New household appliances will help Europeans better cope with a looming gas crisis. This was concluded by local experts who are busy exploring ways to save precious megawatts of power. They believe that one of the methods to reduce energy consumption is to replace old electronic devices with modern, more efficient ones, which use much less energy. "Your old refrigerator is a friend of Vladimir Putin. Throw it away!” a Bloomberg reporter says, adding that outdated equipment increases the region’s dependence on Moscow.
In his article on the situation in the energy market, Bloomberg columnist Javier Blas explains that a large chunk of power in Europe is generated by burning gas. Thus, it is worth saving it to heat homes in winter. Having studied electricity consumption volumes, the expert has concluded that reducing power use is the key to cutting natural gas consumption, which in turn will enable Europeans to overcome its crunch. In this case, the best way is to abandon old household appliances and shift to newer, more environmentally friendly, and fuel-efficient ones, Blas states. In addition, this will support the retail industry and some European manufacturers. According to him, it would be far less expensive and more effective for the government to assist citizens in acquiring energy-intensive appliances than to subsidize electricity bills.
Notably, to cut down on soaring power bills, Greece is already offering its households to buy less power-hungry air conditioners using a subsidy of between 30% and 50% of the cost of each device. Furthermore, the Bloomberg columnist cites Saudi Arabia as an example. The kingdom has also run a cash-for-clunkers program to replace old appliances with newer ones and reduce energy demand.