Save Electricity at Home in Winter: These Everyday Devices Belong in Your Household Budget

Get Winter Electricity Under Control: Cut Costs by 1025% with 57 Major Devices

Key takeaway: In a typical household, around 60670% of winter electricity costs come from 57 everyday devices. If you track these devices specifically in your household budget and manage how you use them, 1025% lower winter electricity costs are realistic.

Why Track Winter Electricity Separately in Your Household Budget?

Heating season, short days, more time at home: In winter, electricity costs rise noticeably due to lighting, entertainment electronics, home office use, and hot water. But many households don1t see this additional usage separately in their budget.

With a dedicated 7Winter electricity8 category in your household budget, you can see:

• which major devices account for the biggest share of costs,
• where behavior changes have a quick impact,
• and whether, for example, buying more efficient new devices is worth it.

The Biggest Winter Electricity Users at Home

In practice, the following device types drive most of the winter power bill:

• Refrigerator/freezer 1 runs 24/7
• Standby devices 1 router, TV, consoles, chargers
• Lighting 1 especially in households that haven1t fully switched to LED
• Washing machine 1 often more laundry in winter (thicker clothes, towels)
• Dishwasher 1 more meals at home, more dishes
• Entertainment electronics 1 TV, streaming, consoles, PC
• Home office 1 laptop/PC, monitor, possibly additional lighting

Master Table: Typical Winter Electricity Costs by Device Type

The table below shows realistic average values per winter month for a single-person household and a family household (334 people) in Germany/Austria/Switzerland. Basis: electricity price roughly 20.3020.40 6/kWh.

Added up, typical winter electricity costs for these devices come to about:

• Single-person household: approx. 640480/month
• Family household: approx. 6554100/month
• Savings potential with simple measures: about 10425%, i.e. 65420 per month in winter.

Tip 1: Create a 7Winter electricity8 Category with Sub-Items

To get started with systematic electricity savings, a simple structure in your household budget (app or spreadsheet) is enough. Create a dedicated 7Winter electricity8 expense category and track sub-items by device type:

• Winter electricity: Refrigerator/freezer
• Winter electricity: Standby (total)
• Winter electricity: Lighting
• Winter electricity: Washing machine
• Winter electricity: Dishwasher
• Winter electricity: Entertainment electronics
• Winter electricity: Home office

As a baseline, you can:

• either use the total electricity cost from last winter1s bill and roughly allocate it across the sub-items,
• or use an energy cost meter (inexpensive and widely available) to measure selected devices for 142 weeks and extrapolate.

Tip 2: Identify the 3 Most Expensive Devices First

Many people start by optimizing the 7small stuff8 (unplugging chargers, turning off individual lamps). More effective is to use your household budget to identify the three costliest device types.

Approach:

1. Estimate monthly costs: Enter an estimated monthly amount for each of the 7 major devices (e.g., based on the table above).
2. Calculate the total: Check whether the sum roughly matches your real winter electricity bill.
3. Mark the top 3: Mark the three items with the highest costs in your household budget, for example:
   • Entertainment electronics: 615/month
   • Lighting: 612/month
   • Standby (total): 610/month
4. ONLY for these three define specific savings targets (e.g., 20% less).

In many households, these top 3 items alone can save 68415 per winter month.

Tip 3: Set Weekly Allowances as Your Electricity Budget

Instead of 7just use less8, clear weekly allowances work better. You can store these as electricity budgets in your household budget.

Examples of typical weekly allowances:

• Washing machine:
  • Single: max. 2 loads/week, preferably 30440 6C
  • Family: max. 445 loads/week, full drums
• Dishwasher:
  • Single: 243 cycles/week, Eco program
  • Family: 445 cycles/week, only start when full
• Streaming/TV:
  • Single: e.g., 14 hours/week (2 hours/day)
  • Family: e.g., 21 hours/week (3 hours/day total)

How to enter these budgets in your household budget:

1. Create a monthly budget in euros per major device (e.g., entertainment electronics 615).
2. Derive a weekly budget from it (e.g., 615 / 4 88 63.75 per week).
3. Link the weekly budget to a usage limit (e.g., max. 14 streaming hours).

If your app allows notes, add: 7Max. X loads/X hours per week8 directly to the budget.

Tip 4: Bundle Standby Power and Make It Visible

Standby consumption is hard to grasp in daily life, but in winter it adds up especially due to longer usage times. Typical standby sources:

• TVs and set-top boxes
• Game consoles
• Stereo systems
• Various chargers
• Printers and multifunction devices

Here1s how to bundle standby consumption with switchable power strips and make the effect visible in your household budget:

1. Create device groups (e.g., 7Living room media8, 7Workstation8, 7Bedroom8).
2. Use one power strip with a switch per group.
3. Use a meter to measure before/after consumption over a few days.
4. Create a separate line in your household budget, e.g., 7Winter electricity: Standby savings8.
5. Enter the monthly savings, e.g., 5 6/month.

Realistically, consistently shutting off standby consumption can reduce electricity costs by 6347 per winter month, without any loss of comfort.

Tip 5: Review After One Winter Month and Prioritize Measures

After one full winter month (e.g., December or January), a structured comparison of plan vs. reality is worthwhile. The goal is to adopt the three most effective measures permanently.

Approach:

1. Record actual costs: Note the actual electricity costs for the month (installment payment or interim meter reading).
2. Compare against the planned budget: Add up all sub-items under the 7Winter electricity8 category.
3. Analyze deviations:
   • Where were you significantly above your planned budget?
   • Were there special events (visitors, vacation, more work-from-home days)?
4. Select the top 3 measures 1 e.g.:
   • consistently switching off standby power in the living room,
   • only running full washing and dishwasher loads,
   • cutting streaming time from 3 to 2 hours per day.
5. Adopt permanently: Track these measures in your household budget as the new standard for the rest of the heating season.

Example Calculation: What1s Realistically Possible?

A typical family setup (334 people, slightly above-average consumption) can achieve noticeable effects with simple adjustments. Example:

• Entertainment electronics: reduce streaming from 4 to 2.5 hours/day 1 savings approx. 6345/month
• Lighting: switch fully to LED and consistently turn lights off 1 6345/month
• Standby: switchable power strips, router not needed at night 1 6346/month
• Washing machine/dishwasher: full loads, Eco programs 1 6244/month

All in, 611420 less in electricity costs per winter month is realistic. Over a heating season of 445 months, that equals about 6404100 in savings, without significantly restricting comfort.

Conclusion: Manage a Few Devices Intentionally Instead of Saving a Little Everywhere

If you track winter electricity as its own category in your household budget and focus on the key 57 device types, you1ll usually see measurable results faster than with lots of small one-off measures. The combination of clear budgets, weekly allowances, and documented standby savings makes costs transparent and shows after just one month which behavior changes are truly worth it.