According to the adviser, Lauren Zell, solar is wasted if the house is empty for a good part of the time but a fridge or television that devours electricity could be costing you real money.

The adviser from the state government said: “We're not home during the day to use that solar and unless we put batteries on to complement it, the solar is just going to be exported out.”

A better alternative is to get hold a device to work out how much electricity different things like fridges or TVs or vacuum cleaners use and if it’s high change them.

She said that energy monitoring devises were easily available at stores and some libraries had them.

With this “energy monitoring”, she said “you might discover that you've got this really old beer fridge on the veranda which is costing you $1.50 which over 365 days is really significant for a household”.

She’s in Glen Innes as part of a state-wide drive to get electricity bills down and to cut energy use for the good of the planet. Her visit with what they call a “pop up energy shop” is in cooperation with the council whose environmental officer, Ian Trow, has also been involved.

Lauren Zell also recommended insulation: “Good curtains and draft stopping – those sorts of things. When you do use your heater or your cooler in Summer you're making sure you maximise the energy and the money you're putting into that machine. If it's going out under a door or through a spacey window, you're losing money”.

“I'd be having a look at how old your household appliances are and seeing what the wattage is, and going down to your local appliance store and seeing if they have something more efficient so when you do need to run those things on those really cold nights, you may be able to run them for half an hour less.”