10 Ways to Reduce Your Electricity Bills in Greece

The sharp rise in electricity prices made many of our readers think about saving. Our editors also took up this issue, and
we have compiled for you 11 absolutely legal ways to reduce your electricity bills.

Paying electricity bills has become a consumer nightmare, so many of us are now frantically looking for how and in what way we can make them smaller.

The main advice, if possible, go to private electricity suppliers: not only are prices cheaper there, but at least consumers are being deceived less.

So, 10 Totally Legal Ways To Reduce Your ΔΕΗ * (State Electricity Company) Bills.

Activate the “social tariff” (κοινωνικό τιμολόγιο).
Although the minimum non-taxable minimum this year has been reduced to 5,000 euros, but in ΔΕΗ, the instructions have not changed yet, and if you declared income for the past year no more than 12,000 euros, then you can qualify for a discount of 30% for the first 800 kW of consumed electricity per quarter. In this case, you will receive a discount only if the total consumption for the quarter will be from 200 to 1400 kW. Activate the “night rate” (νυχτερινό τιμολόγιο) for your electricity bills.
Personally, I have been using the so-called “night rate” for many years in a row. By making an application at your local ∆ΕΗ office, you can get a 50% discount on your electricity usage. Moreover, from November 1 to April 30, you can use this mode from 2 am to 8 am and in the afternoon from 15-30 to 17-30. And, although this, of course, is annoying, it is at this time that my wife is cooking in the kitchen, we heat water in an electric boiler (it is possible until 8 in the morning), and at night our washing machine turns on from 2 o’clock. Thus, we do 90% of all heavy energy costs during 50% of the tariff. This helps reduce our electricity bills by up to 40%. From May 1 to October 31, the “night rate” time is set from 23 to 8 am. And if you use air conditioning, especially at night, you will save significant amounts. Make an application for an increase in enanti (“έναντι”), keep in mind that the smart people who work in ΔΕΗ use all the options to charge you more money. One of the measures to counter this can be an application for an increase in enanti and timely payment of bills. Because, having paid the bill, you have to wait another 2 months for the bills to “match”. Thus, you will insure yourself against unnecessary overpayments, and will not lend to this reputable, but very clever establishment. Check meter readings and record them regularly. Please note that the guys with tricky devices who take meter readings are not your friends and acquaintances, but representatives of a company that loves money very much. We are constantly forced to pay incomprehensible and unjustified amounts: for the transportation of electricity, state Greek television and radio, and from above it is also not clear where the VAT charged on public services is from. In other words, if you have doubts about the correctness of your invoices, do not be lazy to go to the ΔΕΗ branch and find out where the line in your invoice comes from. Perhaps they added something superfluous to you. Set timers on household appliances to use the “night rate”. I use a timer on the washing machine and on the water heater, but if you want, you can put it on the oven if you cook in it often. Installation of such devices costs between 10 and 40 euros and pays for itself in a matter of months. Use modern air conditioners and refrigerators, electric stoves and other units of energy-saving categories A and A ++. On the Internet, it is not difficult to find a lot of comparison tables for categories A, B, C, D and without categories, the difference in power consumption reaches 2-3 or more times. The brand of the manufacturer and the type of unit also matter. But in short – taking into account the current prices for electricity, replacing an old or “left” air conditioner, or a refrigerator with a high-quality modern one, you will pay off in less than a year, or even faster. Replace all incandescent bulbs (regular old type) with modern LED bulbs, which give even more savings. And although the latter type of lamps is not yet entirely cheap, their service life (unless, of course, it is a cheap fake) is several years. And during this time on each lamp, in comparison with a conventional one, you will save tens of times more money than its cost. Use pressure cookers. This indispensable thing in the household will allow you to save at least 50% of your cooking time and, accordingly, the same amount of electricity, given that in Greece 90% of houses are equipped with electric stoves. Install solar water heaters. With the local sun, even in winter you can get hot water, which can be used both for sanitary and domestic needs, and you can connect a washing machine and a dishwasher to them, saving on heating water. The installation of solar panels will cost you from 500 to 1200 euros, depending on the chosen model, power and manufacturer. Here I also advise you to carefully study what is worth buying and what is not. I recommend looking for information on the Internet, or using the advice of friends and acquaintances, and best of all – professionals in this matter. Use regular fans. The power consumed by the fan is usually no more than 60 watts, while the power consumed by the air conditioner is not less than 1000 watts. Have you compared? Now think about whether it is always worth turning on the air conditioner where you can get by with a fan. Moreover, now, relatively inexpensively, you can buy fans with a control panel and a timer. I put a timer on such a device for 3-5 hours and go to bed. And he turned off in the morning, when the heat subsided. And it’s healthier than sleeping under an air conditioner. And if you ate there is an opportunity – generally sleep on the balcony or on the street. Both pleasant and useful.

