Decreasing Household Expenditure

For our lives to be more self-sustaining we needed to look at ways of decreasing our expenditure. With utility prices rising, this was a primary goal. Most of our lighting had already been converted to either fluorescent tubes, energy efficient bulbs, or down lights. Our first task was to get into the habit of turning off the lights unless someone was in the room. We used a floor lamp in the lounge room when possible and turned off the light when watching TV. Our computers (2 of them) were moved into the one room so that shared lighting and heating was utilised. Electrical utensils were turned off at the power point when not in use e.g. kettle, toaster.  We use a jug to fill the kettle with only the amount needed to be heated.

We have two bathrooms, so when visitors were not here we flushed only on each fourth use, using half flush – a saving of 9 litres each time. For brown waste we flushed on half flush rather than full flush and only re-flushed on half if necessary. A further saving of 3 litres each time. The savings on water meant that I could use my bath, which I restricted to once a week. The dishwasher was used only when it had a full load, and the sink was only partly filled then more hot water added as needed, rather than being full and having to let water out to get more hot water (or do another wash). Washing clothes is now done at night during off peak hours.

I decided to purchase solar energy. At the present there are government incentives to make this easier. We now have 8 solar panels and are just waiting for the job number for the electrician to connect us to the grid. We received a rebate for purchasing before a certain date, and a government guarantee to purchase the energy generated for a seven year period. This will effectively pay for the installation, over that period.