St Vincent de Paul's energy analyst Gavin Dufty releases his forecast for power prices next week.

Carbon pollution policy will increase the average bill by $200, the introduction of smart meters will add another $80 and what are know as dynamic tariffs could boost that by another $200.

"Expect to see the biggest prices increase, or the start of the price increases in Victoria and then we'd probably suggest Queensland and then followed by New South Wales," Gavin said.

More stories from Today Tonight

• Recession Busters: Groceries
• Recession busters: Medicines
• Recession Busters: Telecommunications
• Recession Busters: Home, car insurance
• Recession Busters: Health insurance

There is not much we can do about what the power companies charge so we are being encouraged to control what we use.

Anne Armansin is employed by Origin Energy to show customers how to reduce electricity consumption.

"We can all do something about it," she said.

"I have noticed over the decade that people are willing to if they do get a high bill they'll call and say help us."

Some easy options involve changing behaviour, so for every degree an air-conditioner will use 10 percent more electricity and even after it has been turned off by the remote it is sucking power.

Every appliance on standby 24/7 can chew up to 15 watts of electricity. It soon adds up.

"There are about 27 appliances in the average house that use standby power and it amounts to about 800kw of wasted power a year," Anne said.

That amounts to $160 a year. If we all turned off our appliances at the switch across the country we would save enough power to run every home in Western Australia.

There are gadgets to help, power boards that cut standby power by turning off one appliance.

Anne said our most power hungry consumers are Generation Y.

"They're filling their rooms with big screen TVs, games and high powered computers and they have a lot of fun," she said.

Ed Parker is one person who is being careful and has gone from power consumer to power generator.

Photvoltaic solar panels produce more power than his family can use so instead of getting $300 bills every quarter, he is getting $300 cheques.

"We're actually returning better that 7-8 per cent on that extra investment," he said.

The pool filter is another power-hungry device. It runs eight hours a day and in winter it does not have to.

"You can drop it down to either four or two hours depending on what your pool supplier tells you," Anne said.

Then there is the hot water.

Choose an off peak tariff for your hot water system. Switch to solar if you can or an energy efficient heat pump.

Energy saving tips
1. Switch appliances off at the wall or get standby power saving power boards.
2. Use fans instead of air-conditioning, they use one-tenth of the power.

3. Replace old light bulbs with efficient globes.

Related links

Saving energy
www.energystar.gov.au
www.energyinstitute.com.au