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Save Energy

Being energy efficient around the home is smart not just for the environment but for your pocket too. Any saving in energy saves you money which is twice the incentive to get started.

If you want to really reduce your energy use, the best place to start is with hot water. Hot water consumes around 40% of your households energy bill, followed by space heating. Looking at how you use energy in these areas is the first place to start.

We've compiled some tips to help your household get going. These tips are all easy, low cost initiatives to save energy. Click on a tip to see how you might take the first step to becoming more sustainable.

Ideas to get started:

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1. Make your showers shorter and more water efficient.

Replace your current shower head with a low flow one.

It will cost you about $30 and will save you up to $75 every year.

You could save up to 20,000 litres per person if you did this (based on an 7 minute long average shower).

2. Use cold water instead of hot water in the laundry.

Turn off your hot water tap in the laundry now. A warm wash uses as much energy as drying the clothes in the dryer.

If replacing your old washing machine, look for a new one with a high energy star rating.

3. Check the temperature of your hot water cylinder, wrap it and lag the pipes.

Adjust the thermostat of your hot water cylinder if the hot water temperature from your taps is greater than 55 degrees.

If your cylinder is warm to touch it needs wrapping.

Wrapping the cylinder and lagging the pipes nearest to it will cost about $100.

It will save you over $100 every year.

If every household in New Zealand with a hot water cylinder more than 15 years old installed a wrap, we would save 5% of New Zealand's residential electricity use.

4. Fix hot water leaky taps.

Put a washer on your dripping hot water tap now. One dripping tap can waste 5000 litres of hot water a year.

It will cost you less than $1 to replace it yourself.

It could save you up to $80 a year.

5.Dry your clothes on the washing line instead of the dryer.

Drying your clothes outside in the sun and wind means fresher, cleaner smelling clothes.

6. Keep in the warmth and keep out the cold.

Close windows and curtains at sunset to keep in the warmth. Draught proof doors and windows with rubber strips and put brushes, a rubber seal or a 'sand sausage' along the gap below your external doors. These can all be found at DIY and hardware stores.

7. Turn appliances like washing machines and televisions off at the wall when not in use.

Leaving appliances on standby can add up to 13% to your bill each year. It also contributes to the wear and tear of the appliance. Why pay for something when you are not using it?

8. Switch off fridges that aren't in use and consider upgrading.

Fridges use the most electricity of any household appliance and the older your fridge is, the more energy it is likely to use. When buying a new fridge, try an energy-efficient fridge which will have a high star rating.

9. Replace your light bulbs with energy efficient ones.

Go out and buy 3 eco bulbs.

It will cost you $12, and will save you around $70 every year.

If every household in New Zealand did this, we would save a total of $400 million in electricity costs over the life of the eco-bulbs (which is about 5-6 years).

10. Become a vegetarian or vegan.

Believe it or not, one way to save energy and tackle global warming is to have a vegetable/fruit based diet.

According to the ecologist David Pimentel, beef requires up to 27 times more energy to produce than plant protein. Just one example- it takes an estimated 100, 000 litres of water to produce a kilogram of beef. Millions of acres of forest worldwide has been cleared and continues to be destroyed for meat and dairy production. The earth cannot continue to sustain such inefficient and destructive land use.

Find out more about this issue.

Find out more about becoming a vegetarian or vegan in New Zealand.

WE RECOMMEND:

Sustainable Households
Encourging positive action in energy saving, waste reduction, shopping and car travel.

Greenpages
Services and products from New Zealanders who care about the planet.

EECA
Energy Efficiency Conservation Authority.

Fuel Saver
Fuel-efficient advice and tools.

The Greens Peak oil Toolkit
A toolkit to help reduce our dependence on oil.

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