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Social Media team
June 2026
Winter is here, and your home is working harder than you might think. Heating accounts for a big chunk of household energy use during the cooler months, but the good news is that most of us are losing energy (and using more of it) in ways that are surprisingly easy to fix.
These practical tips will help you get more out of every bit of energy you use this winter, so your home stays warm without your usage creeping up unnecessarily.
The number one winter energy mistake most households make
Running the heater at full blast and still feeling cold? The culprit is almost always draughts. Gaps under doors, around window frames and along skirting boards can let in enough cold air to cancel out your heating entirely.
A simple fix: grab a few door snakes from your local hardware store and run a bead of sealant around any obvious gaps. Sustainability Victoria estimates that draught-proofing can stop up to 25 percent of your home's heat from escaping. That's your heater working overtime for nothing.
Set your thermostat and actually stick to it
We get it. When it's cold, the instinct is to crank the dial. But every degree you raise your thermostat above 18-20 °C adds roughly five to ten percent to your heating energy use.
A few habits worth trying:
- Set your heater to 18-20 °C and use an extra layer of clothing or a throw rug to bridge the gap
- Use a timer so your home is warm when you wake up or get home, not heating an empty house all day
- Close off rooms you're not using and only heat the spaces you actually spend time in
Your split system might be working harder than it needs to
If you have a reverse-cycle air conditioner, a dirty filter forces it to work much harder to push warm air through, which means more energy for less heat. A quick clean of the filters takes about ten minutes and makes a real difference to how efficiently your system runs.
Also worth checking: most ceiling fans have a winter mode. Switching the rotation to clockwise pushes the warm air that rises to the ceiling back down into the room, helping your heater do less work.
Rugs do more than you think
Tiles and hardwood floors are energy black holes in winter. They don't hold heat, and the chill they radiate makes a room feel colder than it actually is, which usually means you reach for the thermostat.
Laying down a thick rug, particularly in rooms where you spend the most time, adds a layer of insulation between you and the cold floor and helps the room feel warmer at a lower temperature. Wool rugs offer the best insulation; cotton is a good option if you want something easier to clean.
Slow cookers: the most underrated winter appliance
Here's something worth knowing. A slow cooker uses roughly the same amount of energy as a traditional light bulb, far less than an oven. It also heats up your kitchen while it runs, which is a welcome bonus in winter.
Set it in the morning and come home to a warm meal without thinking about it. Your oven will thank you for the break.
Hot showers feel great, but they add up
Longer, hotter showers are one of the first things that change when the weather drops. If you have a gas or electric hot water system, this is one of the biggest factors behind increased winter energy use.
A few small changes that help:
- Try to keep showers to four minutes where you can
- If you have a smart meter or energy monitoring app, check your hot water usage separately, it can be eye-opening
- Setting your hot water system to 60 °C (for safety) rather than higher means it's not burning extra energy to maintain a temperature higher than it needs to be
Check what's keeping the cold out (and the heat in)
Before you reach for the remote, walk around your home and look for the easy wins:
- Close curtains and blinds as soon as the sun goes down to trap the day's warmth inside
- Use heavy or thermal curtains on south-facing windows, which get the least sun
- Check that your ceiling insulation is still doing its job, particularly in older homes where it can settle or thin out over time
- If you have an older hot water system or pipes in unheated areas, consider pipe lagging from any hardware store to reduce heat loss
Get to know your energy use this winter
One of the best things you can do this season is understand where your energy is actually going. If you're an EnergyAustralia customer, logging in to My Account gives you visibility over your usage so you can spot patterns and adjust before they become habits.
Small changes, consistently made, are what actually move the needle. And when your home is better set up to hold heat, everything else becomes easier.
Stay warm this winter.
Want to understand your energy use better? Log in to My Account at energyaustralia.com.au
