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How you can safeguard your energy spend against the dry, hot Aussie summer

Get ready for the heat.

Get ready for the heat. Photo: Getty

This coming summer, hot and dry conditions, policy uncertainty and rising gas prices are all pointing to one outcome – wholesale power prices hitting record highs.

Prices are expected to rise by $30 in 2020, an increase that would add about 10 per cent to the cost of a typical household annual power bill.

This comes amid Energy Minister Angus Taylor’s failed attempts to wrangle Australia’s energy retailers and demand that power prices be lowered.

Instead, profit margins for power retailers remain high, and confusion over big discounts and their potential to disguise inflated prices remains common among consumers.

For now at least, it’s up to consumers to make sure they’re not being ripped off.

The first and most important thing to do is regularly compare energy plans in your area. That’s because prices fluctuate constantly, contracts expire and new retailers enter the market regularly.

If you’ve never compared, or it has been more than a year since you did, there’s a very good chance that simply switching to cheaper energy could save you hundreds of dollars over the year.

Here’s how you do it

Step 1: Go to ElectricityandGas.com.au

Step 2: After answering a few questions, you will have the opportunity to compare quotes in your area and could be eligible for significant savings.

Next up is making sure you’re not on an expensive standing offer with your energy provider.

About 80 per cent of us won’t be. But if the initial contract you signed up on has expired, you could be paying higher rates than people on a market offer.

If you’re looking to cut your power usage, the most important thing to do is get out of the house, especially if you work from home.

During the summer months, you’re probably going to use a whole lot more power as you run the air-conditioning to stop you from sweating it out at home.

So schedule your weekly shopping for the hottest day of the week and spend the warmest hours inside some cool, air-conditioned shops, or work from the library instead of working from home.

Our last tip is to use, or at least reuse, your hot water wherever you can.

That means chucking on a cold wash, taking cold showers, reusing water from the bath when you water the flowers, and never pre-washing your dishes before you put them in the dishwasher.

While this will certainly pull down your power usage, the quickest and easiest way to save is to simply make sure you’re paying as little as possible for your power.

There are hundreds of dollars between the most and least expensive plans on the market and with Electricity & Gas you can compare energy plans in minutes and get cheaper power today.

When you use our service you get access to no mark-up policies from energy providers across Australia, making it easy to find the best deals in your area.

So compare energy plans in your area today and discover what you could be saving.

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