Passive Lighting
Natural light is the cleanest and cheapest solution for your home, so if you're building a new home or renovating an existing one this is a decision that can decrease your household costs and carbon emissions. Consider how you can incorporate passive house design principles to utilise natural sources of light, heating and cooling, provided by the sun and cooling breezes. You can also incorporate natural light by installing extra shading, sky lights, windows or glass sliding doors.
LED Lighting
While utilising natural light is the cleanest and cheapest solution to lighting your home during the day, LED lights are the ideal evening solution. Installing LED lights is usually more expensive than your typical incandescent or halogen equivalent, however they can last three times longer and tend to be 4 to 7 times more efficient.
Ceiling Fans
Depending on what electricity tariff you’re on, the running cost of a fan is around two cents per hour compared to 52 cents per hour for an air conditioner. Using ceiling fans in bedrooms and living areas, can save you hundreds of dollars a year. In fact, only using your air conditioner when the temperature goes over 30 degrees and you could save around $483 a year.
Colours
We all know that light colours reflect the sun, while dark colours absorb its heat. The same goes when choosing the wall and roof colours of your house. Choosing white or light colours will help reflect the heat away from your home and provide an added feeling of light in darker corners of the house.
Washing & Drying
When washing clothes, always do so with cold water. Set the washing machine to use exclusively cold water, which is better for the garments anyway. Needless to say, the best way to dry your clothes is to hang them on the line. If the weather seems a bit rainy, hang them inside the house. Try to avoid the dryer at all costs, but if you must use it, it is important not to overload. This will make the dryer work twice as hard, and inefficiently.
Contact Ehlerth Electrical to organise a Home Energy Test which can save you hundreds on electricity bills a year!
