Short winter Belgian families save on energy bills

LIVING. During the winter of 2018-2019 was the heating of the Belgians markedly less than in recent years. That is according to figures from energy company essent.be around the natural gas consumption of 200,000 Belgians.

on Average, is the heating on from mid-september to mid-april. “That was different this year”, says Koen Colpaert, spokesman of essent.be. “By the gentle late summer, went to be with the most families with the heating on later than other years: in mid-October. In addition, we had in the past month also have to deal with a particularly soft start of the spring.”

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And with the warm Easter weekend in the prospect, like the end of the verwarmingswinter ushered in. The short duration of the verwarmingswinter’ also has its effect on the energy bill. The mild temperatures in February and march to deliver the Belgian energy savings of respectively 30% and 27% compared to the same periods last year.

Exceptionally short and mild verwarmingswinter

This year, the verwarmingswinter a ‘false start’. The Belgian turned on the heater for the first time on 14 september 2018, but between 18 and 21 september 2018 and 11 and 17 October 2018, which was regular again turned off and on. This was due to the soft indian summer, with temperatures up to 25 degrees in October. As of October 18, seemed like the heating to come back hard place to have claimed – more than a month later than other years.

Next to a late start of the verwarmingswinter, knew the traditional cooler months of February and march, with exceptionally mild temperatures. February 2019 had an average temperature of 7 degrees, in contrast to February of 2018, when the average temperature is just above freezing, it hung. Thanks to this soft februarimaand was there compared to February 2018 up to 30% savings on the energy bill.

Also in march, it was exceptionally soft. No less than 23 of the 31 days were warmer than average. “Here also has the higher temperature had an impact on our verwarmingsgedrag. “The mild temperatures of the past quarter are reflected in the gas consumption of Belgian households. In march of 2019, was about 27% less gas is consumed than in march 2018.”

So you can save even more money

Bleed the radiator : a lot of people venting their radiator at the beginning of the winter. This is a very good start, but also venting at the end of the winter, allows for a lower fuel consumption.

- Ventilate your house regularly: fresh air is often drier air, and is therefore cheaper to heat.

Hang curtains on: curtains are a perfect insulator and will keep the cold at that also comes in through the windows.

- Investing in smart hometoepassingen : this can lead to a sensitive lower energy bill.