7 Tips for Reducing Energy Consumption in Your Vacation Home Right Now

This is a difficult situation for many of us right now. There’s a sense of crisis in the media, and it can often be hard to figure out what’s going on and where to focus our efforts to have the greatest impact when we want to conserve energy.

That’s why we spoke with Line Nørmark, an energy advisor at SparEnergi and the Danish Energy Agency, about the best ways to reduce electricity and heating consumption specifically in a summer home, and this article will focus on what you can do in the short term.

“When you get to your summer home, remember to do everything you do at home to save on electricity and heating. We tend to forget that sometimes,” says Line Nørmark. However, there are also some very specific things that are important to keep in mind right now:

1. Avoid leaving older electrical appliances on standby

“Something like an iPhone charger plugged into an outlet doesn’t use any power, but it can be really hard to tell what uses power and what doesn’t. That’s why it’s a really good habit in general to turn off the things you’re not using and unplug them,” says Line. Older appliances in particular, such as an old TV, use power when they’re on standby. “We often see that people have bought a new one, and then the old one ends up at the summer house. That’s why we frequently see many older appliances in summer houses, and as a result, they actually have higher standby power consumption than we do in our private homes. Televisions and computers, in particular, can have high standby power consumption, but so can all our kitchen appliances.” For example, an older refrigerator with an energy efficiency rating of D uses five times as much electricity as one with an A+++ rating. Check your vacation home’s appliances to see how much electricity a specific model uses here.

2. Check your electricity plan—variable or fixed?

“Electricity prices in general are among the most frequently visited websites and apps right now. We can’t advise you on whether you should have a variable or fixed electricity rate plan—it’s hard to predict where variable prices are headed and what your consumption will be—but you should definitely be aware of what you have. So contact your electricity provider and find out: do you actually have a fixed-rate electricity plan or a variable-rate electricity plan? If you do have a fixed-rate plan, we still recommend that you monitor electricity prices and try to shift your usage to times when rates are lowest. That’s when we have the most renewable energy in our grid—or when demand is lowest and capacity is therefore highest. But check to see what kind of electricity plan you have.”

You can track energy prices on SparEnergi.dk or in the [MinStrøm] app (https://minstroem.app/).

3. Do Laundry and Cook Using Less Electricity

Many summer homes today are now equipped with both a dishwasher and a washing machine. And that’s one of the areas where we use a lot of electricity, explains Line Nørmark. Simple, good habits can go a long way here:

“It can be something as simple as using an electric kettle to boil water instead of a pot, if you have one. If you need to boil something, use as little water as possible and remember to put a lid on it. Don’t toast your bread in the oven—use a toaster.”

“Many loads of laundry can also be washed at 20 degrees. So every time you do laundry, consider whether you can turn the temperature down. It’s also a good idea to dry clothes outside. And remember to fill up your appliances—the washing machine, dryer, and dishwasher—and turn down the temperature,” says Line Nørmark. And it’s important to use the eco cycles—even if it might seem strange that they take so long. You’ll still save energy, she confirms.

4. Turn down the heat in rooms that aren’t in use

You’ll save 5 percent on heating consumption every time you turn the temperature down by one degree. So be sure to turn down the heat in bedrooms or outer rooms that aren’t in use all day, and keep the doors to those rooms closed.

5. Avoid wasting energy while your vacation home is empty

How you use your vacation home naturally also affects the house’s energy consumption. “It’s important to think about what you can do when you’re not using the vacation home. And how often do you not use the vacation home? Is it for a week at a time, or perhaps for half a year when you close it up? How should you handle the times when the vacation home is empty? Because clearly, when we’re not using the vacation home, it shouldn’t be left to consume a lot of energy,” says Line Nørmark. Read our step-by-step guide here:

6. Educate Your Vacation Home Guests on How to Save Energy

“A good guide is really a great idea when other people are using your vacation home,” says Line Nørmark. She explains some of the things it’s a good idea to make guests aware of, for example:

“One thing is that you should avoid tampering with the systems or the hot water tank. You won’t get hot water any faster by turning up the dial, just as you shouldn’t crank it up way too high if you need more heat—it won’t come any faster that way. You should set the temperature to what you want, and then you just have to wait.”

“Some people might also be unsure about what an air-to-air heat pump is, so they might turn it off and then use electric radiators instead, without realizing that this is actually a really bad idea. Of course, you know your own home really well, so it can be hard to know—or maybe you don’t even think about these things because you’re so used to them. But it’s a really good idea to educate your tenants,” says Line Nørmark.

> We often see a lot of older appliances in vacation homes, which is why they actually have higher standby power consumption than we do in our private homes.

7. Install an air-to-air heat pump

Although upgrading the heating system in your vacation home is often a long-term investment, for many people, installing an air-to-air heat pump doesn’t have to be a major project.

“The reason air-to-air heat pumps are so popular—they’re among the best-selling models—is that they cost between 15,000 and 20,000 kroner to install. And that’s actually quite affordable for a heating system that pays for itself quickly because you save so much. And it can be done very quickly—in a few hours, perhaps. So it’s an inexpensive installation, and it pays for itself very quickly if you use the house during times when heat is needed (in the winter, ed.), whereas with air-to-water heat pumps and geothermal heating systems, we’re looking at over 100,000 kroner. So those are slightly larger investments.”