Spend less on electricity going green now

More energy efficient = less energy costs

How can we spend less on electricity while going green?

Soon we’ll be charging electric vehicles and using electricity instead of gas.

Here are some ways we can spend less on electricity going green now, for more sustainable options in the future.

How green is the power we use?

In 2021 most of our power is still produced by burning fossil fuels, and only part of our electricity comes from renewable sources. In countries like Spain or the UK that have invested a lot in renewable energy, around 40-45% of power is generated from renewables. In 2021 about 75% of the power we use in the world still comes from non-sustainable (polluting) sources.

Some electrical appliances use a lot more power than others.

We are going green, but still have a long way to go before we can say we’re living in a sustainable way. At the moment electricity is neither cheap or clean, so if we can spend less on electricity it’s not only good for our pockets, it’s good for the environment too.

Here are a few ways to spend less on electricity as we go green. Some of these things will vary on the basis of location. I’m in Andalusia in Spain so will be using less heating than in colder climes. Let me know what works for you.

If we want to spend less on electricity, limiting how much we use appliances that consume a lot of power, and being aware of how and for how long we use them, are some of the first things to consider.

Appliances that use a lot of power

• radiant bar heater
• blower heater
• electric radiator
• tumble dryer
• hot plate
• electric oven
• electric grill
• hairdryer
• appliances with a heating element

Appliances that don’t use much power

• heat pump
• fridge
• LED lighting
• Wi-Fi router
• PC
• small/medium monitors

Washing machines don’t use a lot of electricity if you use low temperatures and an eco program. If you have to wash whiter you can try a lower temperature than a hot wash adding baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) to the washing powder. Sodium bicarbonate is a non-toxic, natural deodorizer and a mild disinfectant. It’s much less harmful than whiteners/bleaches, most of which contain chlorine, a highly toxic chemical.

A tumble dryer uses a lot of power. I plan washing for dry days but if this isn’t possible you can keep the windows closed when using the dryer. With the door to the room the dryer is open the heat goes into the house instead of escaping to the atmosphere.

A fridge doesn’t use a lot of electricity, but you can turn it down in the colder months.

Some things like amplifiers use more power as you turn the volume up so there will be a big difference between listening to music at home, or at a party, or playing a gig.

How much power does an appliance use?

It can be quite an eye opener to check the power of the appliances we use regularly, or leave on a lot. Most should have a ratings plate, info in the manual, or online.

If the power in watts (W) isn’t specified, you can calculate the power consumption if you have the Amps (A) of the appliance and the Voltage (V) of the mains. You can use a converter app or the formula (A) x (V) = (W). For an appliance rated at 10 A at a voltage of 220 V, the power is 10 A x 220 V = 2,200 W or 2.2 kW.

Before buying an appliance I always try to check how much it will be consuming. A higher quality, more expensive appliance is often more efficient and cheaper to use. Higher quality can cost less in the long run.

Power consumption is sneaky

It seems an electrical appliance costs nothing to use, just plug it in and it works. If you leave it plugged in, turned on or on standby, it still works. It doesn’t seem to cost anything, until you get your bill.

If you want to stop this unnecessary consumption, turn off what you don’t use when you’re not using it.

Multiple socket strips with individual switchable sockets are great for things left plugged in. You can switch on what you need when you want to use it, and switch off what you don’t.

Even low power appliances can add up to a quite a bit of power consumption if left on 24 hours a day, every day of the year. If you don’t need it on, that’s just throwing money away by burning power you don’t need.

Turning appliances off when not using them with switchable sockets or timers makes sense, but some things won’t make much of a difference, like Internet routers for example. My Wi-Fi router + mesh uses about 60 Wh/month = €0.30/month. Switching it off for 8 hours at night will make about 10 cents difference per month.

Using a high power appliance for a short period of time, a hair dryer for 10 minutes once a week for example is not going to make a big dent in the bill. Check for things that stay connected all the time you don’t need powered 24h/day.

An appliance is like a car engine. You can turn it on when you want to use it. You can leave it turned off when you don’t.

LED lighting

LED light bulbs use a lot less power than tungsten or halogen bulbs. They do cost more to buy, but last much longer.

Electric water heaters

Tankless (on-demand) electric water heaters use a lot of power. Even the smallest would use more power for a shower than I use for the whole house.

An electric boiler uses less power than a tankless electric water heater. Turning the boiler on an hour before you need hot water, and off after your shower, will use less power than leaving it on all the time. This works, but a timer works a lot better.

A socket timer costs about €3-10 and you can use it to turn the boiler on and off at set times.

If your electricity costs a lot less at night you can set the timer to heat the water for a few hours in the morning. If the water isn’t hot enough for an evening shower, add 15-30 minutes before shower time. With a timer you don’t have to remember to turn the boiler on/off, you have hot water throughout the day, and the boiler uses power mostly when it’s cheap.

Turning the boiler off at the main electrical board if you’ll be away for a while is also a good idea. Mechanical timers don’t usually have backup batteries though, so if you turn the power supplied to a mechanical timer off, check the set time hasn’t changed.

