Household Conservation Tips

On average, household electrical appliances account for more than 25% of your power consumption. By improving their energy efficiency, your can easily cut your energy costs. Choosing the right appliances for your home is an important job. Not only will you have to live with the appliances for a long time, you’ll have to live with their running costs.

Think about how many appliances you need and how you use them. And consider the efficiency of new rather than second-hand models. A second-hand appliance may seem a great bargain, but older ones often cost more to run and maintain. Try to buy appliances that fit your size requirements – a smaller, well stocked fridge is more efficient than a larger, half-empty one.

Hot Water Cylinders

Click here for information on Hot water cylinder wraps

Hot water accounts for 47% of the power used by an average New Zealand home. A hot water cylinder wrap can reduce that percentage substantially and save up to 10% on your electricity bill.

Many households use the cylinder cupboard for drying clothes in. Because your unwrapped cylinder loses heat every minute, it is more energy-efficient to install a wrap and dry clothes outside or in the dryer for several minutes than it is to lose heat every minute of the year.

If you install a wrap and switch to using the dryer two hours a week, you can save up to 2.5 times the energy!

Temperature setting

And while you are working on the hot water cylinder, check the temperature setting. The ideal temperature is 60 degrees Celsius (or 140 degrees Fahrenheit). A higher temperature is usually not necessary, may cause scalding and costs you money.

Electric Ovens

When choosing your electric oven consider your family’s needs, your cooking style, space and budget.

If available, it is more energy efficient to use the fan option on your oven. The same cooling time is necessary but you reduce the required cooking temperature by 10 °C to 20 °C.

Electric Oven Maintenance Hints

Clean inside of oven regularly. When you have food spills wipe off as soon as the oven is cool.

Check door seals for wear and tear.

Cook Tops

Today there is a wide variety of electric cook tops to choose from. Look for quick response elements, accurate heat control and easy cleaning.

Use good quality, flat based saucepans, on all modern cook tops. They should also be the same diameter as the cooking area.

Induction hobs are extremely safe to use, especially if you have small children. When a pan comes off the hob, the electricity flow stops. This makes induction hobs even more responsive and energy efficient than gas.

Cook Top Maintenance Hints

Ceramic glass should be wiped regularly between cooking with recommended cleaning products.

Radiant and Energy Saving Elements may be cleaned after use by warming on a low setting.

Microwave Ovens

A microwave oven uses one third less electricity than a conventional oven, and it cooks food much more quickly.

Therefore you should use your microwave as an alternative to stove-top or oven cooking as often as possible.

Be sure to allow plenty of ventilation space around your microwave oven.

Microwave Oven Maintenance Hints

Wipe microwave regularly with a damp cloth as food splatters affect cooking time.

Freezers

For best performance, your freezer temperature should be around - 18°C. Anything above this will shorten the foods life span. Temperatures lower than - 18°C will drive your power bill up. A change of 1°C can affect running cost by as much as 5%. As a guide, ice cream should be moderately firm – not block-hard.

Give your freezer some breathing space. Make sure there’s plenty of room for air to circulate around the condenser panel. Air must be able to flow in at the bottom, pass through the condenser panel and out the top. Lack of ventilation could add up to 15% to running costs.

Locate your freezer away from heat sources such as sunlight, heaters, clothes dryers and ovens.

Freezer Maintenance Hints

Defrost your freezer when ice builds up to 5mm. A special scraper will remove the ice without damaging the freezer’s liner. You should avoid using a knife or any other metal implement.

Check that the door seal is clean and unobstructed. Wash it with mild detergent and replace worn or damaged parts.

Every 6 months, clean the condenser panel located on the back or side of the freezer with the brush nozzle attachment on your vacuum cleaner.

Clear any internal drainage holes on frost-free freezers.

Fridges

The temperature of your refrigerator should be set between 2°C and 5°C. Try the lettuce test. If after a day the lettuce leaves have frozen, your fridge is too cold.

Fridge performance varies depending on the make, model and energy saving features.

An energy-efficiency labeling system is in operation for both fridges and freezers. The label shows estimates of average annual energy consumption in kilowatt hours. The lower the kilowatt hour rating, the less energy consumed.

As with a freezer, for maximum efficiency, keep your refrigerator away from sources of heat, particularly sunlight, dishwashers and ovens.

Fridge Maintenance Hints

Every 6 months, clean the back condenser panel with the brush nozzle attachment on your vacuum cleaner.

Regularly drain and clean the evaporation tray located at the back of the refrigerator.

Defrost the freezer compartment when ice builds up to 5mm or more.

Check door seal is clean and unobstructed.

Keep the interior clean with a solution of warm water and baking soda. Avoid harsh detergents. To remove food odours, try wiping the interior with a damp cloth that has a few drops of vanilla essence on it.

Dishwashers

Dishwashers are more efficient when fully loaded, but be careful not to overload.

Use the fast wash and economy dry cycles as often as possible.

If your dishwasher has the ability to heat its own water, use it. It’s more economical than using hot water from your cylinder.

Dishwasher Maintenance Hints

Clean door hinges, seals and the interior with a mild detergent once a month. Regularly clean the drainage filter.

Washing Machines

While washing machines use very little energy, using the warm and hot wash cycles will push operating costs up. Use cold water as often as possible, and always wait until you have a full load.

Washing Machine Maintenance Hints

If the lint filter is not self-cleaning, remove lint and fluff residues after every wash.

Once every year clean the filters on both and hot and cold water hose inlets at the back of the machine.

Keep the drain hose free of kinks and obstructions.

Do a hot wash at least once a month to clear the drainage hoses.

Heaters

Home heaters, whether electric or gas, give out heat in different ways depending on the type of heat distribution they use.

Conduction is where heat travels directly from one object to another that is touching it. It is of limited use in home heating.

Convection is the distribution of heat through air currents.

Radiation is the way the sun heats the earth - the energy strikes objects and warms them.

Generally, heaters are either radiators or convection heaters. Some are both.

The type of heat transfer involved affects your perception of comfort. You feel as comfortable at 16-18°C on a warm floor that is radiating heat up towards you as you would in a room with warm air at 18-25°C, but cold walls and floor.

How much heating do you need?

A simple rule of thumb is to measure the volume of the room (length x width x height, in metres) and divide by 20 to get the kW rating of the heater you need.

So a room 6m long by 4m wide by 3m high will need 3.6 kW of heating.

If the room is uninsulated or draughty it will need more.

For more information on heating your home click here

Clothes Dryers

To avoid lint and moisture problems, your clothes dryer should be vented to the outside of your house.

Avoid over-drying. It wastes energy and wears out your clothes.

Choose the lower temperature setting whenever you can. It uses less energy and is kinder to fabrics.

Clothes Dryer Maintenance Hints

Clean out the lint filter after each load.

Regularly move your dryer and vacuum the surrounding floors and walls. This removes lint and dust, which are highly flammable.

Other Energy Saving Tips

Compact fluorescent lamps use a fifth of the energy of ordinary incandescent bulbs, and they last 8 times as long.

Bench top appliances such as crock-pots, electric fry pans and multi-steamers use energy very efficiently.

Your beer fridge may be robbing you of valuable energy dollars. Old, inefficient second fridges can use more kilowatts than necessary.

Running Costs

This chart will give you an idea of what it costs to run your various household appliances. It won’t be completely accurate for your situation, because we’ve had to estimate average use and wattages, but it works well as a guide.

The usage levels shown in this chart are typical of winter months, when you use the most power.