Saving energy at home helps you lower your electricity costs. With our energy savings tips, you can save electricity and lower your energy costs without having to compromise your comfort. In many cases, it costs nothing more than a changed behavior.
Many small efforts lead toa. big result. Because when you have lit in empty rooms, a towel dryer that is always warm and the TV in standby mode, you consume unnecessary energy. This leads to high costs and a less favorable impact on the climate. Below we list lots of good tips on what you can do to save energy at home, which in turn reduces your electricity costs and makes you a bigger environmental friend.
Electricity consumption – your energy use makes a difference
The temperature indoors
Heating accounts for a significant portion of a household’s electricity consumption. Here is a lot of money to save. It is usually expected that heating consumes approximately 75-125 kWh per square meter per year. The variation depends on the age of the house, the insulation, the climate of the resort, the indoor climate and the energy levels of the residents. The next time you raise or lower the heat, keep in mind that just one degree reduction will reduce heating costs by about 5 percent.
Five simple energy savings tips to save on heating
Close-fitting windows and exterior doors. By using sealing strips, you can easily reduce the amount of cold air entering the home, through windows or doors. If you have a house – feel free to look at insulation on the wind, for example. About 15 percent of the heat dissipates through the roof.
Avoid covering the elements with furniture or large curtains. The air in the rooms needs to circulate in order to best heat your home.
Lower the heat in rooms that are rarely used, such as the hall. In addition, a lower temperature in the bedroom often contributes to better sleep. When you travel away, you don’t have to be so warm at home. Turn off the heat on the elements, and turn off the towel dryer and underfloor heating if you have it.
Curtains and blinds help keep the cold out while keeping the heat in the room.
Hot water
A family of four people consumes an average of 4,800 kWh per year on water heating. It is possible to influence consumption through changing habits and by installing efficient taps and nozzles. With low-flush taps you can significantly reduce the supply of hot water without compromising comfort.
Five simple energy saving tips for saving on hot water
- Shower quickly and efficiently instead of bathing in the tub. By reducing the shower time from 15 to 5 minutes, you save 60 cents per shower.
- Turn off the water as you soap, shampoo your hair or brush your teeth.
- Change gasket on leaky cranes. A tap that drops can lead to increased energy consumption equivalent to 700 kWh every year. This corresponds to about 100 EUR, which goes to the dripping water.
- With flushing showers and taps, you can significantly reduce water use. You will not notice any difference. Except for the electricity bill, when water consumption decreases by as much as 40 percent.
- Do not wash your hands under running water, but use a sink or tub instead. Under a quarter of a hand wash, about 75 liters of water is consumed.
Lighting
Incandescent lamps draw an unnecessary amount of energy, and lighting accounts for more a large portion of the household electricity. The old incandescent lamps are extremely inefficient. Only 10 percent of the energy for a light bulb becomes light, the rest heat. That is why the EU has decided to phase out the light bulb.
When all light bulbs are gone, electricity consumption is estimated to decrease by 39 billion kWh in the EU
Five simple energy savings tips to save on lighting
Having the right lighting in the right place makes a difference. For example, there may be stronger lighting where you work and more limited general lighting. It prevents unnecessarily high energy consumption.
In some rooms, installing a dimmer can be a smart investment. You save energy while creating a more harmonious and cozy atmosphere in the room.
Always turn off the lights when leaving a room. Hard to remember? For example, use light sensors, motion detectors or timer.
For your outdoor lighting, you can either install a twilight sensor that turns off the lights when the daylight is bright enough, or a motion monitor that turns on the lights when someone comes near the lamp.
If you have places in your home where you can use fluorescent lamps, such as a storage room or cellar, this is an optimal choice. Fluorescent luminaires have a long service life, are energy efficient and are available with different color reproductions.
Washer and dryer
When buying a new washer, dryer or dryer – look for the energy label and compare how much electricity the different models draw. Energy class A has the lowest energy consumption. Dryers usually draw less electricity than a drying cabinet. Keep in mind that buying a product with a good energy rating can pay off in the long run, even though it is more expensive in purchasing.
