Keep Cool: Don’t Get Heated About Energy Bills

By Darrel Vecchio | BIZMATRIX

Recently I spoke with Anne Armansin from Origin. Anne has the title of Retail Energy advisor, which really doesn’t describe Anne’s vast knowledge and expertise in ways of using energy efficiently. Anne is a regular adviser and guest on Channel 9’s television series Extra Brisbane. She supplies the viewers with information on how we can save costs with electricity and gas use from changing the light bulbs to how to get government paid incentives and obtain further savings.

Anne is also working with several of the national pizza chains to help them to reduce their energy costs and work smarter with gas and electricity usage. I asked Anne to help our readers with some simple ways to saving energy costs at home and also use these tips in the work place.

Anne says, “With one of the hottest heat waves on record, Victoria and South Australia have endured a challenging start to the New Year while much of Queensland is flood affected. We expect an increase in consumption and demand for the electricity used to help keep us comfortable, clean and well fed. As a consequence, energy bills will inevitably be impacted.”

Believe it or not, there are simple, yet very effective ways to ensure more efficient home and business appliance usage to keep energy costs down without sacrificing comfort. Here are some tips.

Clean your air conditioning, refrigeration and exhaust filters. Ensure all filters are well maintained so air is able to circulate easily through both indoor and outdoor components. In a commercial premises or shop look at getting a regular preventative service on your commercial air-conditioner and clean the filters regularly to also prevent the spread of dust or diseases through the air-conditioning system. You can also have a return air system on your exhaust canopy to stop the air-conditioning being sucked up and out the chimney.

Set it right. Don’t make your appliances work too hard. Set the air conditioning unit to re-circulate cool air instead of pulling warmer air in from outside in summer. Maintain a thermostat temperature of 24ºC in summer and 20ºC in winter and refrigeration temperatures of 4ºC.

Close doors and draw curtains. Close off all unused rooms and draw curtains or blinds on the sunny side to keep heat out and cool air contained in summer and open the curtains during the day in winter to welcome the sun’s warmth and minimise heating bills.

Use power only when needed. With commercial ovens look at starting the oven warm up around 1 hour before use and shut down immediately after you close for the evening. Only use the required amount of equipment during the peak or low periods, which means don’t leave the burners on a stove on while not in use.

Wear appropriate clothing. Wear loose fitting natural fibres (cotton, linen) in summer and warm clothing in winter. This way you don’t adjust the thermostat because of your own body temperature.

Shut the fridge and oven doors. Keep the fridge and oven doors shut as much as possible to keep temperatures maintained. With commercial refrigerated cold rooms and freezer rooms, make certain the doors are kept closed, the door seals are not cracked or leaking air, and the filters on the condenser are professional cleaned. Have a door switch installed to operate the cold room light on and off so the light is not left on in the cold room or freezer room using power when not required. The door switch can also stop the fans to prevent cold air being blown out of the room.

Anne says to consider these government initiatives to help you save at home.

New refrigeration models have improved energy performance standards and use less energy than existing household and commercial units.

Improvements in the efficiency of linear and compact fluorescent lighting can help you save up to 80% of your lighting energy consumption.

Check whether you qualify for rebates when purchasing energy saving solar hot water systems Photo Voltaic solar panels or ceiling insulation.

“Air conditioners will work at maximum capacity trying to reach set temperatures during extreme conditions or if poorly maintained. This will inevitably result in higher energy bills, but there are some simple ways to reduce household and business energy consumption and help keep bills manageable,” Origin’s Retail Energy Advisor, Anne Armansin, says.

Origin has an easy to use online energy efficiency calculator to determine a household’s estimated energy consumption and costs incurred in quarterly and yearly amounts. For more tips and advice visit energyinstitute.com.au.

If you need electric, consider induction cooking ( Induction heats and cooks faster and less energy required for the same power output as an electric element