Your energy costs take up a huge chunk of your household budget. This is particularly relevant in WA where winter and summer can take temperatures to fairly significant extremes. The good news, though, is that there are some building tips that will help you lower your energy bills, not only today but in the coming years. Start saving on your energy bills and make sure your builder factors in these inclusions when building your home:
1. LED lighting
While lighting only makes up a small fraction of your overall energy usage compared to heating, cooking, and refrigeration, choosing LED lighting over conventional ones such as fluorescent and incandescent will have a huge impact on your energy bills. Compared to compact fluorescent bulbs, you can save up to 30 per cent on energy costs when you use LED lights. Since LED bulbs last for an average of 50,000 hours against incandescent bulbs that last for only 1,200, it means that you won’t have to change your bulbs as often either. This translates to even bigger savings and return of investment.
2. Full insulation
According to 2009 figures from the Office of Energy, heating and cooling make up a whopping 26 per cent of the typical energy usage in households in WA. This only comes next to water heating, which is at 31 per cent. This means having a well-insulated house is a must if you want your home to be energy-efficient as it enables your house to keep heat in during the winter months, and out during summer. This helps lower your need for heating and cooling throughout the year.
3. Solar passive design
A passive design is a type of design that factors in the climate in the area where the house is built so that a comfortable temperature range is maintained throughout the year. This means with a passive design, your house will not be too hot during summer, or too cold in winter. Depending on the type of design, this can help reduce or even completely eliminate the need for heating or cooling in your house. This translates to substantial savings, because as mentioned earlier, heating and cooling takes up about 26 per cent of a household’s overall energy usage.
4. Intelligent use of Thermal Mass
Thermal mass refers to a material’s ability to absorb and then store heat. Materials such as concrete don’t absorb and store heat easily so they have a high thermal mass, unlike less dense materials like wood, which have a low thermal mass. Knowing a material’s thermal mass will be important when designing a home, because when used intelligently, it can also help lower your energy bills significantly. When working with a builder, find out if and how well they use thermal mass in designing homes.
Saving on your energy bills starts with a well-designed house. Therefore, when you work with a builder, it helps to know exactly what their inclusions are to ensure that you don’t just lower your energy bills, but also eliminate the need for costly upgrades or renovations later on to make the home energy-efficient.