Australian House & Garden

Confessions of a Carbon Cop (or “surely that can’t be my bill”)

What is your feeling when you get your energy bills? Dread? Excitement? Curiosity?

In some strange, nerdy, Carbon Cop way, I enjoy it. I like to see how I have done in my efforts to reduce my energy use. Walkin’ the talk and all that!

Much to my shock and horror, my bills for the winter quarter had almost doubled. We went from using 6kWh/day to using about 12kWh/day which amounts to a fair wack of money and emissions.

I breath deeply and start super sleuthing - what could have change in the last 3 months that would cause it to double?

Here is what I came up with:

• Electric heater: It was winter and was dropping to below zero most nights so we would run the small electric oil heater in baby Sammy’s room.
• Vaporiser: I ran a vaporiser in Baby Sammy’s room when he had a cold for a few weeks. This thing is basically a mini kettle boiling away all night to create a bit of steam to combat the dryness.
• Hot water use: Baby Sammy has been having a small bath every night (how much can I blame on Baby Sammy!)
• Clothes dryer: I had used the clothes dryer about three times over the last three months when the weather was so foul, the clothes were building up and nothing was drying (excuses, excuses)
• Halogens: We have been home a bit more at nights and running more lights, especially the halogen down lights in the living area.
• Stand-by: I have been slack turning off my lap-top computer at night
• Heating: The ducted gas heating has been set more at 19’C rather than a lower 17’C
• Oven: I might have been cooking too many cakes!
• Meter: The guy read the meter incorrectly.

There are some big energy users in there and it is easy to see why the bills were so high. (anything that heats up something is going to use lots of energy)

In some sort of crazed moment I donned my Carbon Cops uniform (for motivation of course) and set to Carbon Copping myself! Here is what I have done.

• I put a timer on the heater in Sammy’s room so that it only turned on from 2am – 6 am and only if it was below 16’C. I also dressed him in a wool sleeping bag.
• I have put a lush plant in Sammy’s room to provide some moisture. No more vaporiser unless he is really snotty!
• No more clothes dryer. If it is raining or damp I hang out any wet washing in the warm Sammy room to dry over night
• Really watching how much we turn on the halogen lights. Bought a floor lamp at Trash and Treasure and fitted with compact-flouro bulb to provide mood lighting.
• Set my laptop to shut-down automatically at 9pm.
• Shut off vents in the office, bedroom and bathroom so we are only heating living spaces. Thermostat set to 18’C.
• Invested in another hot water bottle!
• If the oven is on I cook lots of cakes, bake quinces, cook the eggshell, roast pumpkin, bake spinach pie and generally go baking mad. This often results in the oven being on for five hours rather than one but somehow I feel it is justified.


It was so easy to do I can’t believe I didn’t do it earlier. That is the sort of kick-in-the-behind you need every now and again to get you back into action.

So if you are opening your bills with trepidation and not excitement and it is much more than you expected, do a bit of super sleuthing and see where you can make cuts. If you are having trouble working out where it is all going drop me a comment here and we will see if we can work it out.

• Posted By: Going Green at 4.27PM

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