Discover handy tips for keeping electricity costs down and create an energy saving checklist for kids to use at home.
We need electricity to power our appliances, laptops, lights at night, heating in winter, cooling in summer and not to mention charging the endless family devices. Many families find their household electricity costs increase significantly in winter, so teaching children to be more energy conscious around the house and reminding them about the small things they can help with can make a difference.
Nectr – Australian based leader in renewable energy, has listed a range of steps to help families keep their electricity costs down.
5 Steps to create an energy-saving checklist
Step 1: Walk around your home and talk about all the things you can add to your list and why they would be useful for saving energy.
Step 2: Have one of the children use your phone to take a photo of the appliance.
Step 3: Agree to 3-4 points to add to the checklist per room.
Step 4: Agree to a weekly reward for ticking off as many points on the list as possible (reward examples: movie and popcorn night, etc).
Step 5: Note all points per room on the checklist (link to asset) and place on fridge or central area in the house.
Ideas on what to include on the checklist:
- Consider some window coverings for your home, getting your glass treated can keep out heat in the day and improve the energy efficiency of your home.
- This an oldie but a goodie – use a cooling fan to help take the edge off, but remember, fans cool people not rooms. Make sure you turn off the fan when you leave the room.
- Use you air conditioner efficiently. A set room temperature that is enough to cool the room comfortably will save you money in the long run.
- In Spring, check your appliances and service them. Remember, we’re pre-planning for summer too.
- Get rid of those old warm bulbs, they generate too much heat and they don’t save a lot of energy in your home.
- Don’t leave your computer monitor on when not in use
Tips to keep electricity costs down:
- Turn off power switches at night.
- Replace globes in lights (lamps, down lights etc.) with energy efficient LED light globes.
- Remember to turn off all your lights when you leave the house or if you’re leaving a room.
- Lowering set temperature (heater/cooler to 23 degrees).
- Only heat and cool rooms that are in use, otherwise it’s a waste of your energy usage and money.
- Setting the washing machine, dishwasher and using oven (if possible) during the day to take advantage of solar panels if you have them.
- If you use a dishwasher, consider not rinsing the dishes beforehand.
- Longer showers = more water and energy, so use a timer, or play your favourite song while in the shower, and when that’s up, you know it’s time to hop out.
- Small loads of washing may use less water but still use the same amount of energy as a full load of washing. Try and hold out until the end of the week to do a full load.
- Switch off all appliances that are not in use or that are left on standby. All appliances still use power, unless they are switched off from the wall. Examples include your electric kettle, toaster, coffee machine and clothes dryer.
- With young children, instigate a ‘no power for an hour’ every night where devices are turned off and everyone reads a book or spends quality time together as a family.
You can discover more ways to cut energy usage with Nectr’s Energy Saving Checklist here.
For more information and all enquiries please visit the Nectr website.
At Play & Go Adelaide we make every effort to provide accurate information to the best of our knowledge at the time of publication. We recommend confirming times, dates and details directly before making any plans as details may be subject to change.
Image Source: Nectr
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