NordenBladet – A hijab ban in primary school is one of the proposals from a Danish commission that has looked at how minority women can be guaranteed the same rights as other women.
-“When someone wears a hijab, it shows that Danish Muslims are different from other Danish girls,” says commission leader Christina Krzyrosiak Hansen to the Ritzau news agency.
“When you are a little girl and go to primary school, you should be allowed to just be a child. If someone finds out later in life, when they are adults, that they want to wear a headscarf – of their own free will – we don’t get involved,” says Hansen.
“But we have to talk openly about this happening. No one believes that an eight-year-old girl takes it on all by herself,” she adds.
The government-appointed commission has made recommendations that apply to girls from ethnic minorities.
In addition to hijab bans in schools, it recommends, among other things, that children’s groups in day care “should reflect the population”.
They also want courses in modern Danish education to be given to “selected minority ethnic parents”, and they want to strengthen sex education.
No figures have been presented on how many wear the hijab at school or how many feel pressured to wear a headscarf.
Earlier this year, the commission announced that it would make recommendations in three stages. The first should be about children, the next two will be about young people and adults.
Immigration and Integration Minister Kaare Dybvad Bek has not responded to Danmarks Radio’s question about how the government relates to the recommendations that have been made.
NordenBladet – There are 259,341 children aged 0–17 living in Estonia. This is 9.1% more than ten years ago. Children constitute 19.5% of the total population of Estonia. The share of children is the lowest in Hiiu and Ida-Viru counties and the highest in Harju and Tartu counties, as revealed by the census results published today.
There are 26,656 children aged under two, 71,779 children aged 2–6, 57,200 children aged 7–10 and 62,157 children aged 11–14 living in Estonia. Terje Trasberg, leading analyst at Statistics Estonia, said that 11-year-old boys are the biggest group among children – there are 8,905 of them. “These boys were one year old during the previous census 10 years ago, when they were also the biggest group. The overall number of children is bigger than 10 years ago, but there are now fewer children aged under 4 in Estonia than in 2011. This reflects the low birth rates of recent years,” said Trasberg.
62% of children live in Tartu and Harju counties, with the remaining share living in other counties. Regionally, the share of children is the biggest in Tartu county where children account for over a fifth of the population (21.5%). The share of children is above the Estonian average (19.5%) also in Harju and Rapla counties. Their share is the lowest in Hiiu (15.5%) and Ida-Viru (16%) counties.
Among local governments, the share of children was noticeably higher in Rae (31.5%), Kiili (28.5%) and Kambja (27.5%) rural municipalities. “I should also mention Luunja rural municipality where the share of children aged under two was 3.2% of the population – this is the second-highest share in Estonia after Rae rural municipality (3.6%). The share of children was especially low on the small islands of Ruhnu and Vormsi, and also in Loksa city – under 13% of the population,” explained Trasberg.
The census results show a decrease in the share of women with one or two children, while there has been a rise in the number of women with three or four children. 12.5% of women have given birth to three children, and 3% of women have given birth to four children. The average number of children born to a woman has not changed significantly. According to the 2021 census, women in Estonia (aged 15 and over) have 1.55 children on average. The number of children per woman is the highest in Jõgeva county (1.88) and the lowest in Harju county (1.38).
“At the same time, the average number of children did fall among younger women, with the biggest decrease recorded among women aged 27–30, which reflects the fact that the current average age at the birth of the first child is considerably higher,” added Trasberg. The average age at the birth of the first child is the lowest among women in Valga county and the highest in Harju county. There has also been a rise in the number of women of reproductive age (15–49) who have not given birth at all – they currently represent 39.59% of women.
This overview is based on the data of the 2021 Population and Housing Census. Statistics Estonia will publish the census results gradually by topic, starting from today until the end of the year. More information and the release dates are available on the census website at census.ee.
Featured image: NordenBladet Source: Rahvaloendus.ee
NordenBladet – A total of 737,873 dwellings were counted in the 2021 Population and Housing Census, based on registers. Compared to the 2011 census, 47,793 new dwellings have been built, which is 1000 fewer than in the previous ten years (2001–2011). According to census data, there are now 14% more private houses than 10 years ago and 24% of all dwellings are vacant.