If you leave an electric boiler on all the time it uses electricity throughout the day every day to keep the water hot. If you don’t need hot water 24/7, that’s wasting energy and money. 

Sustainable energy use is definitely about using less polluting energy sources, but it’s also about using less energy more efficiently. It makes sense to use energy only when we need it.

We have two options:

• use energy when we don’t need it, wasting money and polluting the environment
• turn off what we don’t use, to save money and pollute less

Electric cooktops

Induction cooktops are slightly more efficient than radiant coil electric cooktops. A 1800 W induction cooktop used for an hour a day will use about 50 kwh/month. An induction cooktop will be more expensive to buy than a radiant electric or gas one and you might have to change some pots and pans as they need flat-bottomed iron or steel to create a magnetic field. Avoid if you have a pacemaker.

Using gas

We’ve been using gas (a fossil fuel) for years because it’s a powerful heat source. Electric boilers and cooktops are more efficient than gas ones, but gas is often much cheaper than electricity. Current boiler/hotplate technology uses a lot of electrical power to produce heat.

If you’re using gas or thinking about it, propane (LPG) is not a renewable, but it is the least polluting fossil fuel we currently use. LPG is also used around the world as a cleaner fuel for cars. When burnt efficiently LPG does produce CO2, slightly more than methane but a lot less than the coal or oil we still burn to generate electricity, the diesel we use in cars or the wood we burn to keep warm.

Here’s a comparison of two similar homes. One has an electric boiler and cooktop, the other has a propane cooktop and water heater.

Unburnt natural gas

Unburnt natural gas (methane) is a highly pollutant greenhouse gas. It comes from wetlands, agriculture, and leaks from gas pipelines and oil/gas fields, where the gas we use (including propane) is produced. Propane (LPG) is a by-product of methane, but unlike methane it’s not a greenhouse gas, and it produces around twice as much heat energy as methane so you need less of it. I still use propane (LPG) bottled gas to a limited extent to heat water and cook. We will probably continue to use gas for heating and cooking until we stop using fossil fuels entirely for more sustainable alternatives as we go gradually greener.

Gas burnt to generate electricity

Gradually phasing gas out in favour of green power is the plan, but at the moment power generation is (as we all are) gradually going green.

Currently (in 2021) about 25% of global electricity production is generated by gas turbines, so electric appliances are powered also by gas and other non-sustainable fuels burnt to generate electricity. For those still using gas until we have a cleaner alternative, here’s how electricity compares to propane when used for cooking and heating water.

Gas water heaters produce hot water much cheaper than electric boilers. A tankless gas water heater produces hot water “on demand” only when you need it. It burns no gas when you don’t (electronic ignition = no gas pilot light).

Gas cook tops are cheaper to use than electric ceramic cooktops. This is also because you need more contracted electrical power for the electric boiler and cooktop. Contracted electrical power is a fixed cost even if you don’t use any appliances. You are going to need more than 3.5 kW with an electric boiler and cooktop. It’ll be more like 5-7 kW, so check how much contracted power you’ll need, and the estimated consumption.

Contracted power + consumption

Contracted electrical power is the power you have available in your contract. This depends on how many appliances you use at the same time, and how powerful they are. Power consumption depends on how much power your appliances use, and how long you use them for.

A cooktop or boiler will use max power when it’s first turned on, and then use less. If you have or are going to get one, check the power rating. In this case let’s take a 2 kW appliance (smallish sized cooktop or boiler) as an example.

A 2 kW appliance like an electric boiler or cooktop used for an hour a day will use 2 kW x 30 days, so about 60 kwh/month. If a kwh of power costs €0.14, that’s €8.40/month for each appliance in consumed power.

What about contracted power?

If you’re going to use both these at the same time that’s 4 kW, plus a fridge, washing machine and other appliances, you’re going to need about 6 kW of contracted power, or more depending what appliances you’ve got.

If your contracted power costs €0.09 per kW in a month that will be 6 kW x 30 days x €0.09 = €16.20/month.

Heating with electricity

Electric heaters, radiators and blowers, anything with a heating element costs a lot when used for a long time. Even small electric heaters are about 2-3 kW. Heating one bedroom with an electric radiator just at night for one month costs more than heating the whole house for one month with a heat pump.

An electric radiator or blower, anything with a heating element uses a LOT of electricity to do very little heating.

So what’s the alternative to inefficient electric heaters?

Heat pumps

– Do heat pumps cost a lot?

An electric radiator/blower is cheaper to buy, but they use much more power. Electric radiator/blowers produce radiant heat like gas fires or a wood burning fireplace. Heat pumps are like fridges. They transfer (pump) heat from one place to another. They produce warm air and don’t use a lot of power.

I don’t like air conditioning, and didn’t believe a heat pump could be so efficient.

In milder months how much heating do you need?

Using an air-source heat pump down to an outdoor temperature of around 10°C cost about €10/month.

Using a heat pump last autumn and spring to heat the whole house cost €40. A good friend of mine kept his bedroom warm (just at night) with an electric radiator for about €90/month.

