The age-old saying “Turn off the light when you leave the room” is always relevant.

• Turn out the light when you’re not using a room. If you leave a 60-watt bulb on for four hours a day, 300 days a year, it will cost you about SEK 100!
• Low-energy bulbs use only 20 percent of the electricity consumed by normal bulbs and they last more than 10 times longer.

Everyone is different. What one person considers a normal temperature can be too hot or too cold for someone else. A room temperature of between 20-21°C is a normal indoor temperature during the winter. This level may naturally vary in your apartment.

• Use slippers or other indoor footwear if your feet are cold.
• Make sure that the air around the radiators can circulate. To achieve a constant temperature, the air around the thermostat needs to circulate freely. Heavy curtains, etc., will make the thermostat think that the temperature in the room is higher than it actually is. Putting furniture directly in front of the radiators also reduces the heating in the apartment.
• You sleep better in a cool bedroom – turn down the heat rather than keep the window open.
• If you nevertheless prefer to sleep with the window open, turn off the radiator in the room so that it doesn’t unnecessarily try to compensate for the draught coming from the window.
• Air your apartment quickly by opening two windows simultaneously and creating a cross-draft, rather than leaving one window open for a long time. If you have a window or balcony door ajar for a long time, both the room and its fittings and furniture will get cold.
• Closing Venetian blinds during the night conserves heat. The window will be nearly as energy-efficient as one of the new “energy windows” that are now available on the market. Pull up the blinds during the day to make good use of the heat of the sun.
• If you’re going away, turn down the radiators to save on your heating bill. It’ll also be better for your house plants. PLEASE NOTE! Never turn off the radiators completely. Some heat must be in the system to prevent water pipes from freezing.
• Close the front door of the building behind you when you go in and out, especially when it’s cold outside. Heat will escape from the building and the radiators in the stairwell risk freezing up if the front door is left open.

Together we can keep rent levels affordable by reducing water costs if we change our behaviour and be more careful when using water.

• If you do the washing-up by hand – wash and rinse in a sink full of water rather than under running water, which consumes three times as much energy. The difference can be as much as SEK 1 000 per year!
• If possible, don’t shower for more than 5 minutes.
• If you have a dishwasher:
  - always fill the machine before turning it on
  - use the shortest possible programmes
  - wash at 55 degrees
  - open the machine to allow the dishes to dry rather than use the drying programme.
• If you notice a leaking tap, ring your house caretaker. A leaking tap can use the same amount of water as a shower in a day. This can cost as much as SEK 600 a year!
• Each person uses an average of 200 litres of water every day. The water costs for a normal three-roomed apartment are about SEK 3 000 per year. If we also count the energy consumed for heating the water, the costs rise to more than double this amount. This cost is included your rent.
  
  

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• When you throw waste in the wrong container, it increases costs since SSSB will be forced to pay a contractor to sort through and separate it. If we don’t employ a contractor, all the waste in the container is classified as “bulky waste” and SSSB has to pay a higher price for disposal. This ultimately affects the tenants.
• If you do not separate your waste and throw it all in the 'household waste', you pay a higher price for waste items that instead could be separated at source. The City Waste Management Administration charge more for household waste than for separated waste.

• Check that you have the right temperature. Every extra degree increases energy consumption by about 5 percent. A temperature of between +5° and +8°C in the fridge and around -18° C in the freezer is sufficient to conserve the food.
• Defrost your freezer at least once a year, preferably during the winter, when it is easier to keep your food cold in the meantime. A good idea is to vacuum-clean the back of fridge and freezer at the same time.
• Check that the door seal is tight and clean so that cold air cannot escape. Ensure that food has cooled down properly before you put it in the fridge/freezer. Thaw frozen food in the fridge to utilise the cold. Pay short visits to the fridge and freezer when you take out/put in food. Don’t leave the door open unnecessarily.
• Do all your shopping for the week – a full freezer consumes less energy than one that is only half full.
  
  

• Wash at the lowest possible temperature. Modern detergents are better at removing dirt at lower temperatures than they used to be.
• Fill the machine up, the energy consumption is the same for a full machine than for a half-empty one.
• Spin-dry properly at a high speed. If you have clothes that should not be spin-dried, take them out of the machine when the washing cycle is complete and leave the other clothes in for an extra spin-dry. Filling the machine up will save you both electricity and water.
• In contrast to the washing machine, you should not fill a tumble-dryer up to the maximum. Too many clothes in the machine will prolong the drying cycle and crumple the clothing.
  

• Boil water with the lid on the pan – this consumes 80 percent less energy than boiling water with the lid off.
• Put less water in the pan.
• Don’t use too big a ring – if the ring is one centimetre larger in diameter than the pan, 20 per cent more energy is expended totally unnecessarily.
• Turn off the ring or oven just before the food is ready and finish cooking using the remaining heat.
• Using a kettle is the most efficient way of boiling water.
• If you are making less than four portions, it’s normally better to use the microwave.
• Use only pans that have an even, clean base.