Browse Forums Eco Living 1 Sep 06, 2012 9:14 am In my home there are two adults and five teenagers. We use gas for hot water and the oven and stove. I've been telling the kids to have short showers but no one is listening. We have four showers and especially this past winter, the kids have been languishing in very long hot showers. Our electricity bill was $340 and our gas bill was the highest ever at $615 for the past three month period!! We are about to sell our house and move elsewhere and am planning to use whatever technology is available to keep a lid on power costs in our next home. My question is what would be the preferable source of power for our next time? What is best to power the oven and stove - should I use gas or go back to electricity? And hot water - gas and solar? - or is solar overrated and not so good without good rebates? Penny for your thoughts... Re: Power savings - gas and/or solar / and or electricity??? 2Sep 09, 2012 1:50 pm For the stove, gas all the way although most manufacturers these days seem to offer electric only or gas cooktops with electric ovens. Hot water - I'd recommend solar with gas backup. Not a cheap item to install but worth it in the long run. In your situation though you would have to look at a big system to cope with the no. of people in your house. You also have to train the kids. Either fine them for long showers ( take money off their weekly allowance ) or do what a friend does and one we have recently implemented here - give them four minutes then turn the water off. Works every time. Stewie Re: Power savings - gas and/or solar / and or electricity??? 3Sep 09, 2012 8:39 pm i would agree with Stewie about the gas oven. We have recently finished a big renno and went with an electric oven, and regret it a little. While we love the new oven, it is one of the main culprits when it comes to our power bill. We have led lighting, so were looking foward to a much reduced sting from the power bill but didnt get as big a reduction as hoped for. Absolute top on your shopping list is a condensing HSW. We installed the rinnai enviro (got it at nearly the same price as a regular unit) and our summer gas bill was ....a pleasant surprise. Can anyone ever say a gas bill was that lol? Easily a better option than solar, as the start up costs are no where near as high. With 3 people in the house (2 being girls who love hot long showers) we used a total of 34mj a day ...thats a dollar a day. Re: Power savings - gas and/or solar / and or electricity??? 4Dec 30, 2012 1:59 pm you know what they are talking of bringing the price up of next? I can't see exactly how they can sugar coat the Gas supply system though Slooowwwwly getting a Manhatten 35 in Middleton Grange Would also like an opinion from anyone that has used xcem over hebel for floors. Thanks 1 14221 2 15462 Our relationship with the owner is good, but I'm not sure if I want to impose putting a pole on their property. Your conversation with your neighbour must have gone well… 4 9315 |