Mum’s desperate move to heat home

Everyone is feeling the pinch from cost of living pressures, with many Australians forced to get innovative to cut down their energy bills and ease the strain.

About one million Australians are expected to see their energy bills rise by up to 24 per cent next month, according to the Australian Energy Regulator.

Rental prices are climbing to unimaginable heights and demand continues to outstrip the short supply of affordable rentals on the market.

It has forced countless tenants to make cuts to their budget where they can, just to keep up with the rising cost of rent.

Homeowners have not been spared either, with interest rates sending mortgage repayments through the roof and forcing many families to tighten their belts.

The methods being used by households to cut costs largely range from cutting back on energy zapping appliances like heaters to switching energy providers.

As the cost of living crisis deepens, Australians are getting smarter and more resourceful with their money saving hacks.

Heating up the home

Single mother, Vanessa, said she’s come up with unique ways to stay warm by collecting off cuts of insulation from kerbside collection and building sites and putting it in the roof herself.

She said she does this to try and have a more comfortable home from extreme temperatures and save on energy costs.

“It’s about the comfort and cost, it’s about the comfort of the family that have to rent,” Vanessa said.

“None of the other houses I have rented had insulation, landlords will say ‘you’ve got a house, too bad’ and then that’s it.”

Vanessa said she’s now installed her own insulation from collected scraps in her past two rental homes because there’s simply no way her family can cope in the hot summers and cold winters.

“If it was a hot day, the house would be easily over 40 degrees, and the roof would be over 50 degrees (before the insulation),” she said.

“I’ve tried to do every passive thing I can, even when it’s a summer’s day and hosing down the roof hoping the house cools down quicker.”

Brisbane renters living in insulated housing are saving $545 on average a year in energy costs, according to new research from Renew.

Renew policy and advocacy manager Rob McLeod said he wasn’t “surprised” the amount of savings is so significant for people with insulated housing.

“Requiring insulation as a minimum standard was found to save Brisbane renters around $450 a year in energy bills for cooling and heating alone on current energy prices.

“That amount is going up (in July), when you take into account the rising cost of energy the savings would be $545.”

Mr McLeod suggested rental properties with energy efficient options, like having insulation and dark proofing, should be made a priority for landlords and the government to reduce cost and improving living conditions.

“Landlords should be providing healthy homes and be providing better energy efficient homes as it’s in their own interests to have happy tenants who are likely to stay,” he said.

Sealing out the winter cold

Brisbane pensioner Susanne Dance also has worked hard to improve energy efficiency in order to reduce rising costs.

Ms Dance said despite living in a small one bedroom flat, her “energy bills always seem to be really high all the time”.

She said she’s tried many things to reduce costs but still her bills continue to soar.

“One of the things I do is I have a really big window that faces the road, partly for privacy and partly to keep the heat out in summer, I bought these inserts that sit up along the window sill,” Ms Dance said.

“It does help because it was becoming unbearable in my room in summer and in winter you can freeze.”

Ms Dance said her pension card helps to keep costs down but she will need to speak with her energy provider soon to see how she can cut down further.

Mr McLeod urged governments to consider having energy efficient standards in rental properties to protect renters in the long term.

“Lots of renters are making a choice for what they pay or living in a healthy home,” he said.

He said the long term answer is to get more renewables coming online and placed the onus on government to ramp up the process.

“Solar and wind, that will happen in the medium term but over the course of the next couple of years there still could be pain ahead,” he said.

Switching to solar

A Sydney mother-of-two is planning to make a major investment in a bid to save money further down the line.

Ashleigh Notley plans to install rooftop solar after she discovered she could be saving a whopping $2,190 a year on her electricity bill.

It could save her family almost $30,000 over the next decade which would set them up to be able to send their children to private school or go on more holidays.

The family has grown over the last year and so have most of their bills. The last one came in at an eye-watering $800 for the quarter.

“We moved to a bigger house during Covid because we were having another child,” Ms Notley said.

“The bills have just been pretty high since then,” she said. After daycare fees, groceries and all the other costs which have soared in recent months, Ms Notley said she has been forced to make savings where she can.

“It’s kind of hard to stay on top of it and then have anything left over to you know have fun,” she said. “The only holiday we have been on was because we had a credit left over from Covid.”

Energy expert and Solar Analytics chief executive Stefan Jarnason said last month that his company has seen a huge increase in customers desperate to cut down their energy costs.

“Most of us have recently received a shock electricity bill that was much higher than we expected, but it’s going to get worse,” he said.

The Notley family have estimated they could save $29,450 over the next 10 years if they install solar panels.

The average person pays their solar system off within six years of installation and the Notley’s are looking at a total cost of up to $13,000.