4 apps to save electricity at home

You keep your phone connected all the time, for work and play. So why not use your trusty phone to become more energy-efficient, too?

Efficiency is all about getting the best result with the fewest resources. When it comes to energy, efficiency means running light, heat and the devices you need at the lowest cost in both kilowatt-hours and euros.

We've selected four of the top free apps that will put you in control of your energy usage.

1. Know your electricity consumption

Imagine grabbing your phone to check how much energy you used last Saturday. Or finding out which month of the year you used the most electricity. Or learning at a glance whether you're managing your consumption better than last year, with no calculations or checking different screens.

The Endesa app, available for both Android and iOS, puts these and many more functions in the palm of your hand.Provided you are an Endesa customer. If you are, just register on the Endesa website. You can log into the app with the same username and password you use for the website and begin to:

• See how much electricity you use each hour of every day: keep an accurate record of every day of the year, with information about your actual energy usage. No more estimates or averages, just precise data on your consumption.
• Manage all your bills and contracts: veure'check and edit the details.
• Keep all your electricity and gas bills in one place: no more lost paperwork. Now everything is automatically filed on your mobile. Effortless and clear.
• Usage graphs: challenge yourself to lower your energy usage and track the results. Are you doing more with less? Or are you doing worse and moving in the wrong direction?

2. Know how much electricity costs

This is a tricky question because electricity doesn’t cost everyone the same in Spain. We recommend you read this content, which explains how much your electricity actually costs.

If we're talking about the regulated market, which accounts for fewer than half of all households in Spain, the price of electricity fluctuates every day. You can track it with with the Ahorra en luz app.

The app will tell you the price per kWh for the regulated market, together with hourly and daily fluctuations. You can use this information to plan when you use appliances that use more energy to save on your next bill.

You will know whether the price for each hour is below or above the historical regulated market average, the average price of energy over the last 30 days, and whether the trend is rising or falling.

But remember: this only applies if you are in the regulated market. If you are in the open market, the price you pay is not affected by this. In our next post, we explain the differences between the open market and the regulated market.

“What’s most important is to know how much energy you use and at what times. The price you pay for that energy depends on your contract.”

3. Know your phantom consumption

Numerous appliances in your home consume electricity even when you are not using them, simply be being plugged in. This "phantom consumption" costs the average Spanish consumer about 5 euros per month.

Apps like Standby Check, which is only available for iOS, are designed to provide more detailed information Standby Check, només disponible per a iOS.

It has an “Energy Detective” function that calculates approximately how much energy you can save by unplugging devices that go into standby mode, such as televisions and video and audio players. You can also discover how much electricity you consume while you are asleep to reveal the “energy vampires” and see how much you waste in a year.