Save electricity costs, electricity savings calculator - Calculate Now

In the age of multimedia technology, there is little left in one's home that does not work with electricity. Be it the washing machine together with the tumble dryer or the home theater system with DVD player, BluRay player and 7.1 sound system, whose origin is a flat screen with astronomical dimensions. But this technology carries a high price, if one considers the immense costs, which hit us by the electricity companies each year anew and increase each year for ever more subtle reasons. Yet it is so easy to control your costs and reduce them effectively. Below we would like to offer you some energy saving tips that you can use to reduce your expenses.

If you take a look at your home, you will notice many devices that consume energy permanently, despite the fact that you do not need them permanently. In the living room, this is usually the case. All devices around the television glow in all kinds of colors, while the starting point of the light is usually the "stand-by" LED. As beautiful as this looks in the dark, it is also power-hungry. Certainly, there are devices where it is explicitly recommended to leave the device in stand-by, but this is not the rule. But there is also a lot to discover in the kitchen! Lots of household appliances, all of which don't work without electricity. The little kitchen radio that you use regularly while washing dishes consumes more energy than you might imagine. So does the little LCD clock on the microwave. Sockets with circuit breakers conveniently eliminate the need to unplug them. In the office, too, there are a few things that are not absolutely necessary for continuous operation. For example, there are software-controlled computer fans that automatically reduce the number of revolutions of the fan in the housing when not so much cooling is needed. The monitor is also a power guzzler. It doesn't save any energy to run the monitor only with the screen saver, but you should always turn on the "ECO mode" in the energy options of your home computer. This means that the PC sends the monitor a standby command, which automatically causes it to save power after a longer period of non-use.

Saving power with lighting

But it's not just consumer devices where you can make big savings. There are also situations where lighting is not needed at all. For example, it doesn't make sense to use both the ceiling light and the extractor fan light when cooking. Many people also use the light in the morning and evening, even though it is already bright outside. It helps to simply open the curtains! If you want a more atmospheric ambience, you don't necessarily have to spread light hoses all over the apartment, a few candles will do just as well.

Saving electricity at Christmas

Especially around Christmas time there is often a lot of decorating. Switch off your festive lights overnight, because hardly anyone will see them then! A very efficient way of saving energy is to use motion sensors that only switch on the lights when you are actually in the vicinity.

Saving electricity when heating

There are also important and useful electricity-saving tips for heating. In winter, for example, the heating does not have to be permanently set to the highest level in order to quickly get the apartment really cozy and warm. It is much more beneficial for you and your wallet to set the heating to a medium to low level, but to do so continuously. In the long term, you will consume less energy and your home will be at a consistently comfortable temperature. However, your home should be thoroughly aired several times a day to avoid drying out the air, and fresh air is known to heat up better than stale air.

If you are in good contact with your neighbors, talk to them about a balanced heating system. Because if all parties of a multi-family household show the same heating behavior, the costs will be reduced even more, because there is a constant heat in the household.

Save costs with energy-saving heating systems

To make your home heating system more environmentally friendly and energy efficient, consider a solar cell system or a heat pump. Both options contribute enormously to energy savings. Solar cell systems harvest their energy from the sun and can even feed it into your home's electrical grid. So, with average behavior, they can cover more than a third of your energy costs. Of course, solar systems are very expensive, but in the longer term they are definitely recommended, as the government subsidizes the expansion of such systems.

Save costs with heat pumps

Heat pump technology is a means of very high efficiency when it comes to cost reduction. It is based on the system of extracting heat from the air, ground or groundwater, storing it in liquid or gaseous heat carriers and then releasing it via heating systems in your home. The principle is based on that of a refrigerator, which extracts the heat from food and releases it at the back wall. A combination of the two systems can help them save almost 75% of what you spend on energy.

However, you should not only look at the cost of saving energy. The environment is greatly affected by wrong behaviors in energy consumption. The more energy a country consumes, the more pollutants it also blows into the air. This can be seen clearly above all in the forest population, which is reduced every year by dying trees. This also deprives the animals living in the forest more and more of their habitat and thus disturbs the sensitive cycle of nature. But the high energy consumption is not only a problem for wild nature. It also affects us humans, and not just through finances. For example, on very hot summer days, it is almost impossible to venture onto the streets of a large city, because the smog pollution is enormously high. This is, of course, partly due to car exhaust fumes, but also due to the large coal-fired power plants that blow countless cubic meters of smoke into the atmosphere every minute.

