The Ultimate Guide to an Energy Efficient House

An energy efficient house is something many of us aspire to achieve, especially since using less energy makes a positive impact both on the planet and our bank balances. None of us wants to pay for wasted energy consumption, and wasted energy just adds to the problem of climate change.

Want to know how to enjoy a comfortable temperature indoors, minimise heat loss in winter and keep your energy use in check all year round? Let’s go through all the energy-saving tricks and renewable energy systems out there so that you can have an energy-efficient home and a clear conscience. And possibly save money along the way.

Doors and Windows

Even a person with the bare minimum vaguest interest in how to save energy will surely know the old advice about closing doors and shutting the curtains on chilly nights. Taking advantage of this simple approach is easy across all living areas of your house. The Australian Government’s Energy website suggests:

• Shutting the doors to any unused rooms of the house.
• Seal gaps around doors and windows to minimise heat loss in winter.
• Change your light summer curtains for heavy drapes that keep the heat indoors.
• Make the most of natural sunlight during the day by opening curtains or blinds on north-facing windows – it can be a great way to cut back on artificial lighting.

By sealing, shading and shutting wisely, you’ll keep winter’s chill outside where it belongs and enjoy a cosier home for fewer dollars.

Home Insulation

One of the easiest ways to improve the thermal performance of your home and make your house much easier to warm or cool is with the use of insulation. When it comes to home energy efficiency, the more insulation, the better.

Back in 2009, the Australian Government’s Home Insulation Program was established to kill two birds with one stone. It was designed as an economic stimulus following the Global Financial Crisis by encouraging homeowners across Australia to install ceiling insulation (and partially subsidising their purchase for doing so). And in doing so, they could increase energy efficiency by insulating thousands of houses across the country.

Though the government wound up the initiative just a year later, the energy efficiency principles behind it remain relevant to this day. It’s not particularly hard to install insulation batts in the ceiling. Wall insulation, however, can be expensive and disruptive to retrofit. But if you want a truly energy-efficient, comfortable home, wall insulation is well worth the investment if you’re building or extending.

Energy Efficient Home Appliances

To continue our exploration of how to create an energy-efficient house, the energy-consuming appliances you use definitely go a long way.

There is little point in spending up big to insulate the ceiling, only to then go out and buy the least efficient heater on the market. This will almost certainly negatively impact your energy usage. You know the deal – 1 star bad, 5 stars better, 10 stars best. The same thing applies to all home appliances. The washing machine, dishwasher or fridge you select should consume the least amount of energy possible to deliver the results you are after, whether that is clean clothes, sparkling dishes or cold beer.

Using Those Appliances Efficiently

You might have acquired the most energy-efficient washing machine or dishwasher, but you’ll squander those green brownie points if you use it to wash only half a load or less of clothing or post-dinner dishes.

Be energy efficient and only do full loads to maximise the minimal amount of energy expended by your 5-star whitegoods, helping to reduce overall energy demand.

Hung out to Dry

If you take the notion of energy efficiency at all seriously, then I’m afraid that you have to seriously consider doing without the clothes dryer. In energy efficiency terms they just don’t cut the mustard. It’s much more energy efficient, and is in fact a venerated Australian tradition, to hang your clothes on the clothesline to dry. In winter or during the Wet, a cheap (or even an expensive) clothes horse or clothes airer does the job. That rare circumstance where you must quickly dry some clothes can be resolved by popping into the laundromat with a handful of gold coins. But your clothes should be dry after a night inside a properly insulated and efficiently heated home.

Brighten Your Home and Slash Energy Bills with LED Lighting

Upgrading to LED lighting is one of the simplest, most cost-effective ways to deliver significant energy savings to your home.

Modern LEDs use about 80% less energy than traditional halogen bulbs. Swapping every remaining bulb, we’re talking everything from candle lamps to ageing fluorescent tubes, can do the following:

• Instantly improve light quality
• Support motion-sensor automation
• Cut carbon emissions

All without sacrificing comfort.

By reducing household energy demand, LEDs complement renewable energy systems such as grid-connected solar panels, help meet National Construction Code energy-efficiency standards, and secure a brighter, sustainable future while saving money.

Gas or Electricity?

The most vexed question regarding the energy efficiency of home heating and cooling is whether you should be using gas or electricity.

It all comes down to how much you pay for electricity and how that electricity gets generated. If your power is mostly renewable energy, such as wind-generated, you are not helping the environment by burning a fossil fuel like gas, which increases carbon emissions. Besides that, with a highly efficient energy-star-rated reverse cycle air conditioner, you are very likely to be paying less to heat your home than with a gas heater.

So the traditional answer, being that you should use gas because it is cheaper than electricity and not as damaging to the environment, doesn’t always hold true. Especially these days, with heat pump-powered technology being the most energy-efficient solution of them all.

Free Renewable Energy

The need for gas diminishes even more if you install solar panels to harvest from one of the most renewable energy sources, the sun. In summer, the peak cooling time for your high-energy star-rated air conditioner coincides with the sunshine, so you can generate the power to run your AC and keep cool for nothing.

Ultimate Guide to Energy Efficient Hot Water

This brings us to the other big player in home energy use besides heating and cooling, hot water.

The usual advice is that electric storage hot water systems are the worst performers because they use a lot of energy to keep a big tank of water piping hot. That’s true if your power source is the main grid. If you have solar panels, though, it is more energy efficient (though not necessarily cheaper) to have electric storage over gas continuous or gas storage. You heat the water during the day with free sunshine, and the insulated tank keeps it nice and hot through the night.

The electric storage units are the cheapest on the market and have the added bonus of delivering that hot water at mains pressure.

Solar Hot Water

However, if you are not troubled by the higher installation cost, a solar hot water system is the most energy-efficient. Using renewable energy from the sun for the exclusive purpose of heating water reduces reliance on artificial heating and makes a big difference to your energy bills. For gloomy winter days, or even just cloudy days, there are backup gas or electric boosters. Therefore, you are not sacrificing your comfort for an energy-efficient house with solar hot water.

The Way Forward To An Energy Efficient House

So, an energy efficient home has good insulation, 5-star rated appliances, solar panels, a clothesline, no draughts, good curtains and an empty kettle on the kitchen benchtop. If you’re in Victoria and building a new home or making significant renovations to an existing property, you’ll need to ensure it meets the energy efficiency standards of the National Construction Code.

Beyond compliance, every upgrade slashes household energy use and unlocks significant energy savings year-round. Start today and turn your house into the benchmark energy-efficient house for sustainable living across Australia.

Please note: Thanks for reading our blog “The Ultimate Guide to an Energy Efficient House”. This information is provided for advice purposes only. Regulations differ from state to state, so please consult your local authorities or an industry professional before proceeding with any work. See our Terms & Conditions here.