Published: The Daily Telegraph Date: 25 October 2010
Power rangers ... Kelly Ackers with her son Tavish are participating in the Energy Saving Challenge Campaign at their Rutherford home in rural NSW.
Source: The Sunday Telegraph
Making power saving a game and working it into a domestic routine are two ways participants in the Sunday Telegraph-Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water NSW (DECCW)'s Save Power Challenge are getting results.
New mum Kelly Ackers says being at home with 10-month-old Tavish is giving her a chance to re-think her old ways of doing domestic chores to reduce electricity consumption.
Now that the family is surviving on a single income, it's also a way to keep bills to a minimum.
"I can't do anything about electricity prices going up, but at least I can do as much as possible to reduce costs," she says.
"With me not working, we don't have the money to be wasteful."
Kelly was previously in the habit of doing all her washing at once and throwing it in the dryer.
However, since she started the Challenge, the Rutherford resident has learned to stagger her full washing loads throughout the week to ensure there's always room on the clothesline.
Also, where she used to defrost food in the microwave, she now plans meals ahead to allow time for thawing.
An energy monitor was installed in Kelly's kitchen as part of the Challenge, and has alerted her to some of the key power guzzlers around her home.
"I had something in the microwave and noticed some of the biggest numbers I'd ever seen on the monitor, so that encouraged me to stop using it so much," she says.
She's also using the eco cycle on her dishwasher, trying to keep showers down to less than four minutes and being more disciplined about switching off lights when she leaves a room.
In addition, her new eco switch turns all entertainment devices off at once, reducing standby power usage.
Alex Ross
For Alex Ross of Dundas, a playful approach has made a huge dent in his power bills: "I treat it like a game - I look at the energy monitor and try to get my daily (power consumption) average as low as possible," he says.
Along with turning appliances off at the power point when not in use, including the rangehood and toaster, Alex has turned the temperature up on his fridge to lower power consumption (DECCW recommends setting fridges at 3-4 degrees C).
A big behavioural shift has been trading his indulgent shower routine for a four-minute shower.
Before the Challenge, Alex would shower for 30 minutes while warming his towel in the dryer.
"The long showers used to wake me up, but now I can sleep-in longer, so it's win-win," he says. Through these efforts, Alex's power consumption is a third of what it was before he started the Challenge.