Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Shrinking the bills


In line with my New Years goals, I thought I would update on our efforts to reduce water, electricity and gas usage:

  • Water usage – 56 litres per person per day

Our water usage is ever decreasing with each water bill. Getting rid of the dishwasher has actually reduced our usage by 15 litres per day. And a) our dishwasher was 3 star and b) we didn’t use it every day.

  • Electricity Usage – 9.43 kwh per day

This was our first bill at the new house and we use less power than the old house. This is great because this house is much bigger. But it does has a few things the old house didn’t have, like skylights, better passive cooling options (big slide windows and good cross breezes), and better sun access during the day.

  • Gas Usage – same old , same old

Not much during summer and many of our appliances are electric. But the old water heater has got to go sooner rather than later. One, its old and we’ve been told it has a short shelf life and two, I think the majority of this bill can be attributed to it (and in that case the bill is horrendous).

So we are on our way and we still have heaps more things to do that will help with reducing the bills.

2 comments:

  1. Good work! I need to sit down and study our bills and electricity use as well. We have a 4 star washing machine, but it gets used non-stop especially because of the cloth nappies. When number two arrives I shudder to think of the laundry pile. Ever since my first was born even my own laundry has increased because my shirts are covered in milk/greasy hand marks/yesterday's lunch. Oh the joys of children! xo m.

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  2. I so hear you - when Little B was little we used the washing machine non stop for nappies too and all his changes of clothes (he had reflux) and all my clothes (leaky boobs, greasy / messy kisses from Little B :-)

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