4 ways to make electric bill cheaper in Japan
2022.04.06
- Q. I am an international student studying in Japan. Last month the electric bill of my house was 9,000 yen. How can I make it cheaper?
- A. Although the amount may depend on how long you stay home and each season, 9,000 yen for those who live alone seems too expensive. We recommend you to consider how to save electricity. Today we will explain some famous points to save electricity.
4 ways to make electric bill cheaper in Japan
1. Improve the usage of home electronics
2. Reduce standby power
3. Replace old home electronics with new ones
4. Change a energy company
1. Improve the usage of home electronics
Please turn them off when you are not using. An exception is that air conditioner should be kept turned on such as when you go out and come back in a short period of time. This is because air conditioner consumes much electronic power when activating. In addition to this, lightings of sink, bath room and wash room have to be turned off when no one is using. Besides, LED lighting is better to save electricity.
OK then let’s talk about each home electronics in detail.
Air conditioner
- Be careful on the setting of temperature
→Electric bill will be higher if the setting of temperature is too high or too law since such way of settings use much electric power. Around 28℃ in summer and around 20℃ in winter will be appropriate. - Circulate air
→Cold air goes to the downside of the room and warm air goes to the upside of the room. If you circulate the air by using circulator or fan, the room temperature will be just comfortable and you do not have to make the setting of air conditioner too high or too law. For cooling, you can place a circulator or a fan with the bottom up. For heating, you can place them with the upturn. - Regularly clean the filter
→There will be a lot of dusts after using air conditioner for a long period of time. Since the efficiency of air conditioner will become worse if there are dusts, regular cleaning is recommended. - Use other machines
→Except for air conditioner, there are also other useful machines. If the room is small, fan heaters or oil heaters will be more efficient to warm the room. If you want to warm the specific place of the room, electric carpets, floor panel heating and blanket are also useful.
In the summer, a fan consumes less electric power compared to air conditioner. Besides, it is also effective to wear clothes which can keep warm or cold and to use heat insulating sheets or bamboo blinds.
- Use “dry setting” in the summer
→Please try “dry setting” when it takes long time to cool the room. You will feel comfortable without lowering the temperature setting since you will feel cooler if the humidity decreases. - Place machines near the window
→In the winter, you tend to feel cold because of the cold air coming from outside. This is why placing oil heater near the window is effective to warm the room. In the summer, sometimes outside is cooler than inside room. In that case, please let the air outside go into the room by placing fan near the window. - Do not place stuff around condenser unit and regularly clean it.
→The efficiency of air conditioner becomes worse if there is something placed around the condenser unit. Regular cleaning is also important since there tends to be a lot of dusts around the fan inside the condenser unit.
Refrigerator
- Do not put foods too much
→It needs more electric power and the bill will be higher if there are too much food inside the refrigerator. - Do not put hot foods
→It needs more electric power if you put foods while it is hot. Cool the food before putting in the refrigerator. - Do not open refrigerator too often. Close as soon as possible when opening it.
→It needs more electric power if you open refrigerator too often or keep it open for a long time.
Washing machine
- Reduce the frequency of using washing machine
→if you live alone and there are not so many clothes to wash, It is recommended to use washing machine once in a few days. However, if you put too much clothes into washing machine at the maximum level, it consumes more electric powers.
2. Reduce standby power
What is standby power?
If home electronics are connected to the outlet, they consume electric power even when you are not using them. It is called standby power. For example, if you are not using TV, computer, electric pods or rice cooker, please un-connect the plug from outlet. if in case you are too lazy to take care of the plug too often, you may try “save energy tap”. Save energy tap allows you to easily turn home electronics on and off by using switches on the tap. If you keep the switch off, it is the same as un-connecting the plug from outlet.
→<<Let’s look for save energy tap!
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→<<Let’s look for save energy tap!
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3. Reduce old home electronics with new ones
The average life span of a washing machine, air conditioner and refrigerator is said to be around 7 to 10 years. Since home electronics make worse performance when using them for a long time, it is better to buy new machines in order to save electric bill. Buying new machines is also recommended because products in recent years show better efficiency of electric power.
4. Change a contract with an energy company
Check amperage
Please make sure if the amperage you are signing at home is unnecessarily big if the amperage is selectable at your contract. Generally, 10~20 ampere is for one person, 30 ampere is for two people and 40 ampere is for family.
Change the payment method
The bill might be discounted if you pay the bill by account transfer.
Change a energy company
Nowadays there are a lot of plans provided by many energy companies. For example, a mobile phone carrier has energy business at its subsidiary and the bill is discounted if you sign a contract of both mobile phone and energy power with the company.
- Please check these articles too.
4 ways to make electric bill cheaper in Japan
https://social-b.net/baiyu/en/denki20220401en/
Very easy! Four ways to save the gas bill
https://social-b.net/baiyu/en/gas20220408en/
5 recommended warm goods for cold winter in Japan
https://social-b.net/baiyu/en/saveenergyinwinteren/
- If you have further inquiries, please feel free to ask questions from the link below.