A company’s specialists have created a set of 15 measures to reduce electricity and gas bills and save energy, at an individual and institutional level.
Bankwatch Romania specialists propose:
1. Analyze and compare the offers of electricity and gas suppliers and choose the contract variants that suit you best, depending on your consumption habits.
2. Replace all light bulbs, both incandescent and halogen, with quality LED bulbs; LED bulbs have a guaranteed lifetime of 20 years and even though the investment may be higher at the beginning, it pays for itself in a few months (depending on the size of the space/house and the number of bulbs used), especially now in the season cold.
3. Every time you leave a room, turn off the light.
4. In temporarily unused premises, whether they are office buildings, administrative buildings, commercial or residential premises, set the thermostat to 15-17 degrees Celsius.
5. Set the heating system thermostat one degree less than the temperature you were used to. The recommendations of the World Health Organization for the inhabitants of temperate zones are 18 degrees Celsius, indoors, in the cold season.
6. Replace old appliances with state-of-the-art models that have much lower power consumption, have ECO mode of operation and some are even programmable.
7. Do not simultaneously use the biggest consumers in the premises (office/home). Identify the appliances with the highest energy consumption and prioritize their renewal.
8. Unplug all appliances you are not using. The analyzes carried out established that, even when they are in stand-by, household appliances consume approximately 30% of the energy used for operation.
9. Request the installation of smart meters for electricity, gas and water by the supply companies. These models are very accurate in measuring consumption, they are reliable and, thanks to the remote reading during the recommended period, you will be billed for actual consumption, not estimated.
10. Install batteries with aerators to save on domestic hot water (but also for important water savings). Sensor batteries are an even better option.
11. Set the hot water temperature to a maximum of 50-55 degrees Celsius.
12. Rehabilitation and energy efficiency of residential and non-residential buildings can lead to savings of up to 30% on utility bills.
13. Opt for quality double-glazed double-glazed joinery. Thus heat losses will be greatly reduced.
14. Be proactive, even if the block/house where you live and the building of the institution where you work are not thermally insulated. Ask the representatives of the owners’ association, the town hall, if it is the case of the administrative management, to take steps to enroll in the programs of the Environmental Fund Administration (AFM). With all the bureaucratic hurdles, from energy dependency and huge energy bills, to autonomy and even prosumer status it is a necessary and urgent evolution.
15. The potential for using renewable resources for the production of clean energy is very high in Romania (solar, wind, geothermal, etc.). Consider, in addition to the savings on bills now, the long-term investment in PV panels/heat pumps.
As for public institutions, they are recommended to accelerate the renovation of buildings, as well as the replacement of light bulbs in the buildings of public institutions. For example, the Palace of Parliament alone has an electricity consumption equivalent to that of a smaller city in Romania, such as Buftea, also due to the 120,000 light bulbs with which it is illuminated.
Other measures are setting the thermostat of the heating system one degree less than the temperature the employees were used to during the other cold seasons. Savings can also be made on the hot water used in public institutions, even if not as drastically as the Capital City Hall announced, but the temperature can be reduced. Turning off light bulbs, turning off computers and other electrical devices at the end of the work schedule.