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Energy saving tips [2]

Efficient and sufficient use of electrical appliances

  • Reduce standby consumption (see separate chapter below)
  • Install a timer for the WLAN router (or deactivate the WLAN at night via the Internet - depending on the provider - using a timer)
  • Clean the filters of your vacuum cleaner every time you empty the dust container.

Refrigerator and freezer

  • Set the temperature in the refrigerator to 6-7°C. As a rule of thumb: If the butter is not spreadable, the refrigerator is too cold.
  • Set the temperature in the freezer to -18°C. Even one degree less can mean about 6% more power consumption.
  • Open the door of the freezer and refrigerator as rarely and briefly as possible
  • Do not put hot food in the refrigerator.
  • Defrost the refrigerator and freezer when a layer of ice forms. Just 5 mm of ice increases the refrigerator’s power consumption by 30%.

Dishwasher

  • Fill the dishwasher completely, this is the only way it can show its strengths. A dishwasher is only more efficient than washing dishes by hand if its capacity is fully utilised. Otherwise it becomes an energy washer.
  • Avoid pre-washing the dishes by hand before putting them in the machine. Prewashing only wastes energy and water and is almost never necessary: Modern dishwashers can cope with most of the dirt themselves.
  • Use short and economy programs whenever possible. For lightly or normally soiled dishes, the short or economy program with its low temperatures is usually completely sufficient. Only with very heavily soiled dishes is it better to set a higher temperature.

Cooking

  • Preheat the oven only if absolutely necessary (e.g. for delicate doughs). The most common and greatest source of loss when using the oven is preheating for too long.
  • Always bake with circulating air and do not open the oven door more often than necessary. With circulating air you need about 25 to 40% less heating energy than without, and you can bake several cakes at the same time on different levels. When you open the oven door, about 20% of the temperature is lost each time, which then needs to be replaced.
  • Use the pressure/steam cooker for long-cooking dishes. The cooking times are considerably reduced, more vitamins and mineral salts are preserved. Savings: up to 70% time and 30-60% electricity.
  • Cook with lid and on the right hotplate. The heat losses with a pot opened only a finger’s breadth are almost the same as with a pot without a lid. Cooking with a lid requires up to 50% less energy.
  • If you also place the right pot on the hotplate, the energy consumption during cooking is reduced by up to two thirds. The diameter of the pot may be slightly larger than the hotplate, but not smaller.
  • Switch off the hot plate or the oven 5 to 10 minutes before the end of the cooking time. The residual or residual heat is completely sufficient to end the cooking, roasting or baking process.
  • Do not heat up more water than necessary. Do you only need one cup of hot water? Then first pour cold water into the cup and then put it into the kettle. This way you heat up just the right amount. Likewise, a pack of pasta, for example, does not need to be boiled in five liters of water.

Efficient washing

  • Only wash when there is enough wash! Load the machine fully. The power consumption of a conventional washing machine is independent of the load, i.e. it uses the same amount of electricity and water when half loaded as when the drum is completely full. (approx. 20% saving potential)!
  • Do without the pre-wash cycle and use the short wash program. Today’s washing machines have such a strong performance that pre-washing is unnecessary, and you save approx. 33% electricity. Furthermore, the short wash program is completely sufficient for lightly soiled laundry and reduces energy consumption by up to 20% per wash cycle.
  • Always keep the washing temperatures as low as possible. You can save 40% electricity if you wash your laundry at 60°C instead of 95°C. Similarly, only one third (1/3) of the electricity is used if you lower the washing temperature from 60°C to 30°C.
  • For normal laundry like jeans, T-shirts or sweaters 30°C is completely sufficient. Only for underwear, towels and heavily soiled (baby) clothes it is recommended to wash at 60°C.
  • Hang your laundry (or at least part of it) in the drying room or on the balcony. Use the tumble dryer/dryer as little as possible.
  • Always load the tumble dryer fully and sort the laundry according to material, thickness and size. Half loading the tumble dryer does not halve the power consumption, but it does reduce the energy consumption.

Reduce Standby-losses information [1]

  • The standby-losses are visible in the lower part of the overview chart.
  • If you optimized, you can simply narrow down the time range with the slider and to see the before/after standby values.

Background

  • Most consumer electronics devices can be put into stand-by mode (also called standby mode) after use with remote controls. In this state certain functions remain switched on.
  • For example, a television or hi-fi system can be quickly and conveniently put back into operation.
  • However, if these devices remain in standby mode for most of the day, they cause unnecessary power losses. These losses outside of the hours of use should be paid special attention, as the operating times are usually short. As a result, such devices often use more power for the secondary function standby than for the main function itself.
  • A great deal of electricity can be saved by reducing standby operation alone - the theoretical savings potential throughout Switzerland is 700 gigawatt hours per year.
  • Whereas in the past, standby consumption was allowed to be several watts, legal regulations now only allow standby values of 0.3 to 1 watt for new appliances.
  • Higher values of 3 to 8 watts are only permitted for devices that are capable of communicating in a wired or wireless communication network.
  • Assuming that an electronic device consumes 10 watts during 22 hours of standby time per day, this gives an approximate consumption of 80 kWh per year, which results in unnecessary additional costs of 16 Swiss francs.
  • If other electronic devices are in stand-by mode, the stand-by consumption can easily reach 300 kWh (equivalent to CHF 60.-) per year.
  • All devices that have an external power supply unit consume electricity as long as the power supply unit is connected to the mains. Older power supplies or chargers, which are relatively heavy and bulky, consume 2 to 3 watts or more in stand-by mode.
  • Many households also have appliances that are ten years or older, and these also consume a lot of power in standby mode.

Saving tips

For devices that can be completely disconnected from the mains without any problems, there are simple measures to minimize the stand-by consumption.

  • It is most elegant if devices or even better whole groups of devices are connected to switched sockets.
  • If there are no switched sockets in the apartment, socket strips with toggle switches are a good choice.
  • Time switches can also be useful. However, the own consumption of these clocks should be small. -In the case of appliances which, for functional reasons, can never be completely disconnected from the mains, stand-by consumption can usually be reduced to a minimum by energy-optimized configuration.
  • Do the hand test: If a charger, a network adapter, a router, a set-top box, a game console or similar device is warm, then the device also consumes power (without Use).

References

[1] https://www.energybox.ch/
[2] Hochschule Technik und Architketur Horw, Project Hüttengraben (final report in progress and not yet published)