How to live climate & budget friendly
Hannah
Get some easy tips to cut down your energy usage and save on your utilities.
Our ambition at THE FIZZ is to enable you to plan your costs well for your studies. That’s why we include the ancillary costs in your monthly all-in price in advance. We are committed to manage our ancillary costs as cost-efficient as possible. Due to the current world situation, however, we may have to adjust your share of the additional costs during your rental period in the future. We guarantee that we will never make any profit out of such ancillary cost increases but these will only cover cost increases in current market. Find more information on the topic and what you can do to protect the environment and even your budget, in this blog article, in your rental agreement or in the FAQs.
Water
Did you know that in Germany, the average shower takes six minutes? Even if you’re just shortening your shower a little, you could save some money. Maybe you might even dare to turn the temperature of the water down just a bit? Some more ways to reduce your water consumption are turning off the water while shampooing and not leaving the water running while putting soap on your hands or while you’re shaving. All these small things added up can really make a difference when combined.
Room climate
When it comes to regulating the climate in your room, it’s all about temperature and humidity. It is really important to prevent molding in your apartment. The perfect circumstances for mold to grow are reached if the humidity is above 65 percent and the temperature is underneath 18 degrees Celsius. To keep track of your room climate, it can be a good idea to buy a thermometer which also measures the humidity.
While the temperature of the room can be regulated with the thermostat and the heating, the humidity is regulated through ventilation.
Surprisingly, there are many things to consider if you want to create the perfect air for your apartment. Dry air can warm up the room faster and more easily than humid air can, so it is important to let air in regularly, 3 to 4 times a day should be perfect. Only tilting a window unfortunately does not work well, always fully open it. And open the apartment-door too if it’s possible, this helps the air flow from used to fresh.
And even if it gets a little cold in winter after renewing the air in the room, it’s easier to heat it up again afterwards, which means you save energy costs.
To keep a healthy climate in the room, you should clean the extractor in the bathroom once a week and if there is one in the kitchen, keep that clean too. If you don’t have one, make sure to ventilate your room properly while cooking.
If you spend a longer time in your apartment, for example at the desk, you might get a little cold. But instead of heating up the room more and more, it helps to take a short break and go for a walk to regulate your own temperature perception. Sometimes it’s also good to put on some warm clothes rather than heating the whole room.
By the way: don’t forget your bathroom. It is a small room that can be easily heated up, so it is normally enough to run the heating on level two.
If you’re not at home for a few days, it’s better to lower the temperature a bit so that you don’t have to pay for the heating if no one enjoys the warmth.
During the night you’re cuddled up in your warm blanket, that means you can turn down the thermostat a bit. A little reminder: Usually 18 degrees Celsius is the perfect sleeping temperature. So there’s no need to use the energy to heat up your room more than this, which means this is another way you can conveniently save money.
Also important: Don’t forget to report if your windows are leaky!
Electricity
Sometimes we leave lights on even if we don’t need them. But why shouldn’t we save this energy and money? An easy way to save on both is to make it a habit to turn off unnecessary lights. You also can unplug electric devices if you don’t need them at the moment. It can be annoying to plug and unplug a regularly used device, so a smart power strip might be very useful. Did you know that your refrigerator and freezer are little energy consuming monsters? So make sure to turn them off if not used and regulate their temperature properly. The perfect temperature for your refrigerator in your apartment in THE FIZZ should be between level 2 and 3. And even your ceran cook top requires less energy if you keep it clean because there is no crust to block the flow of the heat.
To sum up
In the end, it is all these little things and habits that will save you lots of money on utilities. So, try to regulate the climate of your apartment, don’t waste electricity and reduce your water usage in these easy little ways.
Good luck!
All photo rights by International Campus GmbH.