# How to reduce electricity costs



## Michael Kelly (May 30, 2017)

I'm wondering if anyone has any tips on how I can reduce my electricity costs. I live in Barcelona in a 45m2 flat, have a "potencia" of 3,3 kW and have a monthly bill of around 70 euro. I have air conditioning and heating but try not to use them that much. My air conditioning, fridge and washing machine are all 12 years old. Any ideas? (I'm with Endesa)


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## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

Do you have gas for cooking? A stove-top kettle is more economical than an electric one. Don't turn the oven on for just one item, better to batch-cook and freeze the surplus.

Keep your fridge and freezer well stocked, as half-empty ones use more power. Defrost regularly and make sure there are no broken seals.

Set the washing machine temperature at 30º, Spanish detergents are made to work at low temperatures.

Get a propane/butane gas stove to heat your main living area, much more economical than electric heating.

Turn off TV and computer monitors when not in use.

More useful tips here:

https://www.endesaclientes.com/blog/electrical-appliance-the-most


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## Lynn R (Feb 21, 2014)

Michael Kelly said:


> I'm wondering if anyone has any tips on how I can reduce my electricity costs. I live in Barcelona in a 45m2 flat, have a "potencia" of 3,3 kW and have a monthly bill of around 70 euro. I have air conditioning and heating but try not to use them that much. My air conditioning, fridge and washing machine are all 12 years old. Any ideas? (I'm with Endesa)


We've recently moved into an apartment where we are all-electric, with air conditioning which we use for heating. Our bill for the last month was €59.65 with a potencia of 5.75kw(and we cook two separate evening meals every day using an induction hob. electric oven/microwave, plus we use the dishwasher twice a week when full.

I would guess that you could reduce your bills by buying new, energy efficient appliances (ours are all at least A++, we planned to buy everything new when we moved) but obviously that would involve quite a large financial outlay which would take a long time to recoup in lower bills. Is your aircon the inverter type? That is what we have, and from everything I have read they are much more economical to run than the older type which from our bills to date seems to be true.

One thing we do is always to do our washing in cold water, which means the machine is not having to heat the water. With liquid detergent (powder doens't dissolve well in cold water) the clothes, etc. come out perfectly clean.

Our supplier is Fenosa and we get a discount of 10% on the potencia charge with them. I don't think the unit cost for electricity would be any different as we are on the Government-regulated tarriff.


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## Lynn R (Feb 21, 2014)

Oh, and our washing machine has a 30 minute programme which I use for almost everything (except towels) - we only wear clothes once before washing so they are hardly dirty, and we use the 45 minute programme on the dishwasher which is perfectly adequate.


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## Michael Kelly (May 30, 2017)

This was my last bill

Por potencia contratada 40,56 €
Por energía consumida 19,16 €
Impuesto electricidad 3,05 €
Alquiler equipos de medida y control 1,94 €
IVA NORMAL (21%) 13,59 €
...........................................................................................................................................
TOTAL IMPORTE FACTURA 78,30 €

I find the "potencia contratada" part very high, it seems to be a fixed charge regardless of how much energy I use.


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## Lynn R (Feb 21, 2014)

Michael Kelly said:


> This was my last bill
> 
> Por potencia contratada 40,56 €
> Por energía consumida 19,16 €
> ...


Yes, the potencia is a fixed charge irrespective of how much energy you use. Your potencia charge seems high to me, though, if you are only contracted for 3.3kw. Until very recently we were with Endesa too, with a potencia of 3.45kw, and our potencia charge was just over €24 for their two-month billing period. With Fenosa, our current supplierr, we have 5.75kw and the potencia charge is just over €20 (they issue bills every month, unlike Endesa) less a promotional discount of 10% on that potencia. If you check that out with Endesa and they won't reduce it, it might be worthwhile investigating switching to a different energy supplier.


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## tmarshall57 (Jan 17, 2017)

We have an apartment in El Campello with gas water heating and electricity for Aircon, Heating and all other appliances. Our potenticia was 5.75KW. Given that the apartment is used as a second home our main costs were the fixed charge associated with the potencia. We are with Iberdrola who wrote to me recently suggesting I could save money by moving to their night tariff which offers 14 hours per 24 hour period at a low unit cost rate of 0.06 per KWH (standard cost per unit is currently about 0.12 per KWH). On the night tariff the standard rate increases to about 0.14 per KWH. I moved to this tariff and also reduced the potencia to the next lower (4.6 KW I recall) and discovered that most (about 70%) of my electricity consumption is now at the lower rate - between 22:00 and 12:00 in winter and 23:00 and 13:00 in summer. the reduction in potencia hasn't caused any unwanted trips so I am expecting to save at least 40 to 80 euros per annum by implementing these changes which were completed simply and online. The cost of the potencia redution was about 9€


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## Lynn R (Feb 21, 2014)

By the way, Michael, you said in your OP that your monthly bill was around €70 - but as you're with Endesa, don't they issue your bills every two months? They certainly did with ours, that that was just a few months ago. Everyone else I know who is with Endesa gets two-monthly bills as well.


