How To Save Electricity and Money

The average Swiss household spends more than 1000 Swiss francs on electricity each year. In this guide, moneyland.ch reveals where most of the electricity goes, and explains how to lower your power consumption.

How much does electricity cost in Switzerland?

In 2023, a typical Swiss household will pay around 27 centimes per kilowatt hour excluding value added tax (VAT). That is the median value calculated by the Federal Electricity Commission (Elcom). You may pay more or less than that, depending on where in Switzerland you live. You can find the power prices in your district using the interactive tool from Elcom.

A standard household uses around 4500 kilowatt hours per year. So annual household spending on electricity, including VAT, is 1300 francs, on average.

How much electricity do different appliances use?

The actual amount of electricity consumed varies broadly depending on the kinds of appliances used. For example, using a 10-watt lamp for 1000 hours consumers a total of 10 kilowatt hours of electricity. In financial terms, the cost is around 2.70 francs per year. But using a 50-watt lamp for the same amount of time (1000 hours) consumes 50 kilowatt hours, which costs around 13.50 francs.

The example shows that in addition to the kind of appliance used, the way in which it is used is also key. If you were to leave a lamp burning just 500 hours instead of 1000, you would massively lower the lamp’s power consumption – regardless of how many watts the lamp uses. That is why switching off appliances is still the most effective way to save electricity.

Which applications use the most electricity?

There is no way to accurately answer that question because power consumption varies between individual appliances. But data from the Swiss Federal Office of Energy shows what Swiss households use the most electricity for:

The graph shows that Swiss households use the most electricity for heating (including appliances like blow heaters). The next-biggest power consumers are the categories cooking and hot water. All together, these three categories make up around half of Swiss household consumption of electricity.

But that does not mean that other applications do not also have an impact on your power bill. Lights, for example, may use relatively little power, with just 7 percent of average consumption going to lighting. But for an average household with power bills totaling 1300 francs per year, that is still 90 francs spent on keeping your home lit.

How can I save electricity?

You can find a list of simple tips to save electricity further down. But before moving on to those, you should familiarize yourself with these three basic habits:

• Check energy efficiency

When you purchase new electrical appliances, choose devices which are energy efficient. Even if the initial cost is higher, you may well end up saving money in the long run because your ongoing power costs will be lower. New appliances are all fitted with energy efficiency tags which indicate how much power they consume, so you can compare power consumption while shopping. For example, refrigerators have tags which show how many kilowatt hours they use per year, and washing machines have tags showing their kilowatt hour consumption per 100 loads.

• Get appliances which match your needs

​​​​​​​An XXL washing machine may be ideal for families, but they may not be the optimal solution for singles. If you have to run your washing machine half empty because you have run out of socks, you will likely use more electricity than if you had a smaller machine. The same principle applies to many other household appliances like ovens and fridges. The size of your cooking appliances should also match the amounts of food you cook.

• Pull the plugs

​​​​​​​Switch off devices which you are not using and unplug them whenever possible (or use electrical timers or extensions that can be switched on and off). That prevents your electrical equipment from consuming electricity while in standby mode. Unplugging all non-essential appliances is particularly beneficial when you leave your home for longer periods of time.

Simple tips to cut your electric bill

Around one-quarter of the electricity consumed by an average Swiss household is used for heating. Here are some saving tips for this category:

• Do not heat unnecessarily

If you use electricity to heat your home, you can save money by only heating the rooms which actually need to be heated. If, for example, you do not use your bedroom during the day, then there is no reason for the room to be warm all of the time. When you are not using a room, you can adjust the thermostat to a lower temperature. You also do not need to heat your home as much when nobody is home. However, you should make sure that the temperature in your home never falls below around 15 degrees, as lower temperatures encourage the growth of mold. At night, a temperature of 18 degrees is generally suitable for bedrooms. For many people, higher temperatures have a negative impact on sleep.

• Do not block radiators

In order to heat your home as efficiently as possible, you should make sure that heaters are not covered by furniture, curtains, or other blockages. Items placed in front of heaters absorb the heat, preventing it from dispersing into the room. This means that in order to heat your home, you may have to turn the thermostat up higher than you would have to if the radiators were not blocked.

14 percent of electricity consumption in Swiss households is used for cooking and washing dishes. Here's how you can save:

• Use residual heat

Electric stoves and ovens remain hot long after you switch them off, so they do not need to be powered up for the entire cooking period. You can switch off the stove or oven completely several minutes before the cooking is done to make use of the residual heat. The same rule applies to ironing, and other activities which use electrical heating.

• Do not preheat the oven

​​​​​​​In almost every case, preheating your oven is a waste of electricity. Most dishes can be placed directly into the unheated oven as you switch it on. While the baking time may be slightly longer than the recipe or the instructions on the package call for, the total time which the oven is on will be shorter. Preheating the oven is only essential for a few very particular recipes, such as sponge cakes and soufflés.

• Descale your appliances

​​​​​​​Practically all appliances used to heat water are likely to be coated with limescale over time. Common examples are electric kettles and coffee machines. Limescale can make appliances less efficient by hampering heat transmission, resulting in more electricity being required to adequately heat water. That is why you should regularly descale your appliances. You can generally find instructions for removing limescale in your device’s user manual.