Five simple energy-saving tips for the laundry room
Wash with a full machine. It is unnecessary to machine wash individual garments separately. The washing machine consumes almost as much energy half full as full.
If you have lightly moist laundry, skip the pre-wash and use the washing program on your washing machine instead.
If possible, choose a lower wash temperature.
Air-dry the laundry (preferably outdoors) instead of using a tumble dryer or dryer.
Adjust the drying time in the drying cabinet to the amount of clothing. Smaller clothes dry faster than a full dryer cabinet. The same rule applies to drying.
Fridge and freezer
Both your fridge and freezer can be great energy-savers. New refrigerators and freezers draw significantly less electricity than older models. If you are going to buy new appliances, choose the energy label A, A + or A ++. It can pay off, in the long run, to buy more expensive, but more energy-efficient products. The temperature in the refrigerator should be +5 degrees and in the freezer -18 degrees. Each additional degree of colder energy consumption increases by about 5 percent.
Five simple energy savings tips for fridge and freezer
- Let the food cool and cover it well before setting it in the fridge or freezer. If hot food is put in the fridge, unnecessary energy can be used to cool it down.
- Keep clean behind your fridge and freezer. Regular dusting of the refrigerator prevents the cooling units from being pushed to work harder.
- Freeze from the freezer when there is ice in it. Twice a year is usually enough. An iced freezer draws much more energy than one that is frozen.
- Should you defrost food from the freezer? Take it out well in time and leave it thawed in the fridge to take advantage of the fridge.
- The food “feels better” by being thawed naturally in the fridge instead of in the micron.
- Make sure the fridge and freezer have tight doors or doors, and replace the moldings if broken.
Stove, oven, and dishwasher
Stoves with glass-ceramic hobs and induction hobs draw less energy than a traditional hob with cast iron plates. If you also use lids when cooking, you will use 30 percent less energy than without lids.
A modern energy class A dishwasher can withstand a dish of 10-20 liters of water, depending on the program being run.
Measurements show that when washing by hand, between 75 and 100 liters of water is consumed, depending on the amount of dishes. Don’t forget to look for energy labels when you buy new appliances and compare how much energy the different models draw.
Five simple energy saving tips for stove and dishwasher
- Take advantage of the after-heat – switch off the oven or plate a few minutes before the food is done.
- Turn off the dishwasher’s drying function if possible. The dish dries with the help of the after-heating and air dryers if you open the door.
- Do not use the cooker hood longer than necessary – it draws out large amounts of hot air.
- Cover the saucepan when cooking food or water.
- Use the kettle instead of the stove. If all Swedish households would boil two liters of water in their kettle today, instead of boiling in a pan on the stove, we would save households to 50,000 villas!
Consumer Electronics
Home electronics accounts for one-fifth of household electricity and is the proportion that increases the most. Therefore, ask about energy consumption when buying new appliances. Thinking about upgrading TV? Keep in mind that energy use can triple in a switch from 28-inch picture tubes to 42-inch plasma TVs.
All appliances in the home that are not turned off with the power switch consume energy when in standby mode. How much electricity you can save is very different. On average, a total of 250 kWh a year goes to all the appliances in your household. Also, be sure to turn off the computer and all accessories with the power switch, and unplug the battery charger when not in use.
Five simple energy savings tips when using home electronics
- Feel free to connect the appliances to a power outlet. Then you can easily switch off all appliances at the same time.
- Hibernation for computers may sound good, but even computers that are in hibernation consume electricity. It is therefore optimal to shut down the computer when not in use. Be sure to enable the computer’s power saving feature.
- New TVs often have energy-saving modes that can automatically adjust the picture to the light in the room with the help of a light sensor. This helps reduce energy consumption by about 50 percent if it is dark in the room.
- An external digital box can draw as much energy as a smaller TV per year. If you have a separate digital box, you should check if it can be turned off without having to do a new channel search every time you restart it.
- Choose energy labeled electronics.
Leave a Reply