Published: The Daily Telegraph Date: 30 October 2010
Saving power ... Kelly Ackers with son Tavish.
Source: The Sunday Telegraph
Kelly Ackers was celebrating when The Sunday Telegraph contacted her for an update on her progress in The Sunday Telegraph – Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water NSW (DECCW)s Save Power Challenge.
She had just received her electricity bill, and found it had gone down by $40, despite a price hike over the quarter.
Also, she commenced the Challenge halfway through the quarter, so expects the bill to be even lower next time.
The Forestville mum, who lives with husband, Shea, and baby son, Tavish, has been inspired to make a host of changes to her home and habits since taking up the Challenge.
She recently had an electrician visit to outline some energy-efficient lighting options and insulate hot water pipes to reduce heat-loss.
In preparation for summer, she has also had shutters installed on the windows of her main living area: It gets so hot in there when the afternoon sun comes in, so this year, with the shutters, we won't have to be so reliant on air conditioning.
A solar hot water system is next on the list, as Kelly is keen to replace her inefficient old electric model.
According to DECCW, electric hot water systems can account for as much as a third of a household's power use. Switching to a solar powered system can save around $140 a year and reduce a household's carbon pollution by more than 2,000kg or up to 42,000 black balloons.
In the meantime, Kelly and Shea have been sticking to four-minute showers, only use cold water to wash their clothes, and wait until they have a full load before running the washing machine.
An energy monitor was installed in the family's home as part of the Challenge, and they use this as a guide to some of the key energy consumers around the home.
Since noticing how much her power usage shot up when she was using the clothes dryer, Kelly has gotten out of the habit of using it every second day.
She has only run the dryer three times over the past six weeks, when the weather was too wet to use the clothes line.
Learning how to reduce power consumption has been a rewarding journey in more than just the financial sense, as the couple are keen to reduce their carbon footprint.
With an 11 month-old baby, we're aware of the fact that we're leaving more of a footprint now, Kelly says. We've already been using cloth nappies to cut down on landfill, but when it came to electricity, we didn't know where to start.
Talking things through with the (DECCW) assessor made it clear, and having the energy monitor has been fantastic.