High electricity and heating costs: Consumers save a lot of money with these tricks

Created: 2/3/2022Updated: 2/3/2022 8:14 am

By: Lisa Klein

The prices for electricity and gas are rising again enormously in Germany.

But consumers can save a lot of money with a few simple tricks. 

Electricity and gas prices continue to skyrocket in Germany.

Demands for relief for consumers are becoming louder in politics.

The left, for example, proposes a one-off payment of 200 euros, which should be paid out to around 13 million people at risk of poverty on December 1st.

But apart from the efforts of politicians, there are a few things that consumers can do themselves to reduce the annual electricity and heating bills -

reveals which ones.

The Baden-Württemberg Consumer Advice Center has published some helpful tips that can be used to save electricity and gas, and thus real money.

First on the topic of heating: The heating should be set individually to the actual heat requirement of the household, writes the consumer advice center.

The programmed switch-on and switch-off times of the heating should be checked.

Electricity and gas prices are rising: This is how consumers can actively reduce heating costs

Above all, the individual rising and sleeping times play a major role.

Ideally, the room temperature should drop to around 17 degrees Celsius at night, especially in the bedroom.

This is not only the best temperature for sleeping, but also saves electricity and gas.

The bedroom should not be overheated during the day either, otherwise the heat will only have to be vented out unnecessarily in the evening.

In order to be able to control more precisely how many degrees is heated and when, it can also make sense to spend some money and buy a digitally programmable and controllable radiator thermostat.

They are not cheap, but you can save in the long run.

For example, instead of letting the heating run constantly at level 5, a smart radiator thermostat recognizes the room temperature and automatically heats less when the set comfortable temperature is reached in the room.

In addition, it is also possible to program which days and times should be heated to which temperature.

Are you always two days in the office and three days in the home office?

Then it is possible to program the controller so that the study is only heated on the three home office days.

In this way, unnecessary heating costs can be reduced in the long term, since you no longer have to think about turning off the radiator.

High electricity and heating bills: This is how consumers save electricity

And now on the topic of saving electricity: Turning off the lights when you leave the room and switching off devices after use goes without saying. However, there is one important point that consumers should definitely pay attention to.

Because the stand-by operation of electrical appliances - such as televisions, stereo systems or coffee machines - "from 20 to 24 hours a day can cause costs of over 70 euros a year in an average household," writes the consumer advice center.

“At 20 euros, the stereo system accounts for the largest share of this consumption.

After all, a computer with a connected printer causes costs of 17 euros in stand-by mode,” it says.

Hence the tip: Plug strips should be installed between the electrical devices and the socket so that several devices can be switched off at the same time instead of just putting them in stand-by mode.

It should be ensured that they have a "real" off switch.

Alternatively, of course, the plug can be pulled out of each individual device after use.

High electricity and heating bills?

Save money with these tricks

The Baden-Württemberg consumer advice center advises on the subject of light: “When buying, pay attention to the Kelvin specification (K): 2,700 K promise a warm light and still lower the electricity bill.

Anyone who prefers daylight white chooses 5,000 K and more.” In general, old light bulbs should be replaced with modern LEDs.

Finally, you should generally pay attention to low consumption when making new purchases.

Even if the products may be slightly more expensive when purchased in the energy-saving version, the savings in high electricity costs clearly pay off over many years - especially with energy guzzlers such as refrigerators and freezers, washing machines and dryers.

By the way: With a few tricks, you can save a lot, not only when it comes to heating and electricity consumption.

There are also a few nasty shopping traps in the supermarket that make customers dig deeper into their pockets.

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reveals which tricks customers should know in order to save when shopping*.