How this woman keeps her energy bill to just $64
Meet Dr Kim Loo, whose electricity bill for the last quarter was just $64 thanks to a few simple changes she’s made over the past few years.
Seven years ago, Dr Kim Loo decided to transform her Sydney home to conserve energy and live sustainably.
“I have been trying to reduce my electricity usage for years for ecological and financial reasons,” she told the Hill Shires Times.
The mother-of two has slowly been introducing new energy saving features to her home.
She got two chickens, planted fruit trees, vegetables and herbs and had a 4000L water tank installed.
“It is sitting on the eastern wall of my house which insulates our family room,” she said.
“I changed my 45 halogen down lights to LED down lights (which) almost halved my power bill,” she said.
Dr Loo also installed a pergola with a colour bond roof to the side of the family room to reduce the radiant heat.
Last year her electricity bill was $260 per quarter. But Dr Loo knew she could do more.
She installed 4 KWH of solar panels, a first generation 7 kWh Tesla battery with smart Reposit technology.
“The software helps my battery trade in the National Electricity Market. My battery negotiates in the market place and buys energy when it is cheap and sells when it is high.
“My house runs on the energy from the battery when the sun goes down.”
Now Dr Loo’s mission is to show people they could do it too by “taking small steps” at a time.
It didn’t happen overnight for her, but after several years Dr Loo is happy with all that she’s achieved.