When your whole household is at home throughout the day, every day, it can be tricky to keep on top of your energy usage—especially in the school holidays.
Although zoo days and cinema trips might be off the cards for now, small changes to the way you use your energy can add up to big savings. Find your energy-saving stride and keep the kids entertained at the same time for a win-win.
Take it outside.
In the past few months, your streaming services may have felt like less of a luxury and more of a necessity. If you feel like you’re running out of animated flicks to tick off your watch list, swap family movie night for family picnic night. As the weather warms up, take dinner to the backyard to cook a BBQ and look forward to an alfresco gathering. Not only will the novelty of a new location break up your daily school holiday routine, you’ll also be saving energy without a TV, gaming console, sound system, oven, microwave or other devices zapping your electricity.
A colourful adventure.
Whether you and your kids enjoy your daily exercise hour on two feet or two wheels, it can start to feel like you’ve already ventured north, south, east and west (plus every other direction in between!) within your local area. So, next time you go to stretch your legs, spice it up with some special school holiday play.
First, don’t forget to switch off any heaters, coolers, TVs or lights before you go. Although it may feel like you’re only out for a moment, just one less hour of climate control every day of the school holidays equates to 14 less hours of energy use on your next bill.
Now, enjoy: The Colour Walk.
Before you leave the house, ask your kids to make a scavenger hunt–style list of 10 colours. This may be 10 favourites or 10 picked at random from the coloured-pencil bucket. Take your newly created colour-checklist to the streets and try to find an example of each one during your walk. As an optional challenge: search for your colours in nature only (cars, shoes and garden gnomes are now off limits!)
Numbers of a different kind.
Do you know what the biggest energy users are in your home? Although we’re all taking a well-earned break from home learning for these two weeks, understanding the details of household energy use is the key to reducing it—and an important life lesson for the kids. For the average ACT household, your bill is made up of 62% heating and cooling costs, followed by water heating and large appliances in second and third place*. The magic numbers all members of the family should remember, are:
Heating: 18–20°C
Cooling: 25–27°C
Fridge: 3–5°C
Freezer: -15– -18°C
Every degree higher or lower can affect your energy usage by 5–10%—per appliance*.
Unplug.
If you’re taking time away from your (home) office for the school holidays and usually use a laptop, monitor and printer, unplug it all at the wall while you’re on an extended break. You’ll prevent standby energy use (which can increase your household’s energy usage by up to 3%*), and you’ll allow yourself some well-earned rest and relaxation.
You may also want to consider using this down time to check in on your energy account. The change of season is a great point to ensure you’re on the best energy plan for you. The power is at your fingertips anytime, anywhere, through your My.ActewAGL account.
Log in, to:
- pay a bill
- update your details
- view and update your energy plan
- track your electricity usage
- set up EvenPay, for predictable, automatic payments
- arrange a move.
If you are looking for some extra energy advice for your plan or your account, call our local team on 13 14 93.
Spend some time on your solar.
The spring school holidays are the perfect time to tick off your quarterly solar system maintenance regime. The longer days and warmer weather mean the time and space to check for general cleanliness, damage, deterioration or debris (all safely from the ground only). Follow our solar maintenance guide to keep your system in peak condition for efficient energy generation. If you are concerned about your solar panels, call a professional to inspect them for you, and don’t ever go onto the roof to inspect them yourself.
Set up EvenPay to smooth your quarterly energy bills into smaller, fortnightly or monthly payments—it’s called EvenPay. It only takes a couple of minutes from your My.ActewAGL account.
Log in to My.ActewAGLMaximise your power and minimise your energy costs with the skills for better bills.
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