How I reduced the electricity consumption of our house by 20%
Posted on:December 02 2022
Today, I finally received my yearly electricity bill:
I managed to reduce our power consumption by about 20% and recieved a pay back of 800€. Here is what we did to make this:
We've used about 15000kwh last year, this year it's "only" about 12000kwh anymore. Together with some government energy incentives, I received a payback of 800€ for my electricity bill, instead of the expected payment increase. That's really nice.
My family consists of 6 people and we have an electric car and an air heat pump, so we have quite a high electricity bill - but this opens still a lot of space for further optimizations. Let's see if I can still squeeze out a bit more in the near future.
- I reprogrammed our air heat pump to only provide hot water in the morning instead of doing this twice or three times a day. Nobody of the family members really noticed. In case we need to use more hot water later during the day (like for taking a bath) you can now simply press a button and wait 20 minutes. Works surprisingly well.
- I drive an electric car and now usually drive at maximum around 100 km/h instead of previously 130 km/h on the Autobahn. This causes a significant reduction of power usage, and I need to charge the car less often. I didn't notice that I arrive much later - I only usually have about 20 km of Autobahn to drive - but it makes a difference.
- My wife reduced the amount of times where she changes the bedclothes by about 50%, reducing the time where the washing machine and dryer is running quite a lot.
- I reduced the room temperature by about one degree celsius. It wasn't a very noticeable change, but - especially when it's very cold outside - this caused quite a change in energy consumption. I think I might reduce it again by one further degree - let's see.
- I got digital thermostats and programmed them to lower the temperature of rooms when they are usually not used - like when the children are in school. Worked nicely.
We've used about 15000kwh last year, this year it's "only" about 12000kwh anymore. Together with some government energy incentives, I received a payback of 800€ for my electricity bill, instead of the expected payment increase. That's really nice.
My family consists of 6 people and we have an electric car and an air heat pump, so we have quite a high electricity bill - but this opens still a lot of space for further optimizations. Let's see if I can still squeeze out a bit more in the near future.
Comments:
Martin
Quote2022-12-02 10:26:52
Ah, you are right, corrected the article.
Yes, got the problem with the condensation also in the first days when it was cold for the first days, but it somehow stopped. I guess we are ventilating better now, not sure.
Freezer is the next thing I'll take a look at :)
Yes, got the problem with the condensation also in the first days when it was cold for the first days, but it somehow stopped. I guess we are ventilating better now, not sure.
Freezer is the next thing I'll take a look at :)
niko
Quote2022-12-02 10:40:36
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I'm guess your annual consumption is 12 MWh (=12,000 kWh) though?
We are unfortunately heating with gas and our landlord proactively increased the gas bill for next year by 550€. I tried to reduce room temperature (to 20°C) but then we get condensation on the windows (which are not high quality, only double-pane glass and the frames get condensation too).
That's bad as it will lead to fungus sooner or later. So we are back to at least 21°C and trying to keep humidity at max 60%.
The tweaks we did is increase the temp of our freezer (freezers take a lot of energy) and use an air fryer for baking (much smaller volume than regular oven).
Have a great day!