EnergyPortal.eu

Introduction 

 

Using renewable sources of energy limits CO2 emissions, but reducing the use of fossil fuels is another viable option. Although the growth in energy consumption is limited in the European Union, the long-term expectation is that global energy demand will continue to rise at an alarming pace. Energy saving measures not only help us reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but also cuts your daily expenses. The latter aspect is becoming more and more interesting as gas and power prices continue to rise, mainly driven by the dramatic increase in crude oil prices since early 2004.

This review summarises the most important actions you can take to save energy. Where possible, the savings are expressed in cubic metres of gas or kilowatt-hours of electricity. This makes it possible to compute the reductions in your energy bill on an annual basis. If you know about some other useful energy saving method, we are more than interested to hear about it from you. Please email to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and we will add your suggestions to this review. Alternatively, you can leave your comments on the forum.

The energy savings measure are put in three categories. First, the use of electrical appliances is discussed. After that, we scrutinise space and water heating. Finally, we turn to insulation tips.

In our calculations, we assume an average use of 1800 cubic metres of natural gas and 3500 kilowatt-hours of electricity per year. The (indicative) energy prices are € 0,20 per kWh and € 0,50 per cubic meter of gas. This means the monthly utility bill would be about € 133. Naturally, prices in your area will be different from the numbers used in this example.

Electrical appliances

Some people think that switching on and off electrical appliances consumes a lot of energy, and moreover that this would be bad for the equipment. This is not the case. If a light is switched off for eighteen seconds or less, this already saves energy. The same holds for monitors. Switching off a computer, on the contrary, makes sense if it is for fifteen minutes or longer. The quality of current computers is so high that switching off does not affect the lifetime of the equipment.

Below you will find some tips that apply to the most energy-intensive appliances. In addition, we state some comparisons between using the equipment vs. doing something yourself.

Refrigerator
Make sure there is at least 10 centimetres between the backside of the fridge and the wall. The fridge consumes less energy if the heat that is released on the backside has an easy way out. Keep the backside free of dust. Defrost frozen products in the fridge, so the cold that is released is used for cooling the fridge. Make sure your fridge stays free of ice. An ice layer of only two millimetres causes the electricity consumption to rise by 10 percent, or  € 12 per year.

Washing machines
Washing machines and dryers consumes quite a bit of energy. At the very least, make sure that your machines have an A-status (energy efficiency label), or whatever measures are used to indicate this in your country. Wash your clothes at 40 degrees Celsius and only switch on the machine if it is full. Washing at 40 instead of 60 degrees yield no less than 50 percent energy savings!

Audio/Video equipment
A television with its stand-by light switched on keeps consuming energy. The same holds for computers, battery chargers, audio equipment, printers or scanners. The stand-by use in an average household is about 450 kilowatt-hours per year, or about € 90. About half of this amount is easily saved by really switching off equipment by pressing the on/off button, or by removing the cable from the power socket. Do you need a new personal computer? Think about a flat screen monitor instead of your old large screen. Flat screens use up to 20 percent less energy.

Lighting
Nowadays, quite a few Europeans have switched to low-energy lamps. This is not strange, since it saves you money. Suppose that you have five 60-Watt lamps in your house that burn for an average 3 hours per day. Once you replace them with low-energy 15-Watt lamps, you save some 250 kilowatt-hours. This is a saving of roughly € 50 per year! Governments consider to provide these lamps for free, to meet their energy efficiency targets.

Space and water heating
On average, you will use 74% of your gas to heat your house, 22% to heat water and 4% to cook. Should you be interested in cutting you gas bill, you must think about space and water heating. Being extremely efficient while cooking will not help you much. Most of the tips given below are easy to implement and can save you several ten Euro bills.

 

• Tip 1: The first tip is fairly easy. Don't turn up your heating too much. A handy rule of thumb is that if you turn down your heating by one degree Celsius, your energy savings will be 6 percent. Living in a house which is one degree cooler saves you some 80 cubic meter of gas and € 40 per year. Wearing a jumper is a lucrative habit! But do not let your room cool down below 15 degrees, otherwise it will require a lot of energy to heat it up again.
• Tip 2: Many households have high efficiency boilers. If you still do not have one, it saves you 10 to 15 percent energy per year. This is equivalent to 225 cubic metres of gas or € 112. Such a boiler costs about € 2250, which is expensive but worthwhile if your current boiler needs replacement.
• Tip 3: If you have followed up on tip 2 and purchased a high efficiency boiler, you need to keep it clean. If the maintenance of the boiler is poor, this can reduce efficiency by as much as 10 percent. Keeping your boiler in shape pays off.
• Tip 4: Open the windows from time to time, even if it is cold outside. This sounds contradictory, but it allows dry air to enter your house. Your presence causes a lot of humidity in the inside air, and hot air takes more energy to heat than cold air. 15 minutes of open windows per day, preferably with the heating switched off, does the trick.
• Tip 5: Do not block your radiators. A couch or curtains directly in front of the radiator prevents some heat radiation to flow inside the room and reduces comfort.
• Tip 6: When you leave the house for five days or more, you can switch off the pilot light of your geyser or boiler. This is also a good idea in mid-summer. It saves you roughly 90 cubic metres of gas or € 45.

Insulation

 

Although many European countries have strict insulation standards for new buildings, the average house insulation is mediocre. The implications for energy use are enormous: a well-insulated house consumes three times less gas than a poorly insulated house! The easiest form of insulation to apply in your house is window insulation. This saves you 400 cubic metres on average, or € 200 on a yearly basis. Many people insulate the hot water pipes in unheated spaces. This has considerably lower savings of just 10 to 20 cubic metres.

 

Sources

 

These tips were composed based on a number of Dutch energy websites, but many others are available.

Nuon: http://www.nuonenergiebesparen.nl/tips_lijst_verwarming.php
YourEnergy: http://www.yourenergy.nl/read/besparen?submenu=5370
EnergieLabel: http://www.energielabel.nl/apparaten_energietips.htm
Bespaarjedeenergie: http:// www.bespaarjedeenergie.nl
Milieucentraal: http://www.milieucentraal.nl/onderwerp/set?onderwerp=Energie%20en%20energiebesparing