The biggest power guzzlers and power errors

Where are power guzzlers hiding?

Every German consumes around 7.2 megawatt hours a year. That is almost a megawatt hour more than 10 years ago. This is not only expensive, but also harms the environment. Fridges, freezers and stoves consume a lot of energy and account for almost 34% of the total electricity requirement. To easily save electricity here, you can cover the food with a lid while cooking. You don't always have to preheat the oven. The refrigerator should never be left open longer than necessary and nothing warm should be stored in it. Make sure nothing gets iced up, because just 5mm of ice in the freezer means a 30% increase in electricity consumption. So: Defrost regularly. Another power guzzler is our laundry. This accounts for 13% of our annual electricity consumption. In order to save energy here, we recommend that you avoid washing with hot water (30°C or 40°C is perfectly sufficient), avoid using the delicate program, as it uses a lot of water, and hang up the laundry to dry instead of using a dryer use.

What is behind these electricity myths?

Charging cables do not consume power when no device is connected.

Incorrect! As soon as a charging cable is plugged into the socket, it draws electricity - even if no device is connected. This can even be dangerous: the charger can overheat and, in the worst case, explode and cause a fire.

Showering is better than bathing

It depends - depending on the size of the bathtub, the shower head and the duration of the shower. If you shower quickly and have an economical shower head, you save water here in contrast to a full bath. Conventional shower heads use an average of 18 liters of water per minute. A shower worth three minutes uses around 54 liters of water, and whoever showers for 10 minutes already uses 180 liters of water.

Only hot washed laundry is clean

Incorrect! Modern washing machines and good detergents are able to clean the laundry even without a hot wash cycle - even at 30°C. This can reduce the energy consumption of the device by up to 50%!

What about batteries?

It takes 500 times as much energy to create a battery as it later gives back. Every year we use 1.5 billion batteries. In 2017, over 50000 tons of batteries and accumulators were sold. Caution: Some electronic devices, such as flashlights, consume electricity even when switched off and continue to drain the battery. So it is better to take out the batteries. Even if you always work with your laptop from the socket, you should remove the battery. When the battery overheats, it shortens its lifespan. As mentioned above, chargers always consume electricity when no device is connected - so pull the plug! By the way: Batteries that have been used up for powerful devices such as a camera can still be used for your remote control or wall clock. This way you can use up the full power of the battery. Batteries should never be disposed of with household waste, but in a collection box. Every shop that sells batteries is legally obliged to offer such a collection box.

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