price difference at the point-of-sale if you were to install a TS system for maximum efficiency. At any rate, if you were to pay more upfront, the document says that you can expect to pay $121 per annum.

Bear in mind that the values here for the solar systems output lower kiloWatt hours; they’re about ⅓ to ⅕ less than the average level of power outputted by a normal household using brown coal for their electricity.