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## Michael Kelly (May 30, 2017)

Sorry, I have just checked this bill and see that it is for a two and a half month period. So that would make 16 euro potencia per month (before tax)


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## tarot650 (Sep 30, 2007)

Lynn R said:


> By the way, Michael, you said in your OP that your monthly bill was around €70 - but as you're with Endesa, don't they issue your bills every two months? They certainly did with ours, that that was just a few months ago. Everyone else I know who is with Endesa gets two-monthly bills as well.


Lynn girl,we are with Endesa and our bills are every month.In fact we just got our monthly bill yesterday which is on standing order.Just goes to show how things differ,we must be a special case.LOL.

Just looked at our bills from the begining of last year and it's still a month.


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## Lynn R (Feb 21, 2014)

tarot650 said:


> Lynn girl,we are with Endesa and our bills are every month.In fact we just got our monthly bill yesterday which is on standing order.Just goes to show how things differ,we must be a special case.LOL.
> 
> Just looked at our bills from the begining of last year and it's still a month.


Strange, isn't it? The bills for our friend's holiday home where we lived for 5 months when we were between homes (and which we still keep an eye on for her and take the maill in) continue to arrive every two months. Lord knows why they use different billing periods for different customers, but they obviously do.

We did get bills every month from Endesa for a short period, a few years ago now, but then they reverted to every two months.

But Michael obviously gets his every two months - two and a half months in fact, going by his latest post. At least that makes his bill per month sound a bit more reasonable.


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## Michael Kelly (May 30, 2017)

Actually my billing period can vary - sometimes it is one month, sometimes 2, sometimes just one week. I need to check this with them as it just does not make sense.


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## tarot650 (Sep 30, 2007)

Lynn R said:


> Strange, isn't it? The bills for our friend's holiday home where we lived for 5 months when we were between homes (and which we still keep an eye on for her and take the maill in) continue to arrive every two months. Lord knows why they use different billing periods for different customers, but they obviously do.
> 
> We did get bills every month from Endesa for a short period, a few years ago now, but then they reverted to every two months.
> 
> But Michael obviously gets his every two months - two and a half months in fact, going by his latest post. At least that makes his bill per month sound a bit more reasonable.


Always had our bills every month and looking at Jan. last year there was about 3or4 euros difference in the bill we got yesterday and we never spare on anything as when the day comes that I start worrying about bills it will be time to move on to pastures new.


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## tarot650 (Sep 30, 2007)

Michael Kelly said:


> Actually my billing period can vary - sometimes it is one month, sometimes 2, sometimes just one week. I need to check this with them as it just does not make sense.


Possible it might be the area that you are in or the province.If you are that worried about it I would check up on it.


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## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

Michael Kelly said:


> Sorry, I have just checked this bill and see that it is for a two and a half month period. So that would make 16 euro potencia per month (before tax)


Ours is €16.50 for 4.6kW. Are you sure you are on 3.3kW? If so it should be about €12. These standing charges are fixed by the government and don't vary between suppliers.

Whatever, your bill seems very low compared to ours which averages €100 a month!


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## Chica22 (Feb 26, 2010)

tarot650 said:


> Possible it might be the area that you are in or the province.If you are that worried about it I would check up on it.


We own two properties, less than 10 minutes drive from each other. With one property we receive monthly bills, and the second property two monthly bills


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## stevesainty (Jan 7, 2011)

Before we had a smart meter fitted we had bills every two months, alternatively, one read and one estimated. Now we have, almost, calendar monthly bills.


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## Michael Kelly (May 30, 2017)

I had a smart meter fitted last month so let's see if that changes.


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## Michael Kelly (May 30, 2017)

Alcalaina said:


> Whatever, your bill seems very low compared to ours which averages €100 a month!


Yes, but I am one person in a 45 m2 flat. How large is your place?


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## Lynn R (Feb 21, 2014)

Michael Kelly said:


> I had a smart meter fitted last month so let's see if that changes.


We had a smart meter for a couple of years before we moved but still received two-monthly blls.


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## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

Michael Kelly said:


> Yes, but I am one person in a 45 m2 flat. How large is your place?


Two people in a 170m2 house ...


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## Michael Kelly (May 30, 2017)

The larger size would go a long way to explaining the higher bill, I guess.


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## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

Michael Kelly said:


> The larger size would go a long way to explaining the higher bill, I guess.


Well, we only heat two rooms during the day (we each have our own "personal space"), and didn't have air con until September. We use a propane gas fire in the living room during the evening, and never heat the bedroom. We use the washing machine at 30ºC once or twice a week. Cooking and hot water are gas. So it must be down to the OH's impressive collection of electric guitars and computer equipment ...

I've given up worrying about it, you only live once and it's important to be comfortable especially as you get older.


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## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

Our average monthly electricity bill is around €175..It's impossible to heat the house as it's got large rooms and the salon has a two storey high ceiling with minstrel gallery.
So we heat one room with a butane heater.
The plus side is that we don't need aircon in summer.
We do keep the pool pump running all year round and we use the washing machine several times a week plus we use electricity to cook and heat water. We also electrically heat the bathrooms for an hour or so morning and night for baths/ showers. It seems most of our neighbours have similarly high electricity bills.
We do have the highest potencia but I don't want to reduce it in case the fuse trips at an inconvenient time and I' m left in the dark under a cold shower.


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