It's not just since the energy crisis that environmentalists have been urging people to save electricity. This not only protects the planet but also saves money. But getting started is often challenging. Knowing which appliances consume high energy, where there's potential for energy savings, and which energy-saving measures have a visible impact on your electricity bill is difficult for a layperson to understand and nearly impossible to implement in the busyness of everyday life. With our tricks and tips for saving electricity, we want to give you tools to significantly reduce your electricity costs. You'll find out exactly how in the following article.
Saving energy in everyday life: Our electricity saving tips
Many energy-saving tips are obvious: unplugging your phone rather than leaving it plugged in, turning off the lights when no one is in the room, and, of course, using energy-efficient electrical appliances. But overall, it's the less obvious measures that demonstrably reduce electricity consumption. It will probably take some time for you, as an electricity consumer, to incorporate the following tips into your daily routine. But once you implement them, your electricity bill will certainly convince you to establish an energy-saving tip routine.
Cool with less energy
To keep the energy consumption of refrigerators as low as possible, there are a few things you should consider:
- Do not put hot dishes in the refrigerator.
- Set your freezer temperature to -18 degrees and open the door as infrequently and briefly as possible.
- Beware of ice: Defrost your appliance regularly, whether it's a refrigerator or freezer, and make sure to use NoFrost when buying new appliances.
- The temperature in the refrigerator should be around 5 degrees Celsius in the bottom compartment and 7 degrees Celsius in the top compartment. Just one degree higher means six percent less electricity consumption.
- Save yourself the expense of extra cooling appliances and buy a refrigerator with an integrated freezer compartment instead.
Kitchen and cooking
Hardly any other room contains so many electrical devices that are permanently connected to the power grid—and in some cases, they have to be. Simply flipping the power switch isn't always the easiest solution, because an interrupted cold chain is unacceptable, just as you can simply unplug a stove from the high-voltage power grid. Of course, such electrical devices in your household still affect energy consumption, and the electricity meter constantly ticks over. Fortunately, we have our tips for saving on energy costs.
- Instead of boiling, cook. Vegetables, pasta, rice – all these foods have one thing in common: they don't require boiling water to cook.
- Every pot has a lid that fits. And every pan, too. With a lid, you lose less heat and thus save electricity, because less energy is needed to heat the contents of the pot.
- Only fill your kettle with the amount of water you need.
- Convection circulates the heat in the oven and not only uses less electricity, but also shortens the cooking process.
- Avoid preheating and use the residual heat from your oven
- Always load your dishwasher fully and select low temperatures, preferably with the Eco program.
- If you don't use devices all the time, you should unplug them; this can save you up to 100 euros a year.
Use less energy in the bathroom
A secret energy guzzler is the instantaneous water heater. If your water is heated by electricity and you use an instantaneous water heater, you should make sure the temperature is set exactly to your shower needs. Otherwise, the device will heat much higher than necessary – and will do so continuously. And you can also save money on laundry:
- Always load your washing machine to its full capacity, but never more than the manufacturer's instructions allow.
- Low temperatures are usually sufficient to wash your laundry clean
- If you can't hang your laundry outside, you should choose a high spin cycle to use less energy in the dryer.
- Use eco programs and avoid short programs.
Digital Natives – Saving electricity in the household despite multimedia devices
We're digital natives; smartphones are an integral part of everyday life, and laptops and tablets are always with us. At home, the latest game consoles wait in front of the oversized TV, and technology fascinates our generation. We don't need to delve into the impact on your energy consumption here. But we can give you tips and tricks on how to reduce your energy consumption despite gadgets:
- Pay attention to the energy efficiency rating of your appliances. The higher the rating, the lower your appliance's consumption. Use power strips with power switches so you can easily turn appliances on and off as needed.
- Laptops instead of desktop computers! These consume significantly more power than portable devices, but a tablet performs even better and, depending on what you use your laptop for, might even be a more cost-effective alternative.
- Almost all devices have a power-saving mode or sleep mode, including smartphones. Use them not only to save power but also to take regular breaks.
- Don't leave chargers plugged in. They continue to consume power, even without a device connected.
- If everyone's asleep, Wi-Fi isn't necessary. Simply turn off your router using a schedule or timer.
- LEDs use up to 90 percent less power
Reduce your electricity costs and save money
Once you've eliminated all energy guzzlers and developed a routine for unplugging devices that consume power in standby mode, you can reduce your electricity costs by up to €100 a year. Leaving the lights off more often, drying laundry in the sun, and unplugging the TV at night makes a much bigger difference than you might have imagined. And once you see the first repayments on your electricity bill instead of additional payments, and you can celebrate successes, the tedious task of saving energy will quickly become a cherished routine. We hope our tips for saving electricity in the home have helped you significantly reduce your electricity costs despite rising electricity prices.
