Energy

Tasmania is in the fortunate and unique position to be able to be a 100% renewable energy island. Until recently, we relied totally on our hydro electricity, however with average household energy consumption rising steadily, we need to reduce consumption and invest in other renewable technologies to meet our energy needs.

Improvements in household and business energy efficiency are often low cost and simple to do and is widely acknowledged as being the easiest way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions overall. Making simple changes at home is something that we can all do to make a difference. Agriculture and Industry are still by far the largest energy consumers, but many of them are also looking at ways to increase efficiency. Reducing Tasmania's energy demand also has the added bonus of securing more of our "clean green" hydro power to export to the mainland, which strengthens our economy.

Interestingly, in Tasmania, we often believe that we don't get enough sun to make solar power effective and that there is plenty of water and therefore do not need to conserve this precious resource. Neither of these is true! Tasmania actually averages about as many sunlight hours as southern Spain... it's just not as evenly distributed throughout the year. And while we don't have a shortage of water at the moment, conserving water reduces the strain on our sewerage infrastructure and massive energy consumption used to pump it from where it falls to our homes.

Top 5 hidden energy consumers

1. Heaters – set heaters between 18°C and 21°C. Only heat the areas you are in, shut doors to keep the heat in the room with you. Ensure your windows are covered with heavy curtains or blinds which seal at the top and bottom. Seal draughts around windows, doors, vents, etc. If you are cold, consider putting on a jumper rather than turning on the heater.

2. Standby power – Standby power is the power that is used by appliances while they are waiting to be used. Basically, they are constantly drawing a small amount of electricity so if you turn them off at the wall you can reduce your electricity usage by up to 12%! Some of the common culprits of standby power use are televisions, chargers (phone, computer, etc), heat pumps which are not turned off at the fuse box in summer, and anything with lights, clocks or other displays.

3. Halogen downlights – Installing halogen downlights became very popular in recent times, but be careful, these little lights are actually huge energy consumers! Not only does each individual light use about 50 watts, but each also has a transformer that uses an additional 10–15 watts. If you have 6 of these in your kitchen you will be using 390 watts compared to 100 watts from an incandescent or 20 watts for a compact fluorescent (CFL)! If you want to keep your downlights, but switch to a more energy efficient version, both LED and CFL versions are now available.

4. Refrigerators – one of the only appliances that is left on 24 hours a day, everyday of the year, so doing a few simple things can help reduce the energy used by your fridge considerably. First, ensure that the door seals are in good condition. A good way to test this is by placing a 5 dollar note in between the door seals and gently pulling and sliding it down the side of the door. If it falls out or moves very easily, your seals may need replacing. Next, make sure that the coils at the back of the fridge are clean and have good air circulation around them. Ensure that your fridge is running at 3–5°C. Finally, a full fridge actually retains its temperature better, as long as air can still circulate easily. So, if your fridge is sparse, fill some containers with water to fill up big gaps.

5. Hot water – Hot water heating is responsible for 25-45% of the average Tasmanian household’s energy use. Taking short (3 min) showers, insulating your tank and pipes, fitting a water efficient showerhead, setting the washing machine to cold water, and setting the hot water thermostats to 60 deg C can reduce energy consumption dramatically.

Did you know?

• We spend around $90 a year just on lighting our homes? You can reduce this by up to a third if you replace all your incandescent globes with fluorescent tubes or compact fluorescent light bulbs and turn off unnecessary lights.
• Every 1°C higher that you set your thermostat adds 10% to your heating costs.
• Aurora Energy offers a 100% green power option in Tasmania. You can opt for anywhere between 10% and 100% of your electricity to be sourced from new renewable energy projects. Customers pay a surcharge based on the percentage of GreenPower chosen. Talk to Aurora today!