If you’ve noticed your energy consumption skyrocket since working from home, you’re not alone! This is something many who have been working from home the best part of 2020 have experienced due to the extra daytime use of air con, lighting and devices.

With working from home more becoming the norm for many Australians for the foreseeable future, it’s time to think about how you can keep your power bills down and avoid bill shock in the future.

5 simple tips to keep energy consumption down when working from home

Install solar

If working from home looks to be your future then now may be the time to think about installing solar to power your home. Harnessing the power from the sun during the day when you’ll be using it most could save you hundreds of dollars a year in power bills. The cost of your install will pay itself back and start saving you money in reduced electricity bills in no time!

Use energy efficient light bulbs and devices

To reduce your energy consumption, you could swap out your light bulbs with LED globes where possible, they save up to 50% in power! Turn off devices that you’re not using such as printers and consider a laptop over a desktop, they use up to 75% less power!

Turn things off when not in use, including lights

Avoid turning every light in the house on as you move around during the day. If you leave one room and enter another, turn the lights off/on accordingly. Only rooms that people are using that require light should have the lights on. The same goes for your devices, if you’re not using them they should be turned off, not placed on standby mode. To make life easier you can plug your devices such as laptop, phone charger, printer, lamp into a power board so you can turn them all off at the flick of a switch when required.

Make the most of natural light

Even better than having the lights on during the day, make the most of the natural light in your home. Set up your desk in a light, bright area. Not only will this do wonders for your power bills, natural light is great for your mood too.

Use air-con mindfully

Although you can utilise breezes from fans and open windows to keep you cool, there is little chance of avoiding the need to ever turn the air con on, especially in summer. Instead of turning your air con on and setting to 18 degrees in an attempt to swiftly cool your home down, keep it set to 24 degrees in summer – even a degree either side can make huge differences to your power consumption.