Last June the new electricity bill came into force in Spain, a rate model based on time slots That has made many of us rethink the daily use of our electronic gadgets and devices to try to save a few cents every day that gradually add up to a few euros at the end of the month.
As we discussed a few weeks ago, washing machines, refrigerators, ovens, air conditioning, radiators, dishwashers and ceramic hobs, are our best allies in domestic tasks and life, but also those who more electricity they spend. They are followed by TVs, computer equipment, network devices, mobiles, etc.
How can we reduce spending at the end of the month? As there little things we can do at home and that after a few days or weeks of adaptation they come out almost naturally. Next I am going to tell you my personal experience and seven easy steps that we are already taking at home to save with the new electricity bill.
Laundry is done on weekends and at a low temperature
The washing machine is responsible for about the 7.3% of energy expenditure in homes, with up to 80% of this figure related to heating the water for the washing process.
Until June at home he would play several times during the week, without looking at the time we did it. Now we have changed and left the laundry chores to the weekends, at which time the cost of electricity is lowest.
We also select low temperature wash modes, whenever possible and that the clothes are not very dirty. In addition, we have the machine revolutions at the lowest values that our model allows us (between 500 and 600 rpm) and we choose to hang our clothes outside.
Mobile phones, laptops and gadgets are recharged at 00:00
It may seem a bit of a stretch to have to wait for charge the mobile at 00:00 at night, since the electrical consumption and the associated cost of one of these devices is very small, however, it is a good habit as long as we can do it and that there are many of us at home or that we have a hungry swarm of devices around us.
If you have to recharge 4 or 5 mobile phones every day, 3 laptops also daily, an occasional tablet and several wireless headphones every two or three days of use, in the end it can be a small savings every month if we do it in the hours of less consumption.
We put the dishwasher on from 00:00
The dishwasher is another of the appliances that consumes the most if we choose operating modes in which it has to heat the water a lot, especially above 60 degrees.
In my case, except to wash something specific that needs such a function, we always use the ECO mode and we’ve gotten used to leaving it ready for the night already turn it on from 00:00. It’s not as loud as a washing machine, so it doesn’t bother as much while you’re doing your job.
If you have a modern model that comes with a deferred start-up, you can leave it prepared with the dinner dishes and go to bed, it will start working by itself after the time you have programmed it.
Turn off computers and devices at night
We have connected most of image, sound and Internet equipment main room to a power strip and so we leave them all turned off at night so they don’t waste.
It may seem low consumption, but as we saw a few days ago, leaving the routers, network equipment, NAS, WiFi amplifiers, etc. They represent a small large expense at the end of the month that is adding to the total bill.
Here is a note. If your TV is a OLED model you can not disconnect it from electricity directly, since when you turn it off from the remote it stays doing for a few minutes, in the background, internal settings to keep pixels in optimal condition and avoid image retention.
Every time I don’t use it, I put the PC in “sleep mode”
The computers of before were slow computers that took an eternity to boot and maybe that’s where I got the habit of not turning it off when I wasn’t using it for a while. Later they took out the “hibernate” and “sleep” modes, the latter very useful to reduce consumption and have an almost instantaneous start when it is turned on again.
Until now I only used it if I was going to spend a lot of time with the computer without doing anything, for example to go to eat or something similar. But now I have resumed the good habit of suspend the computer every time I leave the desk for more than 5 minutes. If you have a desktop computer with a high electricity cost, your bill will thank you at the end of the month.
We take advantage of the residual heat from the oven
It is also useful to take advantage of the residual heat from the oven by turning it off a few minutes ahead of time. At home we have already been using this heat to cook several dishes at the same time but also one after the other, avoiding having to reheat the oven from scratch.
Of course, we open the door as little as possible In order not to waste heat and if the dish to be prepared requires being more than an hour, such as a barbecue, we do not put it first to preheat and then we begin to prepare the food, but we do it the other way around so as not to waste energy for no reason.
We maintain a temperature of 25 degrees in the air conditioning
When you are hot and you have an air conditioning unit, you may be tempted to set the temperature as low as possible that the unit allows you to cool the room as soon as possible.
This uses more energy than if you maintain a stable average temperature constantly during the hours that you will be in the room. For example, in my case we have it set to 24-25 degrees during most days and thus avoid excess electricity consumption.
Setting the machine to values below 17 degrees (minimum temperature of many models) when it is more than 40 degrees outside what you will achieve is not to cool the room before, but rather that the compressors are permanently running at full power trying to lower those additional degrees, without taking advantage of the advantages of the inverter models (since it will be very difficult for them to reach it and it can be maintained without operating the equipment) and with a higher electrical cost.
Photo | Kari Shea