So that’s about €10/month to keep the whole house warm vs €100/month to keep one room warm. If it’s costing €100/month to try and keep one bedroom warm at night for 3-4 months, in 2-3 years that’s the price of a heat pump. After that you’re saving a lot of money every year to keep the house warm instead of one room warm.

A heat pump costs more than an electric radiator to buy, and much less to use

The difference in power consumption is huge. A heat pump is a great way to spend less on heating. An inverter R32 heat pump makes a big difference to your pocket and the planet in terms of sustainability.

In colder climates a geothermal groundwater-source heat pump will be more effective than an air-source unit. The temperature of the water table will be closer to 10°C all year round. Air temperature is much more variable.

If you don’t want to invest in a geothermal heat pump and already have a heating system, you can use an air-source heat pump in the milder months and your old heating system in the colder months. An air-source heat pump is very efficient at an outdoor temperature of around 10°C and gets gradually less efficient as the temperature gets closer to 0°C.

With a heat pump you can spend less on electricity, and produce much less pollution.

If you have a heat pump, try not to use it on the Auto setting or leave it on all the time. On Auto it will cycle between heating and cooling to try and maintain the set temperature. This is really inefficient, as is leaving it on all the time. It’s more efficient to use heating in winter, cooling in summer if necessary when necessary, with the doors and windows closed.

Keeping warm in winter

Wearing a base layer in winter is really comfy and reduces heating bills. As we get older our bodies don’t regulate body temperature as well as when we were youngsters, so unless you’re doing something that warms you up like physical work or sports, a base layer is a great way to maintain your body temperature comfortable and turn the heating down a bit. Wool is excellent, but anything works, pyjamas under regular clothes, whatever. It’s the airspace between the layers that keeps you warm.

You don’t have to live in a cold house. Even turning the heating down 1°C makes a difference to the amount of power you need to maintain an ambient temperature. The less difference between the outdoor and indoor temperature, the less heating you need.

Here’s the difference in electricity used on two very similar consecutive days in November. The weather and outdoor temperature were the same. I was working at a desk for the same hours, usual physical activity.

Heat pump consumption:

• 3.7 kwh without a base layer
• 2.8 kwh with a base layer

That’s a 25% reduction in heating just because I used less heating, and I was more comfortable in a base layer. You simply don’t need to heat the air around you so much if your body isn’t losing heat.

Cheaper electricity

Contact your provider for a cheaper contract, and if they won’t listen contact other providers in the area. It’s easy to be complacent and stick with what we’ve got, but you won’t save on electricity prices like that. Rather than wait for someone to call and offer what sounds like a good deal but might not be, you can take an active interest, with your bill in hand, and look for the best priced contact for you.

Spending less on electricity opens up other options to adopt greener solutions like an electric boiler instead of gas, or charging an electric vehicle.

Produce your own electricity

A photovoltaic installation on a roof, a small hydroelectric system in a stream, a home wind turbine are great ways to produce your own power. People have been generating their own electricity for years to spend less and use sustainable energy sources. If you produce more power than you need you can sell it to the electricity company at a feed-in tariff.

If you don’t want to go it alone, a positive energy district in your local area, village or with your neighbours is a great way to spend less on electricity going green. A positive energy district produces at least as much energy as it consumes using solar panels installed on the roofs in the district, or other renewable sources. If the district doesn’t want to make the investment for its own system there are companies who install solar systems for a percentage of the energy produced.

Free electricity?

So, what about the future? At the moment I’m using just a bit of electricity and a little propane, trying to use energy as efficiently as possible.

The next step towards sustainable living will probably be a photovoltaic system on the roof either to produce my own electricity or as part of a positive energy district, switching to an electric water heater and an induction cooktop to stop using propane. Or perhaps the electricity supplied by the grid will go greener and greener, and after the infrastructure is set up the only costs will be grid management and maintenance.

Perhaps in the future electricity will be cheap and clean for us all.

Comparisons

Monthly power bill comparison for two people in two 100 m2 homes in Andalusia (same altitude 650 m asl) 6 km apart

Average winter air temperature: 10°C

• Home 1

(Earth-embedded, very well insulated, south-facing windows)

Electric boiler, electric ceramic radiant ring cooktop.

Electricity bill on average €40/month, no gas.

• Home 2

(Ventilated block walls, no south-facing windows)

Inverter heat pump, propane tankless water heater and cook top.

Electricity bill on average €25/month

14 kg bottle of LPG, about €15 every 3 months

Total €30/month

Higher/lower contracted power at same price per kW/month

• Home 1: 6 kW x 30 days x €0.09 = €16.20/month
• Home 2: 3.5 kW x 30 days x €0.09 = €9.45/month

Heating costs

• Home 1

About €50/winter in firewood

• Home 2

Winter 2018/19 (before heat pump + double glazing): €300 firewood

Winter 2020/21: €40 heat pump + €50 firewood

Contract prices before and after renegotiating 3.5 kW contract.

• Old contract

Contracted power: 0.088 Eur/kW

Consumed power: 0.127 Eur/kW

• New contract

Contracted power: 0.069 Eur/kWh

Consumed power: 0.091 Eur/kWh

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