4 easy energy-saving tips

1. Drop the room temperature

Heating-related factors have the greatest impact on improving the efficiency of energy use and cutting your energy bills. Roughly, two-thirds of the total energy consumption of a home is spent on heating and hot water, whether you live in an apartment with district heating or a detached house with electric heating. Therefore, it is important to control the room temperature appropriately as the weather starts to get cooler.

In the living room, 21–22 degrees is enough, whereas bedrooms can be kept at a lower temperature. As a rule of thumb, a one-degree drop in room temperature equals a saving of 5 per cent in the heating costs.

Also consider a thermostat with controls for selecting optimal user times and temperatures to suit your lifestyle, for example, for comfort floor heating in the bathroom. This way, you will avoid unnecessary use of energy when you don’t need it.

2. Energy-efficient use of domestic appliances

The way you use domestic appliances has a significant impact on energy usage and saving in your electricity bill. Take into account at least the following energy-efficient tips for using domestic appliances that use a lot of energy.

• Washing machine: Run a full load when using the washing machine. Also pay attention to the temperature – electricity consumption will be halved when you reduce the washing temperature from 60 to 40 degrees.
• Cold appliances: The recommended temperatures are +5 for the fridge and -18 for the freezer. Every degree colder increases electricity consumption of the appliance by about 5 per cent.
• Oven: Prepare more food in the oven at the same time. Heating up the oven uses more energy than keeping it hot.
• Electric sauna stove: Heating up the sauna takes up more than half of the electricity consumption of a sauna stove, and therefore it is worth for the whole family to take the sauna together or at least closely one person after another. A more gentle heat is enough for the sauna experience itself. Heated to one hundred degrees, a sauna uses 20–30 per cent more electricity than in 70 degree heat.

In addition, a surprising energy-saving tip in using a sauna is to do with the sauna stones. It is worth investing in the quality of the sauna stones, and the stones should ideally be replaced every couple of years. Any crumbled bits dropped from the stones will slow down the heating of the stove and use up more electricity.

3. Correct airing and sealing

Sealing and airing are the cornerstones of ventilation. In the heating season, turn the ventilation controls down as far as possible because up to one-third of heat is lost through ventilation. Also check that the doors and windows have been sealed. Sealing is a better way to improve the efficiency of heating and to save in heating costs than increasing the room temperature.

The most efficient way to air the rooms is with a through draught, if this is possible in your home. However, do not leave ventilation windows open for too long during cold weather or otherwise heat will be lost. Don’t forget to also utilise household fabrics – in the winter, curtains stop draughts while in the summer they protect against hot sunlight.

4. Monitor your own energy use

Services that monitor energy usage help you watch your energy use, optimise your consumption according to data and that way save both money and energy. These free consumer services are the easiest way to see in a concrete way what kind of an impact even small deeds may have on everyday energy consumption.

Several electricity suppliers offer solutions for monitoring energy usage. For example, with the Oma Helen app you can monitor your own energy consumption from the hourly to the annual level, examine the 24-hour breakdown of your energy usage and get comparison data from easy-to-read graphs.