How to Cut Home Electricity Use Without Changing Daily Habits: Tips from a Samsung Executive
Guntis Strazdiņš, Samsung's Home Appliances Product Manager for the Baltics, offers three tips for reducing household electricity consumption. A survey shows only 14% of Latvian residents closely monitor their usage.
As the dark season sets in, household electricity use and heating needs rise in Latvia, which can lead to larger monthly bills. Guntis Strazdiņš, Home Appliances Product Manager for the Baltics at the South Korean electronics maker Samsung, has offered three practical tips for using appliances more wisely and consuming less without significantly changing daily routines.
Why it matters
The energy market outlook is not encouraging: gas storage in the European Union is at its lowest level for a heating season in ten years. A tighter supply of liquefied natural gas and competition with Asian countries for deliveries could add pressure on energy prices.
A Samsung survey indicates that in Latvia only 14% of people closely track their household's electricity consumption, while 35% do so rarely or hardly at all.
Three tips
1. Schedule appliance use. The exchange price of electricity changes every hour and tends to be lower in periods of weaker demand, such as at night. Households on an exchange-linked tariff may find it worthwhile to run energy-intensive tasks, such as laundry or dishwashing, at cheaper times. Many appliances can be set in advance to start at a chosen time.
2. Don't let devices run unnecessarily. In the Samsung SmartThings app, users can create a night scenario that switches off selected compatible devices and lighting at a set time, as well as an away scenario that turns off pre-selected devices when leaving home. In the survey, 43% of respondents named remote control as one of the main reasons for connecting appliances to Wi-Fi.
3. When buying new appliances, weigh long-term benefits. Strazdiņš notes that buyers should look beyond price and design to features that help save resources. Some washing machines have an energy-saving mode that lowers water temperature and adjusts wash duration, cutting consumption by up to 70% compared with a standard cycle. In some smart Samsung refrigerator models, consumption can be reduced by up to 15%.
