Reduce your energy bill by 27% without blinking
If you reside in Spain, you would have made great friends here and probably fallen in love with our energy companies, especially the electric and gas.
I apologise for my sarcasm but I can’t help it every time I speak about these companies.
The same as you, I see how, month after month, they increase their prices without any scruples and what is worst the government does nothing to stop it.
The price of electricity reaches annual maximums normally in August (the month with maximum use due to the air con) and our bill skyrockets.
Thus, according to calculations made by national newspaper El País based on figures obtained from the National Commission of Markets and Competition (CNMC), the price of electricity for an average user rose last August by around 10% compared to the same month the previous year and more than 3% compared to the month before.
Electricity prices in the wholesale market have continued to rise since last July and have reached a new annual record. The average price has been €61.88 per megawatt hour (MWh), according to Omie, the market manager. This represents an increase of 5.85% compared to the month before and 27.25% compared to July 2017.
The annual average price was, at the end of July 2018, €51.85 per MWh. This is 2% higher than the same period the previous year and, in addition, it is the highest average price since 2008.
Slight modifications, big savings
All is not lost friends, some slight modifications to our uses and we could save €4.352 million per year, according to the Naturgy foundation.
Residents in Spain could reduce their energy bills by 27.4% with slight improvements in their habits and by proper use of electrical equipment. This is data from the latest edition of the Home Energy Efficiency Index of the Naturgy foundation, based on 3,600 surveys nationwide.
2018 was the first year that there was an increase in the Efficiency Index since 2011, standing at 6.4 points, 1.1% more than in the previous edition, an improvement that implies a slight trend change.
Citizens are increasingly aware of the benefits of saving and efficiency measures, as reflected in the fact that last year, they had a greater potential for energy savings in equipment (43.3%) and heating (25.3%), while the percentages were lower in lighting (20%), air conditioning (18.3%) and hot water (13.7%).
“The energy that can be saved is almost 50,000 GWh, equivalent to 18% of the total electricity demand in Spain in 2017. With this saving, it would also avoid the emission of 14.7 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, the same emissions made by 4.8 million passenger cars a year, 21% of the existing mobile fleet in Spain”, explains the general director of the Naturgy foundation, Martí Solà.
Change of habits, big savings
The habits that have improved in the last year, according to Naturgy, are as follows:
Practically half of Spanish households had appliances of class A or higher (49.4%) and have improved knowledge about energy labelling.
The use of a short wash cycle with the washing machine also evolved positively and the tendency to let the dishwasher automatically choose what cycle to use increased, thus improving the efficiency.
A total of 39% of the bulbs in Spanish households are LED, followed by those with low consumption (34%) and the least efficient bulbs, incandescent, only represent 9%.
There are 27% more households contracted to off peak tariff and a greater energy awareness culture is reflected, since three out of four people surveyed knew that by adjusting the tariff and contracted power to their needs, they can pay much less.
Among the negative aspects, there is an increased use of ‘stand by’ lights and electrical devices in the home and the number of houses that completely turn off equipment before going out or going to bed has decreased.
I addition, the systems for the reduction of air output in all windows in homes have worsened, the use of household appliances of greater consumption has increased simultaneously and the number of households without thermostats to regulate individual heating has grown
The most efficient turns out to be the cheapest
The Naturgy foundation also offers data on the most efficient homes. They are located in the Valencian region score of 6.61 points, followed by the Catalans (6.57%) and the Cantabrians (6.52%). Behind are Andalucía, Aragón and Murcia (6.50%) and Extremadura (6.49%). Madrid and Castilla-La Mancha can be found at the same level as the national average (6.46%).
On the opposite side, below the national average, Castilla y León, País Vasco (6.40%), Galicia (6.36%), La Rioja (6.34%) and Baleares (6.31%). The regions with the least efficient households are located in Asturias, Navarra (6.23%) and Canarias (6.01%).
The profile of the most efficient households corresponds to a family of medium-high economic level, where the person in charge of the household is over 50 years old and the house is located in a municipality of between 10,000 and 100,000 inhabitants.