Around 13 percent of the electricity consumption of an average household goes to heating water. Here are some tipps on how you can save:

• Lower the water temperature

​​​​​​​The less you have to heat your water, the less energy you will consume. If you are willing to make compromises with regards to how warm you want your hot water to be, you can easily save money on electricity. A simple trick: Start off your shower at a higher temperature and then slowly reduce it as far as is comfortable for you. By using this method, you will often feel comfortable with lower temperatures than when you start off at a low heat right from the beginning.

• Use less hot water

​​​​​​​If you are not willing to completely forego hot showers, you can still cut down on the amount of hot water you use. You can find simple tips in the moneyland.ch guide to saving water.

Refrigerators and freezers consume almost 10 percent of the electricity in Swiss private households. Again, here are some simple tips:

• Defrost your freezer

​​​​​​​Over time, a layer of ice may build up on the inside of your deep freezer or the freezer compartment of your fridge. The thicker this ice-layer becomes, the more electricity your freezer will use. If the problem is severe, it is possible that your freezer may not be able to maintain the desired temperature even when running at full capacity. That is why regularly defrosting and cleaning your freezers is so important.  

• Do not let your fridge warm up

​​​​​​​Only open your fridge or deep freezer when you actually need to take something out of it. When you spend time staring into your open fridge, you allow a temperature exchange by which the fridge warms up to match the surrounding room. The machine will then have to consume extra energy to cool itself down to the desired temperature. You should also avoid placing warm food into the fridge. Always let items cool down to room temperature, or place them on the window sill in cold weather. It may take longer to cool things down that way, but it is free.

8 percent of the average household’s electricity budget goes to cover the power consumed by office and entertainment devices. Here too, there are ways to save:

• Shut off entertainment and office devices completely

​​​​​​​The off buttons on many computers and entertainment devices do not actually shut down the machine. Instead, devices usually go into standby mode. In this state, they continue to consume electricity, albeit less than when they are actively being used. With many devices, you can change the settings so that the power-off button actually shuts down the device instead of putting it on standby. If a device does not have this setting, it may still give you the option of navigating to a shut-down command in the device’s software. Disconnecting devices from power sources is a good move because many appliances – particularly computers – continue to consume some electricity even when they are switched off. Note: Screen savers do not save any electricity at all.

• Use laptops or tablets instead of desktop PCs

​​​​​​​While many desktop computers are high-powered, they generally are not as energy-efficient as laptops and tablets. If you rarely perform demanding tasks and primarily use your computer to communicate or browse the web, then using a desktop computer might not make sense from an energy perspective. Browsing the Internet on your phone likely also uses less power than doing it on a desktop PC.

• Use scheduling

​​​​​​​Some household appliances are expected to run around the clock. Hardly anyone only switches their phone, Wi-Fi router, or network-attached storage device on when they actually need to use it. The disadvantage is that these appliances consume electricity the entire time that remain active. You can reduce power wastage by scheduling these devices to switch off by themselves at certain times (at night, for example), and then switch on automatically at other points in time. Many devices have scheduling options in their settings. Alternatively, you can also use electrical timers.

Lighting consumes 6 percent of the total electricity used by the average Swiss household. Here are ways to use less electricity to light your home:

• Switch lights off

​​​​​​​As with heating, you can easily save a lot of power by only lighting the areas which you are actually using. In some cases, it can be beneficial to use a smart sensor which turns off the light automatically when no one is in the room. You can completely ignore the old myth that switching lamps on and off used more electricity than leaving them burning. Unless you turn the light on again almost immediately after switching it off, leaving a lamp burning does not save any electricity.

• Use LED lamps

​​​​​​​Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are the most energy-efficient form of household lighting. If you currently use fluorescent lightbulbs, it may be worth replacing them with LED bulbs. If your lamp uses fluorescent tubes, you will need to find LED tubes that are compatible. If you are not sure which bulbs could work for your lamp, get advice from a dealer which specializes in lighting.

• Use solar power

​​​​​​​Solar-powered lights are worth considering for garden lamps and other outdoor lighting. These lamps have batteries which are recharged by a built-in solar panel during the day, and power the light bulb at night. They do not affect your electric bill at all.

Appliances such as washing machines and tumble dryers consume around 6 percent of your electricity. Here are some tips on how to save in this area:

• Save on laundry

​​​​​​​Only run your washing machine when you have enough laundry to fill it completely. Use your machine’s economy cycle, if it has one, and stick to cycles with temperatures up to 40 degrees. Washing at higher temperatures is normally only necessary for extremely dirty laundry. Short cycles typically use more power because the water has to be heated faster, and are generally best avoided.

• Do not use dryers

​​​​​​​In sunny weather, laundry hung up outdoors can dry nearly as quickly as clothes put in the dryer. Drying your laundry this way does not cost you a single centime, and also helps your clothes last longer. If you do not need your clothes in a hurry, you can also hang your laundry indoors (when the weather is bad, for example). Drying laundry inside your home can take long, and you have to ventilate properly to prevent the humidity from damaging your home. But in exchange, you get a lower electric bill. If your apartment building has a laundry room with clothes lines, you can also hang your laundry there.

More on this topic:
Simple ways to streamline your household spending in Switzerland