Practical tips for making your home more energy efficient

Seasonal maintenance

New Zealand homes have quite a reputation for being poorly insulated and drafty. This allows the warm air that your heating is working hard to produce to escape and let cold air back in, meaning your heating must constantly work to maintain a comfortable temperature for you and your family.

To minimise this, it is recommended to install ceiling and underfloor insulation and ideally have wall insulation and double-glazed windows. However, this is an expensive undertaking. There are other solutions to double-glazed windows such as applying a clear film over the frames of the windows, over the glass, creating an air gap giving them great insulation qualities. Foam strips can also be placed in door and window frames and under-door seals to eliminate drafts. It is also important to perform maintenance on your heat pump or fireplace such as cleaning out the filter or sweeping the chimney.

Smart home integrations

There are now plenty of smart home devices and energy-efficient appliances on the market, such as LED lights, smart wall sockets, and heat pump hot water systems.

Lighting accounts for around 15% of an average home’s power use, which is roughly $350 per year. LED lights use up to 90% less energy and last up to 25 times longer than traditional bulbs, so if you were to replace your home’s lighting with LED’s you could save about $300 a year on your power bill.

It’s estimated that Kiwi households each waste about $100 a year on powering appliances on standby. That may not sound like a huge amount, but it’s still roughly 7% of an average yearly bill which is a significant price for powering things we’re not using. Smart sockets can reduce the amount of energy wasted by turning off appliances at the wall during times when they are not in use. This is perfect for such things as home entertainment setups and desktop computers/printers.

Solar power 

Solar power has come leaps and bounds over the last couple of decades in terms of efficiency, yield, and price. A system that may have cost $40,000 ten years ago is likely to only cost about $10,000 in 2024. 

Though the upfront cost is still considerable, it pays to think of the long-term gain. For example, if you were to have a 5kw system installed for the price of $12,000. This is likely to pay itself off after 6 to 8 years due to savings on power bills and credits from your power provider for exporting excess electricity. Giving you free electricity for the remainder of the system's 25-year life. Which on average works out to be $50,000. Not a bad return on investment.