Electricity bill, oh no!

Last night hubby and I got a serious shock, we received our first winter electricity bill, and it was a harsh reality that we need to be doing more to save on our electricity costs. This has been our first winter in Cootamundra and there has been days where it the temperature has been under 5 degrees and then there are the even more delightful days when the temperature goes below zero.  

I have been delusional, it turns out that wearing slippers, singlets and layers of clothes has not really been enough.  We are thankful that we spent the money to have gas installed to the house and upgraded our hot water system to a Rinnai Infinity26 Continuous Flow Hot Water System and we have a small gas heater in the lounge room from our old house. Without these the bill would have been much higher.

Now it’s time to get real – where is all the electricity been used? I think we have probably found one of the main culprits and it’s me to blame. I have been using an oil column heater in the bedroom and even in the kitchen at times. They were cheap heaters to buy but this has now come back to bite up. We do have ducted reverse cycle air-conditioning in the house but we thought it would be better not to use this, now I am not so sure, this will be something else I need to research.

Apart from sitting in my bed which is already warm and comfy (the oil column heater firmly unplugged from the bedroom wall) and researching on the internet I plan to get down to the local library prior to work if possible and grab one of the Save Power Kits. I have to be honest, I borrowed one earlier but then we never really used it, this time we need to.  What I really want to use the kit for is measuring the power used by our electrical appliances and find out where our home is letting in the cold in winter.

Things done or doing;
·         wear warm clothes
·         seal gaps and draughts
·         close doors to seal heat in rooms

Short term to do list;

·         buy and install insulation in roof
·         install curtain rod in lounge room so curtains can go up

Long term to do list;
·         get prices for ducted gas heating
·         get prices for flu gas heater
·         look into secondary glazing

I know there is even more to add but I need to get up and moving and out of my warm bed