Cathrine K. Reimann: Here's How I Help My Cabin Guests Be More Mindful of Their Energy Consumption

There’s no doubt that we’re still in the midst of an energy crisis, and as we head into winter, the media’s focus on the crisis can quickly make us anxious—especially for cabin owners who own more than one home. Fortunately, good advice doesn’t have to be expensive, and most importantly, we need to remember to keep an eye on our energy consumption. It can bring a lot of peace of mind to look at what your actual operating costs are when you have guests at your cabin, rather than walking around with the feeling that a crisis is just around the corner. There’s actually a lot you can do yourself to reduce energy consumption at your cabin—even when you have guests.

In this article, we spoke with Landfolk co-founder Cathrine K. Reimann about how she best prepares her guests when they visit her cabin, so that their stay can be as energy-efficient as possible, supplemented by helpful advice from energy consultant Line Nørmark of SparEnergi in Denmark.

> It’s largely the uncertainty—and not least reading all the headlines in the media—that makes being a cabin owner feel incredibly overwhelming. But there are actually good ways to prepare and, not least, to understand energy consumption at the cabin, and that has really helped me through this process.

Cathrine K. Reimann

A lot of it comes down to managing expectations, Cathrine explains: “As a cabin owner and host, it’s the uncertainty that causes anxiety. Not knowing what the energy consumption will be, and how much it will cost me compared to what it would cost under normal circumstances. That’s what I feel causes a sense of insecurity. So preparing guests before they arrive and telling them about the cabin they’re coming to—I think that’s important.”

Before the guests arrive
“I tell my cabin guests before they arrive that this is an old lady of a cabin. The floors are always cold, even in the summer. So I tell them it’s a good idea to bring slippers and warm clothes, and we also talk about expectations—for example, that the heat might not be on when they arrive. I often didn’t do that in the past, so it’s important to tell them this so they’re prepared for it.”

“In return, I make sure to stock up on firewood so they can use the wood-burning stove as a heat source, since we have plenty of inexpensive firewood from the property. And I like to offer it to them that way, so they can also appreciate that it’s a nice touch—it’s super cozy to light the stove when you’re on a cabin trip. That way, I make it easy for them to be guests at my cabin and be mindful of their energy consumption.”

Start with your own cabin “If it were a fully insulated brick house with district heating, I’d probably have written a completely different message. So I base my message on the type of house my cabin is. And I know that the floor is always cold, no matter how high you turn up the heat—even in the summer—because the floor is poorly insulated. So here, I’ve tried to prepare my guests as best as possible based on the solutions I know work at my cabin.”

“It’s about what I can proactively do to help my guests so that they have a pleasant stay and feel comfortable at the cabin. As guests, they should enjoy being there, while I, as the host, should have peace of mind.”

Cathrine recently found that her guests were incredibly considerate when she communicated with them—so much so that it’s important to remember the other side of the story, she explains: “The last guests I spoke with during their stay were almost apologetic about having to turn on the heater; that’s when I felt I should also remember to switch perspectives and say, ‘Hey, you should make sure you’re comfortable there, too.’”

Once your guests have left “What’s helped me afterward is that I can log in and see how much they actually used. I do that in my app,” says Cathrine.

With an overview of how much your guests use on average, you can more easily adjust your utility fee to account for your actual expenses—with a little less stress.

“I was at the cabin with my family for four days before our last guests arrived, and they were there for four days as well. And our consumption was actually almost exactly the same. So they used the cabin just as ‘responsibly’ as I do—they didn’t use a huge amount and weren’t completely out of control. And to be completely honest, our average consumption is around 45 kroner a day. That’s the level we’re talking about here. It’s not 700 kr a day; it’s 45 kroner at the very most.”

“Even though operating costs vary depending on heat sources, insulation, and the price of electricity during the period, it’s important to do your research. How much electricity do guests typically use per night? That can give you peace of mind. And it might mean you don’t have to close the cabin during some of the coldest months, when you might otherwise have been nervous about hosting guests.” It’s also, of course, important that guests know how to leave the cabin. You can read our guide on how to secure the cabin when it’s not in use here.

If there’s a heat pump, make sure to let your guests know about it “In my cabin, in addition to electric space heaters, there’s an air-to-air heat pump, so I also tell guests to use it—that way, the cabin heats up pretty quickly. Those are the two things I’d like them to do to heat the cabin—firewood and the heat pump. I also mention that there are electric heaters and that they should, of course, use them if needed, but that this is the least energy-efficient heating option.” And it’s also quite important to mention this if you have a heat pump in your cabin yourself, because not everyone knows that a heat pump is more energy-efficient than the electric space heaters often found in older cabins.

“Some people might be unsure of what an air-to-air heat pump is, so they might turn it off and use the space heaters instead, without realizing that this is actually a really bad idea. After all, you know your own cabin very well, so it might be hard to know—or you might not even think about these kinds of things because you’re so used to it yourself. “So it’s a really good idea to prepare your guests as well as possible,” said energy advisor Line Nørmark from the Danish Energy Agency when we spoke with her in the podcast episode about electricity at the cabin.

“But you should also remember to let them know when it gets hot again—for example, if you have an air-to-air heat pump and would like to cool down the cabin a bit—because that really costs a lot. It’s more expensive to cool than it is to heat. And we’re seeing that more and more air-to-air heat pumps have a cooling function. So think twice before using that feature when it gets hot again,” says Line Nørmark, and be sure to make your guests aware of this during the summer months.

What Your Guide Should Include

1. Tell guests about the cabin they’re visiting—is it a charming older cabin where the floors will always be a bit cold, so they should remember to pack slippers and a wool sweater? Is there anything else they should be aware of?
2. Provide information about the cabin’s heating sources, and make it clear which ones are best to use. If you have a cabin with electric space heaters, advise them to use alternative heating sources such as a heat pump or wood-burning stove if you have one. If, on the other hand, the cabin has underfloor heating, talk to them about this so they know it can take a long time for the temperature to adjust when turning the heat up or down.
3. If necessary, ask them not to adjust the controls or the hot water tank. Feel free to advise guests that turning up the heat won’t get them hot water any faster, just as they shouldn’t crank it up too high if they need more heat—because it won’t come any faster that way.
4. Let them know how far in advance they should turn on the sauna. Let guests know how long before they should turn on the heat in the sauna, if you have one. Many of them run on electricity. “If you have a sense of how long it takes to heat up a sauna, it’s really helpful to let guests renting the cabin know whether they should turn it on one, two, or three hours in advance. Otherwise, they might just turn it on right away, so they know it’ll be ready when they’re ready to use it,” says Line Nørmark.
5. Guide them in maintaining good energy-saving habits. “You can also encourage them to dry their clothes outside and think about how they cook, and to make sure to close the windows and doors to rooms they aren’t using, so that heat doesn’t escape into unused rooms or into the rooms where they might be sleeping,” says Line Nørmark. How much you want to remind them is a matter of personal preference, but it’s especially the things that are specific to your cabin that are good to point out to your guests.
6. Let them know how to prepare the cabin for your absence. Should they turn the heat down or off completely, turn off the water heater, or do something else entirely? Read our guide on the best way to secure your cabin when it’s unoccupied for short or long periods here. Regardless, according to Line Nørmark and Cathrine, the most important tip is to be mindful of your actual energy consumption.

“I think the worst thing you can do is not be aware of your energy consumption—keeping the temperature set too high, not turning things off when you’re not there, and just leaving things on and using power in standby mode.”