With the arrival of winter and rate increases, many families are wondering how they could heat using less energy, and thus avoid excessive jumps in the next electricity and gas bills.
In a new studyto which he agreed Clarionenergy efficiency specialists provided a key advice to achieve significant savings for your pocket.
Through calculations and measurements, they demonstrated that both in Buenos Aires and in other large cities in the country, for sharply reduce consumption It is often enough to do a minimum adjustment in gas stoves and air conditioners.
Heating: the trick at your fingertips that brings significant savings in gas and electricity
In an article titled Thermal regulation of environments: a simple and low-cost way to save energytechnicians from the University of San Martín (UNSAM), the National Institute of Industrial Technology (INTI) and the University of the Republic of Uruguay (Udelar) highlighted the enormous and surprising importance of making a efficient use of thermostats.
In What temperature should we set the regulator to? of our heaters when turning them on? AND how it impacts the pocket the decision to ask each team a little more either a little less of heat for the environments? These were the questions that the work sought to answer exactly.
“In general, for all indoor thermal conditioning systems, regardless of their technology, adjust thermostats can considerably modify your consumption energy,” they concluded.
Specifically, they found that during the cold months, throughout the center and north of Argentina -AMBA included-, by every degree we go down the thermostat generates a energy savings greater than 25%while in the South this reduction is close to 10%.
On the other hand, as they stated, for those who use air conditioners in heat mode, the benefit of lowering the desired temperature in only 1°C (e.g. 19° to 18°) is usually even greater than 30%.
“Similarly, in summer, increase by 1° the temperature of the thermostats can reduce the consumption of air conditioners by almost 50% in practically the entire country,” adds the note, prepared by specialists Pablo Romero, Ítalo Bove Vanzulli, Jorge Fiora, Cristian Carri and Salvador Gil.
Save energy: how much do they recommend setting thermostats during the winter
“In general terms, the recommendation is to set the thermostat as low as possible during the winterand as high as possible in the summer,” summarized Gil, a doctor in Physics and director of the Energy Engineering program at UNSAM.
When it’s cold, according to this expert, most people can feel reasonably comfortable in an environment heated to 18°if they wear clothing appropriate for the season.
“From the point of view of efficiency, it is best to use air conditioners and stoves that have a thermostat set at only 18°. At most 19° or 20°but do not exceed that because energy consumption becomes too high,” he added.
Gil warned, in that sense, that only because go from 18° to 20° the desired temperature, the cost of a heater increases more than 50%. And what if it is programmed to keep the environment at 22°will consume practically double than if it were set at 18°.
That is to say that, in exchange for a minimal loss of comfortbarely perceptible, you get a very relevant energy savings that goes directly to your pocket.
Saving on heating: why lowering the thermostat has a double benefit
Lowering the temperature of the thermostats, then, contributes to lowering the amount of bills because the heaters will need to work less to bring the home from the actual temperature to the desired one (which will no longer be as demanding). But it also allows you to save another way.
The research highlighted that, as the user settles for having their home a little cooler, it will also be much fewer days in which you will need use the heating.
In Buenos Aires, for example, if someone lowers the target temperature from 20° to 18°you will no longer have to use your heaters 214 days for each yearbut only 177as calculated from meteorological records of the last decade.
“Efficient energy management is crucial for all of society, but it is especially important for those families with limited economic resources, who generally use a larger fraction of your income in the energy bills“, reflected the efficiency experts.
And they emphasized, then, the need for people adjust the thermostats wellbecause this is “a simple and effective action to reduce energy consumption and mitigate the cost of said invoices.”
