100% Renewable Power - You can Help

According to MBIE data, in the last quarter of 2022 renewables were 94.7% of our electricity generation - up from 81% in winter/June 2022.

Non-renewable sources (coal and gas) are used most when hydro lakes are running low and during periods of peak demand. For New Zealand our peak demand is between 5pm and 9pm during winter - this is when we arrive home and switch on heating, TVs, lights and household appliances.

9 WAYS YOU CAN GREEN THE GRID AT HOME

There are lots of ways you can help reduce our need for coal & gas electricity generation in your own home. Be part of the solution by trying some of these ideas.

Heating

1. Pre-warm your room & use the sun’s warmth. Switch on your heating at around 4pm to harness the heat from the day’s sun. This avoids a surge of heating during peak time if you heat the room from cold.
2. Switch from an electric heater to a Heat Pump. Traditional radiant electric heaters are cheap to buy however they plough through the electricity - ramping up your power bill and adding to peak demand.
3. Beef up your insulation. Don’t heat your roof space! To save on heating, make sure you’ve got a thick layer of insulation. Standards for ceiling insulation in new homes increase in May to an R-Value of 6.0. Most existing homes aren’t designed for that much insulation but we recommend R3.6 to R4.0 be used. It’s easy to add a top-up layer to what you’ve got.
4. Down a degree or two. Keep the temperature of your heat pump down a degree or two and remember a heat pump won’t heat any quicker by putting the temperature up.

Cooking

1. Defrost food in the fridge. Letting your frozen food defrost naturally in the fridge means you avoid using your microwave oven around dinner time. Your fridge also runs more efficiently as some of the cooling comes from the frozen food.

1. Slow cooker or one-pot dinners. Ovens and cooktops can use a lot of power. A slow cooker works through the day avoids power use during our peak electricity demand.
2. One pan dinners. Save on time and pot scrubbing by exploring fabulous one pot dinners using just your stove-top or roasting pan meals using only the oven. There are loads of one-pan recipe ideas out there - here’s 50 one-pan winners.

After Dinner

1. Delay your dishwasher & laundry. Avoid running your dishwasher or laundry appliances between 5pm - 9pm. If you’ve got a “delayed start” feature on your dishwasher or washing machine you can easily set it to run overnight and be ready to empty/hang in the morning.
2. Family-time entertainment. Enjoy one hour of family time after dinner with board games, cards or share a movie or TV show with just one electrical device before moving on to do your own thing.
3. Switch to LEDs. If you haven’t already - make the switch to LED lighting rather than traditional incandescent bulbs as they use a fraction of the power and won’t ‘blow” on a regular basis. If a house-lot of LED bulbs is too expensive - switch them one at a time starting with the most used lights.

Free Quotes & 24 Months to Pay

Prepare for winter and play your part in greening our power grid with free home assessments and quotes for heat pumps, insulation top ups and LED downlights. All can be paid for in 24 equal monthly payments interest-free, fees-free.