If you live alone, chances are, you use less energy than a three-person household. But does this equate to a cheaper bill?
There are many benefits to living alone: no arguments over buying toilet paper, free reign over the television remote, and not being woken by the blender at 5am because your flatmate just needs to start the day with a green smoothie. But cheaper energy bills?
Could sharing a house with others help slice a chunk of money off your energy bills? Picture: Kate Hunter
If you’re energy aware, you probably think you’d save on your energy bill by living alone. I mean, you wouldn’t have to pay for your housemate leaving the lights on or having thirty-minute showers. But living with flatmates means splitting the cost, so could this scenario actually leave you better off? We did the maths to find out.
Will my energy bill be cheaper if I live alone?
If we take an estimated energy price of $0.3 (30 cents) per kWh and use the federal government’s Energy Made Easy Benchmark Calculator, we can calculate the average cost of energy per annum by household size.
| Residents per household | Annual energy consumption | Annual cost | Annual cost per person |
| 1 | 3388 kWh | $1016 | $1016 |
| 2 | 5141 kWh | $1542 | $771 |
| 3 | 5396 kWh | $1618 | $540 |
| 4 | 6632 kWh | $1990 | $497 |
| 5 | 7530 kWh | $2259 | $452 |
While these statistics are based on an average household in Sydney, NSW, the trends still apply across every state.
If you’re a parent with children and you’re fronting the bill yourself, more people in the house equates to a larger energy bill. But if you’re sharing the house and subsequently sharing the cost, splitting the load of the washing machine could be worth sharing the load on your wallet.
Tip: If you’d like to know the exact difference between your bill and the average in your suburb, you can use the calculator along with the price you pay for energy, which you can find on your energy bill.
Ask for a better deal
If you’re paying more than you think you should be – and perhaps even if you’re not – the first thing you should do is call your energy provider and ask for a better deal.
That’s because most standard offers provided by energy providers – default, energy deals that don’t include discounts – typically charge consumers much more than market offers, which you have to actively pursue.
More likely than not, you’ll be on a standard offer if you’ve never switched providers, or if you’ve been with the same one for a very long time. You can shop around for a better deal online, or simply ask your provider to improve your current one.
All you need to do is give them a ring. And we’ve got all the digits you need here.
How can I save on energy if I live alone?
Just because you likely pay more on energy than your share-house friends doesn’t mean you should resign yourself to permanently elevated bills. There are lots of ways to reduce your consumption, and living alone means you can make these changes without needing to first convince a handful of others.
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For starters, make sure that you limit your energy usage to one room at a time. So, if you’re settling in for a bit of sofa time in the living room, turn off the lights and heating in the kitchen, bathroom and bedroom. And close any doors to prevent hot air from escaping.
Next, get in the habit of turning off appliances at the power point when you’re not using them. Standby lights cost more than you think, and forcing yourself to bend down to a power point every time you instinctively reach for the remote will encourage you to reconsider that troublesome TV habit.
Finally, take control of your climate. Around 40% of home energy goes towards heating and cooling, and the easiest way to cut total spend on these two functions is to embrace a spirit of moderation.
Set your heating between 18°C and 20°C during winter; your cooling, between 25°C and 27°C during summer. For every degree you increase heating and cooling, you’ll consume between 5% and 10% more energy, and so it pays to give these temperatures some time to make a difference before reaching for the thermostat.
How can we save on energy in a share house?
The key to saving money in a share house is to synchronise your activities so that you minimise the total usage of every appliance.
This means cooking dinner together, rather than using the stove on three different occasions to cook three different meals; asking your housemates if they have clothes that need washing every time you do a load; and using the dishwasher collectively instead of hand-washing individually.
It might pay to get chummy with your housemates if you want to save energy. Picture: Kate Hunter
Conflicting schedules and differing palates mean you won’t be able to cook together every night, but doing so once or twice a week will have a noticeable impact on your bills. And only using the dishwasher and washing machine when they’re full to the brim is plain common sense.
To get off on a good foot, make sure you set some ground rules on energy when you first move in, too. Work out how much air conditioning usage is acceptable, how you’ll try to conserve energy, and whether the avid gamer should pay a higher proportion of the bill to cover their increased level of consumption.
How can we save on our family energy bill?
With larger bills and fewer breadwinners, families have arguably been hit the hardest by Australia’s recent power price surge.
Before you get stuck into any significant upgrades, though, you should make sure that you’re all on the same page when it comes to heating, cooling and lighting. Chat to your kids about the importance of using energy frugally, and set some easy-to-understand ground rules for them to follow.
Once everyone understands why they should wash their clothes in cold water and stick on a jumper rather than turn on the radiator, you can turn your attention to improving the energy-efficiency of your home and the appliances within it.
Window coverings can go a long way to trapping air and warming your home. Picture: Penny Lane
Do the simple things first – a draught stopper by the front door; weather seals on windows, skirting boards and skylights – and then consider adding ceiling fans to reduce your dependence on air conditioning, or buying a pair of well-fitted curtains or blinds to trap a layer of air next to the window.
Once you’ve made your home draught-proof, set ground rules on heating and cooling, and improved your window efficiency, it’s time to upgrade your appliances. Using the government’s energy rating label, work out whether you could save money in the long run by buying a new fridge or boiler.
Finally, talk to an insulation specialist to improve your home’s insulation, and consider adding a well-placed eave to shade you from the summer sun. Both of these changes will help reduce your heating and cooling needs, which, in turn, will reduce the amount you pay.
This article was originally published on
3 Apr 2019 at 9:32am
but has been regularly updated to keep the information current.