Gas, heating, electricity – energy prices are already skyrocketing and winter is yet to come. When you look at the total costs, even the proverbial small animals make a mess. We have tracked down two inconspicuous power guzzlers that are found in many households.
Less electricity, more money: you need to know these two power guzzlers
Energy is becoming more and more expensive, regardless of what type it is. So saving is the order of the day. If you want to reduce your power consumption to keep the money together a bit, you should use a special attention to power guzzlers and devices in stand-by mode or even in continuous operation. In the worst case, they can cost you large sums of money per year without you really benefiting from it.
These two unobtrusive sources of costs you can easily avoid:
WLAN router in continuous operation: That costs money
Unsurprisingly, the router is one of the devices in many households that is constantly in continuous operation. After all, you always want internet. But do you need it 24 hours a day? For example, many WLAN routers can be programmed in such a way that the Use of the radio data – i.e. the WLAN function – is only active at certain times is. For example, you can reduce the energy consumption of the router at night.
If you want to save even more, you can switch it off completely, for example using a time-controlled socket. At Amazon you will find a large selection. Many customers opt for the Amazon tip from Brennenstuhl (view at Amazon), which is supposed to convince with quality. Many routers consume a similar amount of electricity as an economical refrigerator (Source: Lower Saxony consumer center). Consumer advocates are assuming electricity costs of 40 euros per year. If you follow the Stiftung Warentest, however, even the most efficient fridge-freezer combos come to just over 70 euros per year. The same should also apply to the router.
If you switch off the router to save electricity, you should make sure that it runs long enough to load any necessary updates from your provider.
For smartphones: Wireless chargers waste your money
Although the mobile phone is a constant companion for many people, the electricity costs should be kept within limits. Anyone who uses more than 5 euros of electricity per year for a single smartphone must be an extreme case of long-term users. If you charge your smartphone once a day, you will be more likely to cope with the current electricity prices a little over 2 euros per year out of here.
That may hardly be worth mentioning, but there are usually a few more devices per household. A 5-person household pays just over 10 euros per year for mobile phone electricity alone. It can get seriously expensive if you leave the charger permanently connected to the socket: A charger alone that is not unplugged costs another 12 euros. With five cell phones, that’s an extra 60 euros.
If you produce a lot of electricity yourself, you can save even more money:
Nevertheless, it is better to trust your classic charger than a wireless charging pad to save money. Because that can get a lot more expensive. In a test that is no longer up to date, Stiftung Warentest found that wireless charging stations are inefficient. The worst models consume up to 80 percent more electricity compared to charging with a cable – for the same amount of electricity that arrives in the battery.
The 10 euros per year and household become 18 euros – and only if you disconnect the wireless chargers from the power supply after use. But that’s much less likely for them. The real costs if several Qi chargers are permanently connected to the electricity should be significantly higher.