Five ways to stay warm this winter (without the bill shock)

Heating and cooling make up nearly half of the average Australian household's energy use. Five changes, most of them free, can meaningfully cut that cost this winter.

For a typical Australian home, roughly 40% of total energy use goes toward keeping the place warm or cool, climbing as high as 50% in colder or hotter climate zones.[1] For most households, that makes it the single biggest lever available for cutting a winter bill, bigger than lighting, appliances, or hot water combined.

1. Seal the gaps before you do anything else

Uncontrolled air leaks, the small gaps around doors, windows, and fittings that let warm air escape, and this is responsible for somewhere between 15% and 25% of a home's winter heat loss.[2] It’s also the cheapest fix on the list. Door snakes, self-adhesive draught strips, and a rug over bare floorboards can address most of it for a few dollars at any hardware store, with no professional installation required.

2. Set the thermostat and leave it there

18-20°C is the recommended setting for winter heating,. Each additional degree above that can add somewhere between 5% and 10% to running costs.[3] Layer up, use a hot water bottle, and save the reverse cycle air conditioner (which uses 1,000-3,500 watts, compared to 50-100 watts for an electric blanket) for when it's genuinely needed, rather than leaving it running all day.

3. Let the building do some of the work

Close thick curtains closed at dusk tp keep the day's warmth in. During daylight hours, leave north-facing windows uncovered so they can pull in some free solar heat, and keep south-facing windows covered since they don’t get much sun anyway. This costs nothing, but only works if you keep it up.

4. Only heat the rooms you are using

Close the doors on rooms you are not in and concentrate your heating where you spend time. There’s less air to warm up this way. It's a habit change rather than a purchase, and it works just as well in a terrace house as a two-bedroom apartment.

5. Shift lyour energy use to off-peak hours

If you’re on a time-of-use tariff, an increasingly common arrangement across NSW and Victoria, you’ll pay a lot less for electricity used overnight, typically before 7am or after 10pm on weekdays.[4] Running your dishwasher, washing machin, and hot water system in these windows can cut your bill without cutting your usage. The government's Energy Made Easy comparison tool can tell you what tariff you’re on and when your off-peak windows are.

Who these fixes don't reach

All five strategies help any household reduce its bill. But for the roughly one-third of Australians who rent or live in apartments, there's a bigger problems underneath all this: rooftop solar was built with homeowners in mind, and it doesn't reach people who don't own their own roof.

Community solar changes that. When a building's residents collectively own a share of a local solar installation, the savings and the clean energy benefits extend to everyone in the building, not just those with the right roof and the right ownership structure.

Curious how community solar could work for your building, co-op, or street? Get in touch at info@pingala.org.au.

References

[1] Australian Government, "Heating and cooling," energy.gov.au and yourhome.gov.au [2] CSIRO (2015), cited in Australian Government, "Insulation and draught proofing," energy.gov.au [3] Australian Government, "Heating and cooling," energy.gov.au [4] NSW Government, "Tips to use energy when it's cheap and save money," energy.nsw.gov.au; Energy Made Easy, energymadeeasy.gov.au