In recent years, the issue of saving on utility rates has become more urgent for Ukrainians: the price of energy is constantly increasing, so residents often think about how to reduce spending, while not increasing debt. But if the payment system for the apartment, gas and heating to do something difficult, for electricity you can save some money if you use red counters, in particular the night rate, which is twice less than usual.
“Today” talked to experts in the field of energy and found out how beneficial the use of unusual yet rates.
“The boiler in the house we put a long time, I took up hot water, — says Maxim Kovalenko of Kiev, and this helped to save on your monthly payments. But electricity is also not standing still, rates are rising, and the boiler, even the most energy efficient, consumes a lot of kilowatts. Of course, we try to reduce this figure — in the summer I generally wash with cold, it is even useful, but children are not really forced to harden, and in the cold season is not an option, it happens that the shower is the only way to keep warm”.
A similar problem haunts many residents of private homes — those who decided to abandon gas in favor of electric heating. But this is only part of the “insatiable techniques” is a precious kilowatts pulling washing machines, refrigerators and dishwashers.
However, there is a solution: you can save when switching to “zone counters” (see chart), the use of which the price of one kilowatt-hour is reduced by half. Of course, you will have to rearrange your schedule and enable the device with the largest consumption when an electrician is cheaper (e.g. at night), but also the payment system will “drop” almost twice.
Replacement of the counter takes a fortnight, and pays for itself in a year and a half
“Usually the population moves to dual-zone meters, — says head of Department of sales of electricity DTEK Energy Vyacheslav Kokhanov. — Mainly because to control consumption three-meter difficult, you need to think carefully about your schedule, but it is not always possible. Cost of replacement of the counter is less than 2 thousand UAH. The device itself will cost 1200-1300 UAH, the average expense to replace, say, in the river — 300-350 UAH. But the effect is huge: one-third to half of the total household consumption can be translated into the night, when electricity is twice cheaper. For example, the minimum electricity charge — 300 UAH. With the tariff counter it will be 200 UAH. This means that the money spent, the customer will return in about two years, doing nothing. But if in the apartment there is a boiler, stove, electric heating and a year and a half”.
HOW TO CHANGE. The procedure is quite simple and takes about Crescent. “You come to the customer service center, fill out an application, it is logged, get the bill pay it can take up to 10 days, but usually much faster — and for three days get a new meter,” explains Kokhanov.
There, in the customer center, you can find out which counter you need to buy (the list is quite big, so you can choose the one that suits you personally). If it is for money. If you’re lucky, your address can be in the lists of the public investment program, then the counter will change for free. In the past year, said Kokhanov, such counters were delivered to 50 thousand.
. EU citizens (and not only) to similar methods of reduction of expenses used for a long time. For example, many Germans warm house and organize large Laundry at night, meticulously tracking the consumption in private offices on the websites of the suppliers.
In Italy, too, trying to get power at night on the weekends when the cost is reduced in two times. The poles were lucky a little more —
them benefits not only in the dark, but in the middle of the day (from 14:00 to 16:00).
Vice-President of the “Energy Association of Ukraine” Alexander Rogozin also sees dual-zone counters output for the population. “For the last time the number of subscribers has grown considerably, we are not talking about tens of thousands, but hundreds”,
he said. And to save so you can, not even watching the consumption: in modern apartments and houses many appliances that runs continuously (the same room), although, of course, experts suggest to closely monitor the on-time of the equipment to achieve maximum results.
