Timer systems, off switches key to energy efficiency at home

By MONIQUE DEVEREUX

Installing timer systems on heated towel rails and switching off the television at the set instead of the remote are some of the easiest ways to save power - and money - in the house, says an energy scientist.

Michael Camilleri works for the Building Research Association (Branz) on a long-term energy efficiency study called the Household Energy End Use Project (Heep).

The project began eight years ago and measures the energy use in households. Branz says the project aims to understand current and future national household energy requirements, and will be used as a tool to evaluate the implications of building and appliance performance changes.

Households all over the country have been studied, most recently 200 homes in Wanganui, Wellington, Hamilton, Auckland, Waikanae and Christchurch.

Each house was monitored for about 11 months.

Dr Camilleri says turning appliances off completely instead of using the standby function might save each household "a modest amount".

"You might save $5 or $10 a year per appliance at a maximum, but of course with lots of appliances like this in each house and 1.4 million houses around New Zealand, it all adds up to tens of megawatts of power being unnecessarily used."

He said heated towel rails, depending on size, cost around $100 a year to run if they were left on all day, every day.

But a single load of washed towels put into the dryer and run on a high setting for 90 minutes would use around 50c of power.

"Obviously you could do a couple of hundred loads of those for the cost of running your heated towel rail."

Timer systems can be installed to curb the amount of time rails are left running unnecessarily.

EECA chief executive Heather Staley this week said households, which used only a third of all electricity, could save two-thirds of Project Aqua's energy if each installed five energy-efficient lightbulbs, switched off half their appliances at the wall when not in use, insulated all pre-1986 hot water cylinders and had solar water heaters installed in every new house built.