How to save money on energy costs in Germany
Energy prices are in the rise. What ways are there to save money in Germany in spite of rising energy prices?
1. Get your energy from the cheapest provider
Just like finding the cheapest gas station in town… you can also shop around to get cheaper electricity and gas in your apartment!
You should always be shopping around for the cheapest electricity and gas providers to save money. It will help you save alot of money. One of the best ways to find the cheapest deal on both electricity and gas for your home is through CHECK24.
CHECK24 compares all the current offers on electricity and gas to help you find the best deal on either electricity or gas for your home.
2. Make your appliances as efficient as possible
Now that you have the cheapest gas or electricity as possible, it is time to use those as efficiently as possible.
3 ways to make appliances more energy efficient
1. Upgrade your appliances
It can be more expensive up front, but energy hungry appliances may need to have their days numbered in order for you to save money. Start with upgrading the most energy hungry appliances first:
2. Install smart plugs
Smart plugs are an amazing way to manage older appliances you don‘t want to replace or for those appliances that have no hope of becoming energy efficient. Smart plugs are cheap to buy and easily help you manage things like fans, water heaters, lights… pretty much anything with a plug!
Check out popular smart plug products on Amazon.de
3. Invest in a Smart heating system
Heating for your home of the most expensive energy costs in Germany. Most homes in Germany have radiator heaters in each room… each radiator has to be manually turned up or down throughout the day… to heat your home efficiently takes alot of work.
A smart heating system replaces the existing knob on your radiators enabling your heaters to be automated and run of a pre-defined program controlled from an app on your phone. Smart heating systems are a bit of an up front investment, but are totally worth it in the long run. A good smart heating system will be easy to install and have an easy to use app for programming.
When making the decision to buy a smart heating system, here are some things to keep in mind:
- Integration: Does this smart heating system integrate well with your smart home system?
- Reliability: Be careful about buying a cheap system from a company you’ve never heard of. You want a reliable system from a company that will continue to offer software and system updates.
Here are a few great Smart Heating systems to use in Germany
TADO
Pro:
- Compatible with all major Smart Home systems
- Excellent app interface
- Geofence feature- turns heaters off when you are not home.
Con:
- Some features require a yearly subscription
- Requires a hub
- Not ideal for larger homes
EVE
Pro
- Made in Germany
- Does not require a hub
- Connects with Homekit
Con:
- Is not compatible with Google Home or Alexa
- Heavily favors Apple product users
3. Energy Saving Habits
Saving energy & money is as simple as implementing the right habits into your life! Here are two simple habits that will help you start saving energy and money right away.
Proper Ventilation
Properly ventilating your can save you up to 165 Euros a year…Crazy! For those of you who are not familiar with Germany apartments and houses… they are generally brick and do not have ventilation systems. In order to get fresh air into your rooms, you need to open and close the windows.
There is actually a right and a wrong way to do this! If you do it right, it will save you money… and prevent mold from growing in your home.
Here is a resource to help guide you through the proper ventilation process.
“Tür Zu” (Close the doors!)
Keeping the doors closed within your home helps the heaters in each room to more efficiently and effectively do their job. Each room