At the census moment, i.e. 31 December 2021, there were 737,873 dwellings enumerated in Estonia, including private houses and blocks of flats, collective living quarters and other housing units. 557,146 (76%) of all the enumerated dwellings were occupied, i.e. had at least one permanent resident, and 175,690 (24%) were without permanent residents. The share of dwellings without permanent residents has increased between the two censuses. In 2011, 84% of dwellings were occupied, compared to 87% in 2000.
“These numbers suggest that people have been acquiring, for instance, summer-houses and other properties they do not constantly inhabit. Dwellings that have already been completed according to the building register but that have not yet been inhabited are also included here,” explained Terje Trasberg, leading analyst at Statistics Estonia.
Liina Osila, Population and Housing Census project manager at Statistics Estonia, noted that compared to the previous census, the number of dwellings with permanent residents in Estonia has increased by 2.2%. “In general, the quality of people’s living spaces in Estonia has certainly improved. The number of dwellings with a water supply system, bathing facilities, toilet facilities, as well as with central heating has increased. Living in a private house has become increasingly popular,” stated Osila.
Narva has the largest apartment buildings
The number of residential buildings in Estonia is 266,475 based on the 2021 census. Of these, 77.5% (206,529) are one-family dwellings, 18% (47, 847) are blocks of flats, 3.2% (8,572) are semi-detached houses and 1.3% (3527) non-residential buildings, with at least one living space.
Narva has the biggest blocks of flats, with an average of 64 flats per building. Estonia’s largest block of flats, with a total of 360 flats, is also located in Narva. The smallest apartment buildings are in Hiiumaa, where the average number of flats per building is 9.05. There is only one municipality in Estonia – Ruhnu – where there are no blocks of flats.
The largest number of people lives in buildings completed in 1961
69.8% (389,101) of the dwellings with permanent residents are located in blocks of flats (buildings with three or more flats), 27.7% (154,426) are in private houses, 1.6% (8736) in semi-detached houses and 0.9% (4883) are in non-residential buildings.
17,167 new buildings with conventional dwellings have been added to the dwelling stock since the previous census (i.e. their year of construction is 2012 or later). 82.1% of these are private houses, 11.2% are blocks of flats, 6% semi-detached houses and 0.7% are non-residential buildings. “Since blocks of flats contain more dwellings, there has been a bigger increase in dwellings located in apartment buildings: of the dwellings added in the last ten years, 29.8% are in private houses and 64.4% in blocks of flats,” Trasberg explained. By year of construction, however, the largest number of occupied dwellings is found in buildings completed in 1961.
On average, the largest dwellings are in Kiili, the smallest in Sillamäe
The total area of occupied dwellings is 38,970,750 m2 – a rise by 1.38% (530,488 m2) compared to 2011. The total area of vacant (unoccupied) dwellings is 10,689, 971 m2.
Across all types of dwellings (private houses, blocks of flats), the area per inhabitant has, on average, decreased slightly compared to 2011: from 30.5 m2 in 2011 to 30.1 m2 in 2021. A decrease has also occurred in the average number of rooms per inhabitant, from 1.24 in the 2011 census to 1.21 in 2021.
Rae municipality has the highest number of inhabitants per occupied dwelling (3.1), while the number is lowest in Sillamäe city (1.95). The largest dwellings are in Kiili municipality and the smallest in Sillamäe city.
Estonians and Finns are the only people in the world who bathe in saunas
The availability of comfort characteristics has improved in all dwellings (both in occupied and vacant ones): the number of dwellings with a water supply system, with bathing facilities, with indoor flush toilet facilities, and with central heating has increased. 93.3% of occupied dwellings have a water supply system, 93.1% of dwellings have bathing facilities, 91.1% have toilet facilities (flush toilet) and 68.5% have central heating. Sillamäe has the highest coverage of flush toilets (99% of dwellings).
Compared to the previous census, the number of dwellings that have toilet facilities has risen by 5.2% (25,295) and a big increase has also occured in the number of dwellings with bathing facilities – up by 11,335. There has been a similar rise in the number of dwellings with central heating (up by 11,597). “Estonia and Finland are the only countries where saunas are considered as bathing facilities in a population and housing census,” Trasberg added.
