saving on electricity bills
 

This week I had a real shock when I rang Iberdrola and gave them our electric meter reading. Fair enough - they had not had a proper reading for 14 months!! But even the helpful man at Iberdrola asked me if I owned a factory!!!
Anyway my question is - what is the best way to save on electricity bills? Is it our air con/heating, or our water heater, or our pool pump for example that is upping our bill?
We have come to an agreement to pay the massive bill off in installments - so we can t have a white meter until it s all paid off - so that is not an option at the moment.
Hope someone can give me some advice.

Re: saving on electricity bills
 

Not sure that even solar panels would help as I believe the feed in tariff here has been suspended as more folk than the government thought, took it up.

iI has gone up 8per cent they say, feels more like double to me too:thumbdown:

Re: saving on electricity bills
 

To save electricity.........change appliances to more efficient ones.

As an axample, we recently bought a new fridge (A+ 240KW/yr) and already have noticed a 25% drop in unit use. It replaced an old 750KW/yr unit which the previous owner had been using for the last 10 years.

We also got 25% off the price of the new fridge by availing of the government scheme of handing in the old one. (shop takes care of everything).

Loads more ideas like turning off aircon, lights, use gas.

Re: saving on electricity bills
 

what is the kW/hour charge in Spain?

Re: saving on electricity bills
 

On a normal domestic supply it about €0.18 including taxes.

Re: saving on electricity bills
 

I know it is too late but Iberdrola charge all the excess kws (like the surplus of actual cons over estimated) at todays rates. I'd get actual reads done & input them into iberdrola website so at least you pay at the relevant tariff.

Pool pumps are only 0.750 kw, its probably water heating, lights are low wattage.

Electricity is expensive & winters cold inside.

Re: saving on electricity bills
 

Yes - I was told my bill was on up to date charges unfortunately - when some of it had actually been on the cheaper rate - but what can you do!! Thanks for everyone s help - didn t realise the water heater was so expensive - we ve had it on all the time - until now!!! I always thought the air con units were the expensive item.

Re: saving on electricity bills
 

You can turn down yr water heater a few degrees (little dial underneath the tank, red usually, sometimes got a plastic cap over it) & noone would notice, & stick it on a timer or it'll just be boiling away - I bet its c 4kwhs.

Also replace all yr lighbulbs with low wattages, 2e each at Domti in Denia.

Up the chems in yr pool & reduce yr pumping time by 30 mins a day.

Spend yr savings on a nice meal!!!

Re: saving on electricity bills
 

We recently bought a solar water heater and we get piping hot water all the time. (we even divert hot water into our pool). As half of our elec bill was for our electric water heater, we expect the solar one to pay for itself in a couple of years. (hopefully)

Re: saving on electricity bills
 

Discussions about electricity costs and solar water heating always interest me, because I've never been able to fathom the economic claims about them. Setting aside the excess water going into the pool (although I do know someone who has this system, and there pool is never more than 2C higher than ours with no heating at all).

I calculate that my water heating costs are more or less €225 a year. This is based on a 150 litre water heater, with a 3kw heater. We are on the day night tariff, so the cheap rate is about 8.75 cents inclusive. We have it on a timer plug, so it goes on for an hour about 6am, and then another hour before the price switch, so after our morning shower. Its a standard heater, so well insulated, and we have hot water on tap all day.

Unless the cost of solar power has gone down a lot recently, I just can't see the payback, unless I'm missing something

Re: saving on electricity bills
 

You might get it even lower if you drop the temperature a bit. Most heaters are set to about 60c. Running it between 45 and 50 might save a bit.

I agree with you about the returns on solar heating - very difficult to justify unless you have a big family showering all day!

Re: saving on electricity bills
 

We arent on the dual tarrif system so i cant comment on its efficiancy. I reckon the cost of our hot water works out at about 30 euros a month, the solar water system cost me 700 euros plus another 50 for pipe and fittings etc. obviously the cost of the system is a given but everyones electric water heating costs are different so, financially, solar hot water isnt neccessarily ideal for everyone.

Re: saving on electricity bills
 

Fred, the best modern water heaters now don't seem to allow you to alter the temperature (at least that's what I was told when I asked how to do it on ours).


Also, isn't it cheaper to keep the boiler on rather than turning it off and on again - someone once explained the theory to me and it did seem to make sense.

Re: saving on electricity bills
 

Yes - I keep getting told to leave my water heater on - rather than switching it on and off when required - so I m confused about what to do!
So still not sure why our bill was so big - I think it must be the air con/heater units.

Re: saving on electricity bills
 

we wanted to get aircon but were told it used up loads of electricity. i suppose one way to see how much it uses is to turn everything off (where poss) and just put the aircon (one unit) on for about 10 minutes and see how many elec units are used. (if units arent shown to enough decimal places, might have to leave it on for longer, or put more a/c units on in order to get an acurate measurement). this saves having to try and reconcile kw hours with meter units