Exactly, signates. Nicely put.
In most households, making hot water and cooking require the most electrons in the wire. Get that more efficient but in a non-disruptive way if possible. I went for a heat pump for daily hot water, rather than pure thermal solar - mainly because it works on overcast days, night or day, winter or summer, at about a third of the electrons required to heat a metal coil.
Gas for cooking, of course. Even though it's about the same price as electricity, sometimes even more expensive. But at least it's available at my instance rather than someone else's.
Then the heavier domestic labour-saving machines: laundry, dishwashing mainly.
Then cooling systems. Like fridge. For regular summer house cooling I went for two Oz-style evaporative coolers, which work very well in the Little Karoo. Their only power draw is for the fan. No compressor. They use water, though.
For heating in winter I've recently installed two new-tech inverter-based aircon systems - mainly to replace the high-consumption oil-element heaters which really chow power. Their inverter switches AC to DC so the DC compressor can run with lower draw, saving energy. And I have a
Scan DSA-7 wood-burning fireplace in the lounge.
Pool and irrigation pumps also require power, of course. If you're starting out new, get low-energy/efficient ones. If not, it's probably better to put the price diffs into more panels and inverter.