* Tips 5 through 10 apply to any other electricity supplier

One more tip, as they say, in the end, but from this, no less valuable – if possible, unplug all electrical appliances that are not currently in use from the outlet. This especially applies to electronic devices – TVs, tuners, DVDs, computers and others, which are turned off via remote controls or, like computers, purely software. Pay special attention to chargers for smartphones, etc. All this equipment in standby mode consumes from 0.2 to 5 watts. This, multiplied by the total amount of equipment in the house, gives from 10 to 500 watts of consumed electricity per day. Some of the statisticians considered that all power-consuming devices in Europe in the Stand by state (standby mode) consume more electricity than the entire population of Africa consumes. Of course, Africa is not an indicator, but still – do not be lazy and pull out all unnecessary devices from the outlet, or purchase an extension cord with a switch so as not to spoil the sockets and plugs.

Additional ways:

Hood. Its consumption is 0.3-0.8 kW / h. Remember that the fan power is adjustable. The hood should be turned on at full power only when frying fish or when something burns out. To warm up finished products, you can also use the low-power mode of its operation. Energy savings up to 30%. Refrigerator. The daily energy consumption is 0.8-2 kW / day. The refrigerator should be located in the coolest part of the kitchen so that it does not fall on the sun’s rays. The rear wall of the refrigerator should be 10-15 cm away from the wall to make the compressor easier to operate. Do not put cold food in it. Many refrigerators have an economical mode of operation, use it. With the right approach to using the refrigerator, energy savings will be up to 20%. The electric stove and electric oven consume 0.5-3 kW / hour. Here you can use pans with a diameter equal to or larger than the diameter of the cooking zone. Do not look into the oven once again, as this cools it down. The hotplate and oven must be turned off ten minutes before the food is cooked, use the residual heat. Close all pots and pans with lids tightly, this will also save energy consumption. Your energy savings will be around 30%. The washing machine consumes from 2 to 5 kW per wash. If the machine is designed for 3 kg of laundry, load exactly as much, no less and no more. Overloading, as well as not overloading, increases energy consumption. You can also use a washing temperature 10 degrees lower than recommended. If the laundry is not very dirty, you can skip the prewash. Saving electricity up to 25% of electricity. An electric kettle consumes an average of 100-500 W to heat one liter of water. Scale draws on itself a lot of energy, try to remove it in time. You do not need to boil more water than necessary. It is more economical to heat several times in a mug than to boil a liter of water several times. Up to 10% energy savings can be made. The TV, although it consumes a little (50 – 150 W in operating mode), but if it does not turn off for days, then an extra 1.2-3.6 kW runs up per day. Turn off the TV sometimes, there is still nothing to watch. 🙂 This will save electricity 50-100 times. Simple things like a replaced dustbag in a vacuum cleaner, light-colored curtains, and clean windows also help save energy. In a word, everything that will make your apartment brighter without using electricity.

A FEW TIPS FOR ENERGY SAVING IN THE KITCHEN.

ELECTRIC STOVE.
The most wasteful household appliance. If a TV set consumes about 300 kW / h per year, a refrigerator about 450, then an electric stove – more than 1000. Therefore, it contains the main savings reserves. Powerful heating is not needed for most cooking procedures. The liquid should only be brought to a boil, then cooked over low heat. Use pots with a bottom diameter equal to the diameter of the cooking zones. Old pots with a convex and concave bottom result in 40-50% waste of energy. And don’t forget to put a lid on the pot: if the dishes are uncovered, you are wasting much more energy than necessary. When cooking on the electric stove, use the residual heat of the cooking zones: switch them off a little before the food is ready. Do not use stoves to heat rooms – this is ineffective and dangerous. Better insulate windows and doors. Use an electric kettle to heat a little water. At the same time, boil water in it as much as is needed at the moment. KETTLE. Scale in a kettle conducts heat almost thirty times worse than metal, so it significantly increases the amount of energy required to boil water. Every day, tens of millions of kettles boil water on gas and electric stoves. The harmlessness of a gray bloom turns into millions of cubic meters of gas and hundreds of thousands of kilowatt-hours of electricity wasted. So that the water does not cool down immediately, use … a thermos. After the water boils, pour it into a thermos and use as needed. REFRIGERATOR. Install the refrigerator in a cool place, away from heating and heating devices. The lower the room temperature, the more efficient the heat exchanger is. A distance of 5-10 cm should remain between the wall and the rear wall of the refrigerator. A large “fur coat” in the freezer has an extremely negative effect on the operation of the refrigerator. The ice in the refrigerator does not cool, but, on the contrary, works as a heat insulator. Therefore, the refrigerator needs to be thawed more often. Only open the refrigerator for a very short time and always close it tightly. Do not put hot food in it. …



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