When we spoke to energy assessor Lucinda Flynn, she helped us with a bunch of simple ways to make homes more energy efficient.
But why should your place be energy efficient? What are the benefits?
Here’s seven reasons why energy efficiency at home is important.
You'll save money on your energy bills
When you have an energy efficient home front of mind, there’s a bunch of different things to consider around the house. Think lighting, switching from gas to electric, draught proofing, the design of your home and how you use different rooms, different materials and types of insulation. Each of these energy efficient actions adds up – to less energy and less money spent on electricity bills. The difference between a 6 star energy efficient home (the current Government standard for most new homes) and a 10 star home (the dream!) could be thousands of dollars saved in bills each year.
Your house will be comfortable year round
When they’re properly designed, energy efficient homes can make the most of sunlight and insulation to keep a home at the right temperature all year round. That means using insulation like natural or glass wool or, even, straw-bale or hemp, to build and insulate your home.
Resilience during power outages
Another advantage is that if you're not reliant on artificial heating and cooling, you won’t be as reliant on power supply, either. That means if there are power outages caused by heat waves, storms, or a wild winter, keeping cool or warm inside your home won’t be an issue.
You won't need to get up off the couch to turn your heater on
A major benefit of having an energy efficient home is that they're easy. You don’t need to get up to turn any heaters on, you don’t need to find the remote for the air conditioner. If you’ve got a “smart” home, with heaters and things controlled through an app, you won’t even need to pick up your phone.