# Energy saving tips

What can I do to save energy?

Traditional energy efficiency is what you first think of. For a large property or business then you know without even being developer or energy expert that the millions start rolling. It is costly to improve the buildings shell and replace equipment in the building. But that's usually what is done. It is also only that the energy declarations look at. The production or operations are overlooked completly. But often there is great potential to save energy in the operations/production. A potential that is usually not at all affected by energy efficiency improvements on the property. For best effect, you obviously work with both operations, the shell and equipment in the building. We do this by getting the users interested and involved in energy saving !

User Involvement save 20%!

You can always try to influence users to change their behavior, it provides as several studies show, savings of between 10-30% without the need to replace equipment or alter the shell of the building. Why is it not always done? The answer can be that energy is nothing that usually concerns the worker, only the energy efficiency officer. The business may not even be interested in saving energy for they do not pay for it. Tough situation thus. So what can you do if a business that does not pay for energy and does not want to save energy? One can obviously not say to them who do not want to save energy to "save energy" and then think they will do it.

What if you do not want to save energy?

The obvious question is who wants to waste? Who can say that I wasted energy because I do not pay for it? It is certainly not something you brag about if you do it. By working with user participation, you can committed everyone to the energy saving goals. When it is easy to when and what consumens energy you can also get the employed thinking about energy usage. An important step in this is to visualize the energy usage. By visualizing the consumption of energy, electricity, heat, etc., you get everyone to think and see the connection between equipment being on and energy consumption being high. So instead of telling everyone to "shut that equipment off" and so on you show them the usage and let them connect the dots. It also spurs them to find out whats consuming energy if everything is turned off. Let the users work with the energy saving and find ways how to decrease the usage. They know best where the problems lie. By giving them the right tools, visualization of consumption, you give them what they need to actively work with their energy consumption. Combine visualization with the monitoring and discussion at appropriate intervals and you have a complete solution that works in your organization. Are there more unitos or organisations in the same company or building, you can if you want to let them compete with each other to make it even more exciting.

Want to know more about how you can work with user participation, please contact us. Here are some simple tips that you can use both at home and at work.

Ten easy tips to save energy:

1) Turn off lights and shut down equipment not in use: ex: Switch off all lights in rooms you are in.
Turn off your stereo when you're not listening to it. Turn off the TV when not watching it. Turn the coffee maker and pour the coffee in a thermos. Turn the computer off when not in use.

2) electric water heaters should not be operated at higher temperatures than 65C. Higher temperature leads to scaling and also allows the scale builds up faster in the water heater. Lower temperatures than 50 degrees causes a risk of legionella.

3) Dont hand wash the dishes, use the dishwasher. It consumes less water and electricity.

4) Do not leave doors and windows open for long periods when there is a need for heating.

5) Adjust the temperature by reducing the temperature through the radiator, do not open a window during the heating season to decrease temperature.

6) Lowering the temperature from 23 C to 22 C saves about 5% on heating costs annualy.

7) Lower the temperature in rooms that you do not stay in normaly, for example, storage rooms and garages.

8) Review the seals in windows and doors. If you feel a draft from door or window in the winter it is a sign that the seals needs to replaced.

9) Do not waste hot water, use what you need but do not if flow from the tap directly down the drain while you wash or brush your teeth. Do not let the shower flow hot water if you're not in it.

10) When you boil pasta or potatoes turn off the stove 5 minutes before it is "done" and the pasta and potatoes will be cooked by the excess heat.

To achieve behavior change, you also need to see the fruits of it. Using Saber Saber Home or Professional, you can follow your consumption in real time. You can see if your savings measures are ineffective or effective. If you only get a montly bill, then the bill can be higher thought you tried to reduce it and you wont know why. With Saber, you can follow the consumption of online in real time and look at History hour by hour. No more surprises and you get both incentive and the feedback needed to achieve energy savings!

For more information on how to save energy:

Energy Agency compilation of tips on how to save energy.

According Energy Agency can trade reduce their energy use by 20 % through changes in blue light and fan control.

The advice service's non-partisan site with energy-saving tips, a service from the municipalities in the Stockholm region

Eon's page with energy saving tips, also available to download as a pdf.

Karlstad University targets for energy conservation and tips on how to reduce energy consumption.

EU's climate goals wiki with the compilation of the EU's energy policy and climate change.