Case study
KEY METRICS
Still, he was sick of getting shocked by his bills every month. He invested in a 10KW solar system in the hopes of lowering his energy costs. His bills did fall, but the savings were nowhere near what Alex was expecting.
“I still had a lot of bill pain, I was feeling the cost-of-living crisis, so I wanted to cut expenses. I was obviously doing something wrong, but I didn’t know what.”
While searching for a way to reduce his energy bills, Alex stumbled on EnergyFlex.
Within minutes, Alex found himself taking action.
“I found my way to an action on the app, which was to ask my energy retailer if they could give me a better deal. I clicked it, not expecting to hear back. But, to my surprise, my provider emailed just one day later, offering me a better plan. Two more clicks and I was on a new plan, saving $1,000 a year. It was an instant return for downloading the EnergyFlex app. No complicated sign-up processes or plan comparisons. I was super impressed.”
To be fair, Alex’s energy retailer had told him that he wasn’t on the best plan, but he questioned the advice.
“For some reason, I didn’t trust them when they told me. I needed someone else to tell me. EnergyFlex was like a trusted third party that verified my retailer’s advice. Sometimes it’s easier to trust an independent party.”
Now that he was on a better plan, Alex wondered what more he could do to reduce his bills.
Alex says the insights and education on EnergyFlex prompted him to change his behaviours.
“I was surprised to see that most of my energy use happened in the evenings. I felt like we were using a lot of energy during the day, but the data doesn’t lie. Seeing it visually represented was really useful because it shows you how bad the problem is, but also how to fix it. It forced me to have an honest conversation with myself about how I was using energy.”
Alex’s family of five often used the dishwasher, dryer, and washing machine at night.
Describing himself as a “one thing at a time kinda guy”, Alex decided to start with the no-cost ‘Delay the Dishwasher’ action on EnergyFlex. They loaded the dishwasher at night and set the timer to turn on at 08:30 the next morning, when the sun is shining.
“Nobody has the energy to unpack a dishwasher before coffee anyway. I’ve never used the timer on my dishwasher. Now I understand why it’s there!” says Alex.
“This one change hasn’t really impacted our life, but it has impacted our bills.”
Alex is also getting more out of his solar system by using more energy during the day. “We try to use more of our solar when it’s generating because selling power back to the grid is incredibly uneconomical.”
With EnergyFlex, Alex has realised that the energy optimisation journey is “a series of little behavioural tweaks, not one or two big bangs”.
“It’s easy to work on one thing at a time. Sometimes you need someone to tell you exactly which behaviours to change.”
“Our washing machine broke recently, which we’re very excited about,” Alex laughs. “Now we can get a washer-dryer combo – with a delay timer! – so that we can do both the washing and drying in one cycle during the day. Five people produce a lot of laundry, so that should make a huge dent in our bills. So, that’s the next thing. I don’t know what comes after that, but I’ll check EnergyFlex again once we’re in the new laundry habit.
Alex also wants to increase his EnergyFlex Rating to above 3.
We’ve got a way to go but I think it’s a good target. I hadn’t thought much about my emissions but seeing on the screen, in front of my eyeballs, that I was emitting 24 tonnes of emissions was shocking; it’s pretty horrible.”
For now, he’s “enjoying the solo jam”.
“It’s kinda fun, this process of discovery. I’m enjoying going through the journey myself but appreciate that I can speak to an energy expert if I get stuck or need advice on what I could have missed.”
“It’s all very straightforward and the data is displayed in an uncomplicated way. I like that the app makes suggestions that don’t cost anything to implement. It tells you what you can do now, using the resources you have now, without having to spend any more money. That makes a real difference.”
Acknowledgement of Country
In the spirit of reconciliation we acknowledge the traditional custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.
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