In this particular period of commodity cost increases and rising utility bills, it is important to have a "guide" onhow to reduce energy waste at home, here are some useful tips to save energy at home and reduce the cost of electricity and gas utilities. To combat high energy prices and limit energy consumption at home, there are several solutions that you can put into practice to reduce unnecessary energy waste. Let's see what they are:
High energy prices: here's how you can fight it
The past few months have witnessed a staggering rise in energy costs, which has inevitably resulted in higher prices for electricity and gas bills, causing great hardship for Italian families.
This situation will worsen in the cold season, as the burden of rising energy and gas costs will be significantly higher than last year.
Italian households, will have a 15 percent increase in gas costs and a 30 percent increase in energy bill costs.
To combat high utility bills and limit electricity and gas consumption by going to reduce household waste, small steps can be implemented, which can save us money.
To curb rising bill costs, a first solution that businesses and households can adopt is to change their energy supplier, choosing one belonging to the free market. In fact, unlike the protected market, where energy prices are set by the energy authority(ARERA) and changed every 3 months according to fluctuations, in the free market, on the other hand, they are determined by the laws of the market, under free competition.
Selecting the right energy supplier, therefore, results in substantial savings in energy bills.
In case you are moving to a new home, to help you proceed with your chosen supplier to reactivate your light meter you need to proceed with the takeover operation.
Which home appliances save energy?
The second solution that we can put into practice, to save energy in the home, concerns the choice of household appliances. Recall that the latter weigh on the cost of the bill by about 30%. Therefore, it is very important to pay attention to the energy class of household appliances and their use within the home.
High energy class appliances (A to A+++) are to be preferred,as they require less energy to operate and thus save on consumption and consequently on utility bills.
For lighting in the home, it is essential to prefer LED bulbs, so savings on your electricity bill will be guaranteed!
Another expedient can be to always turn off light bulbs and power strips, as well as equipping home faucets with a flow reducer.These are small tips, which if put into practice on a daily basis, can avoid unnecessary energy waste.
Another useful tip, to save energy in the home is to start the washing machine or dishwasher only when they are fully loaded, prefer an eco cycle, set a significantly cooler water temperature (around 30°-40°), and turn them on during evening hours and weekends (if you belong to the bi-hourly regime).
In order to save on both winter heating and summer cooling, it is very important to effectively insulate your home. In fact, a well-insulated and draft-free home allows you to keep the indoor temperature stable, thus limiting energy waste.
Performing proper maintenance of the systems, present in the house, allows to reduce waste and consumption, making the heating system, for example, more efficient.
Alternative heating methods, do they pay off?
It is often said that to save on gas bills it is better to use heating systems such as pellet or wood stoves. Since these systems are very polluting and have high CO2 emissions into the environment, they are often placed in homes that were not designed to be heated by these methods. The stoves need special attention during installation ( air intakes, location within the home, flues etc ) and also require daily maintenance and servicing to have efficient operation.
Certainly the "comfort" you have from the point of view of warmth and atmosphere that only fire can provide are a nice plus, but it is important to do a good job of reckoning with all the aspects involved in an alternative heating system to the traditional one. Get advice from an experienced heating engineer!
Monitoring household consumption with technologies
Being aware of one's consumption is another element in favor of saving money, as it gives us insight into where action can be taken.
To make a detailed analysis of consumption, it is possible to read and consult the bill. There are also several applications, downloadable to smartphones, that allow you to have in real time, statistics about your consumption.
Home automation can also ensure the reduction of energy waste.
In fact, the home automation system is able to maintain energy stability by adjusting the intensity of lights through setting limit thresholds on the meter, home shading systems and heating systems. To make one's home "smart," it is essential to have an active stable home internet connection.
In the event that one's home is without one, one will first need to compare the best internet deals offered by the different telephone operators on the market, not forgetting to check the network coverage in one's area.
Green or zero-impact homes
There is little that can be done, if you want to have a house that consumes little to be lived in you have to start from the design in the smallest details right from the foundation. It is in this direction that all European and national regulations in the energy and building field are moving. Today it is mandatory to build houses that are energy efficient and use as many renewable sources as possible to be maintained.
In order to have a zero-emission house, it is necessary to start from the ground up and build a house from scratch that takes advantage of the latest technology and modern knowledge applied to construction to make the so-called "green house."
To think of renovating an old property and making it zero-impact is unrealistic ( as well as considerably more expensive ) the materials and construction techniques used in the past are not comparable to the modern advances in technology that are being brought to bear today when it comes to new housing.
