May the power be with you.

Well, after another massive power bill and the fact that it isn't getting any warmer around here, we are enforcing a power budget. Anyone who knows me will laugh at that, thinking I am normally on a budget anyway. Yes I know, but as time goes by I seem to slack up, and after watching old re-runs of environmental programs on TV I decided to kick our house back into shape.

I refuse to let us be cold, as that is how we seem to get sick. So we heat the room that we are in and only that room. Luckily thanks to my wonderful husband he had the forethought to get heat pumps put in the lounge and our bedroom ready for this winter. We already had a large heat pump in the main living area, but that is in the open living area. It has to heat the entire hallway, any rooms that are open and deal with the cold air coming up the staircase from the garage. So after spending last winter cold and still paying a massive power bill Hubby decided to take action. So we now heat the lounge (door closed) and the kids bedrooms when they are sleeping.


The following rules are ones I put in place mainly for me, as I am home all day so I am the one using the majority of the power, apart from those that I like to call the excessive shower-ers.

  • 5min showers, I am even buying shower timers for this, as the people in this house are notorious for having 20-30min showers and it drives me nuts. I haven't gone with the hard core turn off the shower after 5 min timers.  But just a crappy little one from Trademe. Although I have warned people that I will be randomly standing outside the door timing them to make sure they stick to the 5mins (meanie much).
  • I will only do one load of washing a day. Seems simple but with 2 kids and a hubby that works out a lot, it could become difficult. The thinking on this one is that I maximise the washing machine space and put no half washes through. I have put lots of plastic bins next to the washing machine so I can sort washing as I take it down there. Thus only washing the clothes in the bin that is full each day.
  • I will hang my washing outside or in the garage where possible, and any that needs to be dried quickly can be put in the drying cupboard (I haven't used the dryer in years, still not sure why someone as cheap as me has one). The drying cupboard is the special place I invented thanks to my mums idea. The spare room cupboard has now been converted to a drying cupboard with a dehumidifier in it. Rather than drying the clothes in the spare room dehumidifying the entire room. I am just dehumidifying the small space of the cupboard instead. Plus it comes with handy clothes hangers and a shelf. My mum has a special drying cupboard they got built into their new house, it has an air-conditioning duct in there. It is the most fantastic thing ever.
  • I will only use the dishwasher once a day. I tend to fill it up and when I have to wash baby's bottles I fill the sink up as I normally would, clean the bottles then do the rest of the dishes in the dishwasher, thus using the water I already had in the sink anyway.
  • Lights off when not in a room is normal for us.
  • Unplug any appliances not being used (apart from the TV, hard drive, surround sound as I refuse to reprogram the time every day). I told our house guest that I will check in his room as he constantly leaves his cell phone charger plugged in and on with no cell phone attached to it.
  • If I have the oven on (which I don't much as I use the crock pot most of the time) then I might as well make a cake or cupcakes as well..... I know that isn't saving power if I wasn't going to cook the cake anyway but my tummy gets happy from this.

Hoping this next power bill will be better, but due to the fact we decided this half way through the month, I don't see it being brilliant. Next month should be great as we are away for some of it. I have to say that I am not looking forward to the GST increase on power.  That is going to be a giant increase and a great incentive to cut back on the power.  Good luck and may the power be with you.......

Comments

  1. A Life Less ComplicatedAugust 8, 2010 at 4:33 PM

    This time last year I was in Katikati and my power bill was twice what it is now - I used to be hard pressed to keep it under $300. The only things that aren't switched off at the wall is the fridge and the phone - everything else is. I have long showers but Elijah jumps in at the tail end so our showering overlaps.

    Love the idea of a drying cupboard!

    ReplyDelete
  2. CadiAugust 8, 2010 at 4:42 PM

    Good luck! You seem very motivated.

    I lived in a poorly insulated house and the gas bills last year were a nightmare. I hope it will be better this year as this house has new windows, a new roof & good insulation. I'm thinking about getting heating units, because the drawback of having central air/heat is that you have to heat all rooms, which is such a waste.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Rant of the day - Whitcoulls book pricing

I was in central Wellington today, not a common occurance in my world as I don't really like it.  I had an appointment but also wanted to look for a certain book or set of books for my daughter.  They are Dora reading books that come in levels and encourage word recognition etc.  They are only thin books of about 10 pages each, I have seen them in Palmerston North for $4.50 each.  Well today I went to two city Whitcoulls, to find that the same books were $8.99 in one shop and $10.99 in another.  HELLO they are only 10 pages long and of average paper stock etc.  How can they justify the price tag of $10.99.  Esspecially when at the Whitcoulls online store you can get a 12 pack of these books for just $23 dollars. If you are wondering the reason I was looking in the shops is that I haven't seen many and I want to see what they are like before ordering them online, plus if they were as cheap or close I would have brought them instore.  I couldn't b...
Read more

Saturday night is alright for.....

Image
I got all excited on Saturday when I heard that the rugby was on. No I am not a rugby fan nor was I going to watch it. I was excited as it meant that Hubby was watching the rugby with friends and I could sit in the bedroom and watch whatever I wanted to on my TV. Antisocial much - mmmmmm I should probably work on that. You see when we lived in our small little house I often watched TV upstairs in the bedroom while hubby watched it downstairs. But it didn't seem too antisocial as we still talked to each other as the house was small and the walls were like paper. But when we moved to our new house, Hubby started getting extremely lonely sitting in the lounge. Two closed doors and a long passageway between us. You see although I have direct line of site, window to window, its pretty much soundproof. So we made a rule, that unless I was coming to bed to sleep, we would sit in the lounge together. Which often means that we both compromise on what we watch and that I never get to wat...
Read more

Taking time for mum

I had a light bulb moment this morning, mummy needs to book in "Me time". My light bulb moment occurred as I was about to have a shower and I realised that my leg and underarm hair was nearly a groomeable length. The leg hair I could handle, I mean after all it is winter. But the underarm hair, I actually screamed and jumped back with shock. OK to much information you're thinking, agreed but I needed you to realise that when you are a mum sometimes the simplest of things fail to get done. The problem is, that on the lengthy list of things to do each day kids are first priority, Hubby second priority (what he has the ability to take care of himself). The house is the third priority and Mummy is the last priority. On the majority of days mummy gets jumped off the list to another day (aka just dropped off the list altogether). Why does this happen? Mothers these days are highly educated intelligent people who have temporarily dropped their careers to take care of their...
Read more