Electricity in houses that use electricity is by far the most used for heating. In apartment buildings, the surprising power surge is underfloor heating in wet rooms, which can be saved by adjusting.
Electric and district heating have been expensive all winter, and the end of high prices is yet to be seen.
In mid-January, HS asked readers about their December electricity bills. Nearly 500 responses were received to the online survey. Based on the answers, electricity bills of more than a thousand euros are not uncommon.
According to the respondents, the electricity bill in December had doubled or even tripled compared to the previous year. This also applies to many apartment dwellers.
How to save electricity if the increase in electricity bills is distressing?
By far the most important savings target is heating, regardless of the type of housing. This is what an expert from Motiva, a state-owned company that promotes sustainable development, says Päivi Suur-Uski.
“All heating always takes the most energy. Lowering the temperature, and especially in non-residential areas, saves a lot of energy, ”says Suur-Uski.
In detached houses however, the frosts must be careful at the corners where the water pipes rise into the house and where the water meter is. Excessive lowering of the temperature can cause the pipes to freeze.
A lot of energy is also used to heat hot water.
“Therefore, by reducing shower times, it is possible to save energy.”
In apartment buildings, the underfloor heating in the bathroom is a surprising surge of electricity, according to Suur-Uski. Its occupant often pays the electricity bill himself, although other heating is included in the company fee or rent.
“Underfloor heating easily consumes more electricity than other apartment buildings combined.”
For heating compared to other actions, the savings are fine-tuned. Small streams can still generate significant savings over the course of a month.
For many, especially the slightly older ones, turning off the lights has come to mind. However, the effect of lighting on electricity consumption is small if LED lamps are used as bulbs.
For example, old 60-watt incandescent bulbs have been replaced by a seven-watt LED bulb.
Even if it burns around the clock for a month, it would only consume five kilowatt hours of electricity in total.
Instead, a regular kitchen oven, for example, easily consumes 2,000 watts when the thermostat hits the top. So an hour consumes about two kilowatt hours of electricity.
Cooking, especially with an energy-efficient induction hob, consumes significantly less energy.
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“It’s not worth keeping the sauna warm in vain.”
Electric heater is a power cancer. The power of a heater can be, for example, 7,000 watts, and therefore consumes almost seven kilowatt hours of electricity per hour.
“It is not advisable to keep the sauna warm in vain, but to go there as soon as it is warm and to switch off the stove after the sauna,” says Suur-Uski.
Other household appliances, such as computers, refrigeration appliances, washing towers and consumer electronics, already account for a significant amount of electricity consumption, at least in a larger family.
According to Suur-Uski, the most important choices are made at the stage when the equipment is purchased.
“Is buying the most energy efficient option or not? The method of use may be less affected than the choice made at the time of purchase. ”
Of course, you also need to know how to use equipment that is particularly useful for building services.
“Ventilation equipment must be maintained and adjusted in accordance with the operating instructions. For example, the devices may have winter settings. ”
From the air source heat pump the basics must be understood, ie the thermostats in the radiators must be set low enough so that the pump mainly handles the heating and the radiators only switch on if the pump power is insufficient.
“And in the winter, of course, the pump has to be kept with a heating setting so that it doesn’t start to cool the air from time to time if you burn a fireplace, for example,” says Suur-Uski.
In any case, he urges to monitor one’s own electricity consumption from the services provided by energy companies, the consumption of which is seen day by day.
“Thus, it is possible to monitor how, for example, adjusting the floor heating in wet rooms reduces consumption. It’s really rewarding to see. ”
Power the price has been really high in some places this winter. The stock market price of electricity peaked on 7 December. At that time, the taxable price peaked at almost 1.3 euros per kilowatt hour.
Higher prices have only been seen ten years ago, when reserve power plants had to be started up in Finland during severe frosts. At the time, it was an exceptional and momentary peak consumption situation.
In January, prices have fallen from the peaks of December, but exchange-traded electricity has still been considerably more expensive than, for example, a year ago.
Last week, the price of electricity was at its highest on Tuesday, January 25th. At that time, the taxable price peaked at about 0.35 euros per kilowatt hour. The price was significantly lower than the December 2021 peaks, but still more than three times the prices at the end of January 2021.
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