Published: The Daily Telegraph Date: 25 October 2010
Carl Ding... Slashing his power bill.
Source: The Daily Telegraph
After wages and rent, electricity has become the third biggest expense for David Goodall of Goodall's Quality Meats in Merimbula.
When he received his highest ever electricity bill for almost $7000 last quarter, he knew it was time to act.
The Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water NSW (DECCW)'s Energy Efficiency for Small Business Program provided the perfect opportunity.
Under the Program, David is eligible for up to $5000 to pay for 50 per cent of the costs to reduce his business' power consumption.
He has already replaced his electric water heater with an instantaneous gas system, which, thanks to the NSW Government contribution, will only set him back $1500.
"It's not much to pay out of pocket, and it's going to save me money over the long term," David says.
"Sometimes you've got to spend some to save."
As part of the Save Power Challenge, David had an energy monitor installed in his butcher shop to keep track of how much power he's been able to save since switching to gas.
He's hoping to see power usage go right down over summer as he uses a new energy-efficient air conditioner in place of his two old models which he installed when he first fitted out his shop 11 years ago.
According to DECCW, replacing air conditioners that are more than 10 years old can reduce annual heating and cooling costs by up to 40 per cent, and save nearly 700kg of carbon pollution, which is equal to 14,000 black balloons.
David is also seeking quotes for a thermostatically controlled roof ventilator.
This will help push out the heat produced by his fridge and freezers and reduce his reliance on air conditioning.
David says even a five per cent saving will make a big difference to his bottom line, but believes he could save more than double that once he completes his appliance upgrades.
IGA Oakhill supermarket
Carl Ding, who runs the IGA Oakhill supermarket in Castle Hill, can already see that he's saving 12 per cent on his average daily power use compared to last year.
Some of the major changes have included upgrading 140 fluorescent lights to energy efficient ones which run on almost half the wattage, and installing a new motor controller on the meat display to make it run more efficiently.
Carl is yet to do proper comparisons, but estimates that these changes have cut their energy consumption by 15 to 20 per cent.
He has also installed two new, more efficient fridges, and four whirlybirds in the roof to eliminate the need for air conditioning.
Carl is now looking forward to receiving his next electricity bill and seeing the dollar-value of his efforts.
"Electricity was just getting more and more expensive, so we really want to try our best to get it down," he says.