Use a Helpful Electricity Bill Calculator to Help Save Money on Your Power Bill!

Electricity Bill Calculator

Post on June 13th, 2015

Saving money is easy with an electricity bill calculator

Did you know that shortening your shower time by just 2 minutes a day is enough to conserve 0.8 tonnes of CO2 and save you up to $100 annually on your electricity bills, you can learn that with an electricity bill calculator?

Yes, it’s true. By making helpful changes around the house in everyday activities, you can save hundreds of dollars each year by eliminating unnecessary expenses on your electricity bills. Even better, you can start out by using a helpful electricity comparison service like ElectricityWizard to make sure that you are paying cheaper rates by comparing from a wealth of preferred electricity retailers near you.

How to save on annual power bills with an electricity bill calculator

The South Australian Department of Premier and Cabinet provides a helpful tool that helps you determine the total running costs of your appliances, and therefore calculate the cost of your electricity bill. This allows you to shed some light on how and where you use energy around the house. This electricity bill calculator is intended to show you how much money it costs to run specific appliances at home, so you can pinpoint where you need to reduce your use, and in turn reduce the amount of greenhouse gas emissions your household is creating.

When you use this handy electricity bill calculator, you can make an accurate assessment of your electricity usage at home. Even more importantly, you can discover ways to conserve energy to benefit the environment and keep your hard-earned money in your bank account.

But if you’re more of a hands-on type of energy user, and enjoy numbers, then there’s no reason why you don’t look closer to home: you can be your own electricity bill calculator. With just a bit of detective work and a regular old calculator, here’s how you can do your own electricity bill calculations:

1. 1. Find out how much you’re paying per kilowatt hour (or as they say, “unit”) of electricity. To do this, get your latest bill and have a look at the unit price. This is usually stated on the back page.

 

1. 1. Look at each of your appliances and see how much power they use per hour, in kilowatts (kW). You can usually find this information on a sticker somewhere on your appliance, and if not, check the user manual. If the appliance is rated in watts, then divide that number by 1000 to get your kilowatt rating.

 

1. 1. Estimate the hourly running cost for the appliance, by multiplying the input power rating by the price of your electricity per kilowatt hour. For example, if your washing machine uses 150 kilowatts per hour for a cold wash, and your electricity cost is 28 cents per kilowatt hour, then you can work out that this costs 42 cents per hour to run.

 

1. Estimate the average use of each appliance. This one might take some thinking, but be sure to be thorough.

And there you go: from here, you should be able to do a rough electricity bill calculation of your own. If nothing else, you can work out how much each appliance costs to run per hour, and see what you can do to reduce your use.

Think of it this way: do you really need something like your clothes dryer plugged in and switched on all day, every day? It can as simple as that to work out where you can reduce your electricity use. And all thanks to a simple electricity bill calculation.

Save on power bills by reducing your energy use around the home

Reducing your electricity usage might seem like a big task. But we’ll let you in on a secret: it’s not that hard. There are plenty of little things you can do, everyday habits that you can change, that all add up to make a big impact on your energy footprint.

To give you an example, in your living room alone, there are dozens of ways that you can conserve energy to reduce your monthly electricity costs:

• Turn off your TV when it is not in use. Don’t leave it on standby mode.
• Power off your laptop computer when it is not in use to conserve up to 60 W of electricity.
• Switch out regular light bulbs for high-efficiency fluorescent or LED lights in high-traffic areas; this will save you up to 80% on your average electricity bill!
• Don’t set your air conditioner to cooler than necessary. Just a 1°C change in your air conditioning could decrease or increase your electricity bill by 10%.

The process really is that simple, specially when you use an electricity bill calculator. When you use less electricity and save energy around the house, you’ll pay less on your annual power bills. Energy conservation is equally important to pass down to your children so that they can become responsible homeowners to reduce the number of greenhouse emissions that are released into the environment.

Here are some more of our favorite, easy tips that you can do today—and even right now!—to save energy, reduce your utility costs, and do your bit for a greener planet.

• • Summer can be tough, but instead of automatically switching on the air con, why not consider using natural ways to cool your house instead? Before the sun gets up, make sure all the curtains, blinds, and windows in your house are closed—this keeps the majority of the sun’s rays out of your rooms, and helps keep your house cooler. Then, once the sun has gone down, open up your windows and let in the cooler evening air.

 

• • Another tip to avoid the air con is to use your fan instead. Fans not only move the air around the room, giving you a constant breeze, but they use up to 80% less energy than the air conditioner, allowing you to save up to $200 a year on cooling.

 

• • Okay, okay—on those 40°C days, we all want to use the air con. When you do use it though, set it between 23°C to 26°C; it might not sound like it’s cool, but it feels much, much colder than whatever it is outside. Keeping your air conditioning around these temperatures means it’s quicker to cool down your house, and every degree that you adjust the temperature can save up to 10% on your air con’s energy use, giving your significant savings in the long term.

 

• • We’ve already mentioned the dryer, but think about it again: we’ve got such lovely weather in Australia, so why not dry your clothes outside instead? Swapping just four loads of laundry out of the dryer and onto the clothesline can add up to $150 a year in savings. Not bad at all for a quick fix, is it?

 

• And speaking of cooling, do you really need to use two fridges? The average four-person household can survive comfortably with just one fridge, so having a second fridge just for your drinks isn’t only a waste of energy, it’s also a waste of money. Older models have been shown to use up to two or three times the amount of energy as newer, more energy-efficient models; so get rid of the drinks fridge, and save yourself a couple of hundred dollars a year.

They’re all simple changes, but sometimes it takes some scrutiny to switch your mindset around your energy use. To make it easier, just go into each room of your house and think to yourself: do I need this appliance on?

There are quite a few ways that you can get reduce the power bills for your home. Whether it’s by conducting a simple electricity bill calculation or doing an all-out electricity company comparison to see what other offers are out there, you’ve got options available to you.

In fact, we recommend undertaking both approaches, so you can get the most out of your savings, and see your way to paying less on your bill for the long term.

We’ll be honest though: if you just want something quick and easy, this can all sound like a lot of work.

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Getting an electricity comparison the right way

At this point, you’re probably mentally exhausted just thinking about it. Doing an electricity comparison isn’t easy, and many energy brokers don’t do it correctly. This is where ElectricityWizard comes in. We’ll do a comparison the right way, ensuring we cover all the critical elements when comparing energy providers.

We will:

• Compare apples to apples, to make sure you’re comparing the right plans that you’re actually likely to use. It’s no use comparing a business plan to a residential plan, when you’re living in a small unit with a family of three.
• Ensure your chosen supplier offers a payment method that suits you. Whether you want things taken care of easily with direct debit, or you prefer doing it yourself with Bpay, we’ll look into it for you.
• Protect you from “unexpected” rate rises. After all, we’re here to help you save money on your bill—getting hit with surprise fees doesn’t exactly help with that!
• Make sure you are free to move homes without penalty. Moving house is stressful enough as it is.
• Protect you from a contract with other massive penalties.
• Get you the “solar buyback” that you deserve (for solar system users, of course).
• And much, much more!

It’s never been easier to compare energy providers than with ElectricityWizard. Call now on 1300 359 779 and speak to an energy specialist who will help you find the deal to best meet your needs.

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