The Raevaara family saves 2,000 litres of oil every year by investing in renewable energy

Seppo Raevaara and his spouse have lived in the same house in Leinola, Tampere, ever since it was built in the 1990s.

– My wife and I each viewed this site without knowing the other had visited it, so it was ultimately pretty easy for us to decide where we wanted to build our house, Raevaara says

The Raevaara household pays close attention to their energy consumption. They’ve made several improvements in recent years to support this.

– Excel is a hobby for me – I get excited whenever I have the chance to use it to keep track of something. That's why we’ve been monitoring all of our consumption – water, electricity and oil – from the very beginning, Raevaara laughs.

It all started from adjusting the water pressure and installing a leak detector.

– I read some magazine article about leak detectors and felt inspired. At the same time, the insurance company offered a service where Ekokumppanit visited my house for free to evaluate energy use and other things. They recommended lowering the water pressure. I decided to get a leak detector and to lower the water pressure at the same time.

The detector spots extra leaks quickly, cuts off the property’s water and sends an alert to an application.

– It has notified me about a faucet that was left running at least a couple of times.

A water-to-air heat pump was a good fit

A water-to-air heat pump was installed in the Raevaara family’s oil-heated home in 2018. Now, they only use oil to heat domestic water and as a backup system. The house is heated by the water-to-air heat pump. This hybrid solution has significantly lowered the household’s oil consumption.

– Before, we used about 3,000 litres of oil per year, but now, we only need a thousand litres. Previously, I had to stock up on oil every year. Now, I have enough oil for the next two winters in storage. We chose a hybrid heating solution, because our boiler was still in good condition and I didn’t want to burden the electricity grid with an additional winter load, says Raevaara.

In his experience, the device is very low-maintenance. The water-to-air heat pump needs electricity to function, which is why the household’s electricity consumption increased after the investment. Raevaara points out the importance of using the correct settings.

Electricity consumption increased a lot during the first year, but using the correct settings brought it down significantly.

The solar panels bought three years ago have also decreased the family’s need to buy energy from elsewhere. They produce about 15 per cent of all energy they buy annually, but because there is a lot of seasonal variation, the family is unable to use everything they produce. Raevaara therefore views his investment in solar energy mostly as an interesting hobby.

– In the summer, I produce renewable energy for others to use. That's my small act of kindness.

Monitoring and saving

Raevaara has an established method for monitoring energy consumption: entries are made in the table at the end of each month. He’s been keeping records for so many years that he’s also able to draw comparisons between different years. That also helps to spot possible problems and anomalies.

In addition to monitoring, adjustments are made depending on how much energy is needed. If the Raevaara family travels to Lapland for a week, their home’s heating is decreased significantly. On the other hand, if their grandchildren come over for the weekend, consumption of warm water will increase. They can prepare for this in advance.