Here again in brief the best tips to efficiently save energy and electricity costs:

• only use electrical appliances with at least an A+ label
• switch off standby devices completely
• no multiple lighting, only energy-saving LEDs
• even heating, economical underfloor heating
• switch off heating system from May at the latest
• ventilate regularly (only forced ventilation)
• Switch to a low-cost electricity provider (look for a sustainable provider if possible)
• Use modern heating technology systems such as solar systems and heat pumps

Change electricity supplier/ natural gas supplier

In times of dizzyingly high electricity prices, it is increasingly recommended to switch to a cheaper provider. But what do you have to look out for when making such a switch, what can you expect and how easy or difficult is it actually to change electricity suppliers?

The Federal Network Agency for Electricity, Gas, Telecommunications, Post and Railway, based in Bonn, is responsible for regulating and ensuring compliance with this law. As an independent federal authority within the portfolio of the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology, it publishes information on the relevant markets and ensures that consumer rights are respected and that the legal principles are observed. It is obliged to supply the general public with energy (gas as well as electricity) that is as cheap, safe and environmentally friendly as possible. It also oversees fair and open competition between individual gas or electricity suppliers and ensures that the relevant networks always operate efficiently and reliably. In addition, one of its tasks is the implementation and enforcement of laws and regulations at the EU level.

Saving electricity costs by switching electricity providers

If you want to find a new electricity provider, it is advisable to compare electricity and tariffs and possibly switch. To do this, the customer should first determine his annual electricity consumption. To do this, it is best to look at the last final bill. In addition to the consumption, this bill also lists the monthly or annual consumption and the annual base price. There may also be costs for renting a meter.

Electricity consumption values for single-person households

The average consumption for one-person households is about 1,000 kilowatt hours, for two people about 2,000 kilowatt hours, and a family with a house consumes around 4,000 kilowatt hours per year. Once you have determined your consumption, you can start looking for a new provider. The easiest way to compare the different rates and providers is to use electricity calculators, which can often be found on the Internet. Once you have found a suitable provider after comparing electricity prices, you can request a contract form from the provider.

As with all contracts, the same applies here: The fine print should be read and checked carefully! The customer should make sure that the prices indicated in the form are also the final prices, otherwise one has to expect additional costs. Likewise, one should look at the minimum term of the contract. Since electricity costs are moving very quickly these days, one should make sure that the term does not exceed 3 to 6 months if possible. The new provider will often ask the customer to give them a power of attorney to cancel the old contract, which will only benefit the customer. It is strongly discouraged to arbitrarily terminate the old contract. If the customer is unable to find a suitable electricity provider, he or she will often have to settle for more expensive and longer-term contracts from regional providers. If, however, the contract termination takes place via the new provider, the changeover takes place seamlessly to the agreement between the providers.

The optimum situation is when the registration or switching fee, if any, is not due until delivery begins. As a rule, the old supplier will not make any termination demands, and the new supplier will assume the costs for transit and network use. However, the former supplier will request the current meter reading and may issue a final bill, after which the switch to a cheaper supplier is usually complete.

Saving costs when switching gas suppliers

Similar to electricity, since the opening of the gas market, it is possible to switch gas suppliers without much effort or extra costs in order to mitigate the extreme natural gas price trends. After a change one receives the bill now from the new gas supplier and pays also the monthly Abschläge at this. However, it is possible that the meter readings will continue to be read by the previous supplier or by a local supplier. This is because the pipelines are the property of the local supplier, and it has a legal obligation to supply the customer regardless of the gas tariff.

In order to initiate a switch, the new natural gas supplier must receive the following information in addition to personal data: the meter number or reading, the name of the local supplier or previous supplier, and the customer number. This data can be found on the back of the last bill from the old supplier.

Information on the location of the gas meter in a rented apartment can be obtained from the property management company or the janitor. Gas suppliers are also required by law to issue customer numbers to enable customers to switch to cheaper natural gas tariffs. If the change form is finally filled out, signed and sent off, a notice with the past supplier takes place automatically by the new offerer. It is therefore ni8cht necessary to personally obtain a termination.

The simple gas supplier change

If one is inclined to change the gas supplier after a move because of too high tariffs or dissatisfaction, this is still possible a few weeks after moving into a rented apartment. If, on the other hand, you move into your own home, you can request a change at the beginning of the month after moving in. The old contract is terminated by the final bill of the corresponding provider. In this statement, the consumption of the customer in the past is calculated.

Normally, such a change happens as soon as possible, nevertheless, one must be prepared for a waiting period, the change proceeds seamlessly, without the customer noticing it. Thus, interruption of gas supply is avoided and would be inadmissible.