ONLINE NOW - OPEN 24/7
The average monthly utility bill for people living in Australia amounts to $ 200.20. This expense can be higher if there are more people living in one household.
For large families, they can receive utility bills that can range from $ 400 to $ 500 per month during the extremely hot and cold seasons – a particularly high amount that no one will want to pay for regularly.
Appliances that use both water and energy are the usual culprits behind high household utility bills. Water heaters, showers, washing machines, and dishwashers are examples of these energy- and water-eating appliances.
If you want to receive lower utility bills every month, you have to start using these appliances smartly and more efficiently. You can do this by taking note of the plumbing services and tips below and other techniques for saving money on your electricity and water consumption:
Water heating systems are the second biggest users of electricity in the home, next to cooling and heating systems. If your water heater is already 15 or 20 years old, you may be paying more for using it every day.
As such, if your budget will allow it, consider replacing your old water heater as soon as possible. Opt for a tankless on-demand system that does not store water since this type can give you savings of up to 30 percent.
You can even choose to have a solar hot water system. With this system, you will even save more money since you won’t rely on electricity to have hot water running in your home. However, make sure you have this feature installed by a qualified solar hot water plumber so that it will function properly.
In case you can’t replace your old water heater yet, you can save 4 to 9 percent on your water heating costs by insulating it.
By using a hot water heater jacket, you can prevent standby heat loss by 25 to 45 percent. With this simple insulating technique, you will be heating your water more efficiently at a lower cost.
Many older shower heads release 18 to 22 litres of water per minute. If you and other family members take 10 to 15-minute showers every day, you are literally throwing money away down the bathroom drain.
To save more water and money, have a low-flow showerhead installed. With this feature, you can reduce the water coming out of your shower by 75 to 80%. And even with the lower water output, you will still get sufficient, forceful showers every time.
Other benefits of switching to a low-flow showerhead are that they are relatively inexpensive and easy to install.
Most cities use the highest amounts of energy after lunch and dinner. Because of this, the charge for electricity use at these times is often higher.
To save money, hold off using your dishwasher, washer, and dryer until late at night. Put all the dishes and other utensils you used the whole day inside the dishwasher and turn it on at night. You will even save a few more bucks by turning off the manual “heat dry” and letting your dishes air dry instead.
Make sure your washer and dryer are also full before using them at night. You can schedule weekly or bi-weekly laundry work so that you don’t have to spend more than you should on washing your clothes.
Hand-wash large pots, pans, and other kitchenwareBulky pans, pots, and other cooking and dining items take up a lot of room in the dishwasher. You will have to use the dishwasher twice in a day to ensure all these items are clean thereby using more energy and water.
To save more money on your water bills, do not leave the water running when you’re hand-washing these pots, pans, and other kitchenware. Use a basin so that you can avoid wasting water.
When you use hot water to wash your clothes, 80 to 90 percent of the energy your washer will use will go to heating the water. Your washer, therefore, has already consumed a lot of electricity even before it has completely washed your clothes.
On the other hand, if you use cold water to wash do your laundry, you only use about .24 kWh to run the machine – a significantly lower amount. When you regularly use cold water for laundering your clothes, you will see a considerably lower energy bill every month.
Make sure you clean the lint trap in your clothes dryer after each use. This will help facilitate proper airflow during the drying cycle.
When your dryer has better airflow, your clothes will be dry in a shorter amount of time. And this, of course, means you will be saving on electricity.
If you want to save more money on your energy bills, air dry your clothes naturally. Use a collapsible drying rack which you can place outdoors when the sun is out.
Finally, if you have an irrigation or sprinkler system at home, make sure it gives your lawn the right amount of water it needs, and not more.
In general, lawns need only an inch of water per week which it can get from the sprinkler system and rain. Irrigation systems often give lawns more than the required amount of water which will cause you to have higher water consumption.
To avoid wasting money on your irrigation system, configure it properly or ask the installer to do it for you.
The tips above have been tried and tested and, thus, will allow you to save money on your utility bills in the short and long term.
You can also ask any one of our professional plumbers here at Diamond Plumbing for more advice on how you can lower your monthly utility expenditures.