NordenBladet – During the population and housing census, information on the highest level of education attained by inhabitants of Estonia was also gathered. Collected data revealed that the educational attainment of the population continues to rise. The level of education of foreigners living in here has also increased significantly. Below we will take a closer look at the educational attainment of the native Estonian- and Russian-speaking population as well as that of other mother tongue speakers and see how it has changed since the previous censuses.
As at the end of 2021, 18% of the native Estonian-speaking population aged 25 and over have basic education (or less), 43% have secondary education (or vocational education after secondary education), and 39% have higher education (or secondary specialised education after secondary education). The proportion of people with basic education is lower among native Russian speakers (11%), which means that the share of persons with secondary or higher education is a few percent higher than among the native Estonian-speaking population. Among native speakers of other languages, as many as 64% have higher education, and only 8% have basic education.
There are 13.5% fewer people with basic education or less among native Estonian speakers than at the time of the 2000 census. The drop is slightly smaller among the Russian-speaking population (-11.2%), while for people with other mother tongues, the decrease is almost twice as large (-25.6%). The share of people with secondary education has not changed significantly in the native Estonian- and Russian-speaking populations. However, among native speakers of other languages, there are now nearly 10% fewer people with secondary education than 20 years ago.
While the shares of people with basic and secondary education in the population have tended to decrease, the proportion of those with higher education has increased – by 13.2% for native Estonian speakers, by 9.5% for native speakers of Russian, and by 35.2% for the population speaking some other mother tongue. It is worth noting that while the percentage of people with higher education is rising in all three aforementioned groups, the proportion of the highly educated has increased much faster among other mother tongue speakers. This suggests that it is the highly educated foreigners that tend to migrate to Estonia nowadays.
The biggest changes in educational attainment among the Estonian- and Russian-speaking population occurred between the censuses of 2000 and 2011, but the most significant change among the population with some other mother tongue was seen after the census of 2011.
The gender gap in higher education is widest among native Estonian speakers
In most age groups, the share of people with tertiary education is highest among native speakers of languages other than Estonian or Russian. In the Estonian- and Russian-speaking population, less than 1.5% of people in each age group have a doctorate. Among native speakers of other languages, the share of doctoral degree holders is higher in all age groups under the age of 75. It is particularly high in the 35–49 age group – over 4%. The highest percentages of young people with a master’s and a bachelor’s degree are also found among those whose mother tongue is not Estonian or Russian: the proportion of master’s degree holders is highest in the 30–34 age group (36.1%) and the highest share of bachelor’s degree holders was recorded among those aged 25 to 29 (40.7%). For comparison: 15.3% of the 30–34-year-old native Estonian speakers and 11.9% of native Russian speakers have a master’s degree. People with a bachelor’s degree make up less than 25% of both Estonian and Russian native speakers aged 25–29. Therefore, the young and working-age foreigners staying here permanently are quite highly educated. They are likely to have come here to work in a professional capacity or to further their education.
The proportion of tertiary-educated people is higher among women than men, and the gender gap is particularly wide in the native Estonian-speaking population. Especially among the native Estonian but also Russian speakers, the share of young and working-age women with higher education is much higher than that of men. In older age groups, it is the other way round: the percentage of men with higher education is higher. Among the population with some other mother tongue, the differences are not as pronounced. In the native Estonian-speaking female population, the share of those with tertiary education is highest in the 40–44 age group, reaching 57.8%. In this age group, 34.4% of Estonian-speaking men, 49.1% of Russian-speaking women and 33.1% of Russian-speaking men, and 73.8% of women and 67.4% of men with some other mother tongue have higher education.
In older age groups, the proportions of the highly educated are roughly the same across different mother tongues: less than 10% of people aged 55 and over have a bachelor’s degree and 19–25% of 55–74-year-olds have a master’s degree. The share of people with secondary specialised education (after secondary education) is higher among other mother tongue speakers and native Russian speakers over the age of 40. This makes sense since in Estonia, students were last admitted to schools offering such an education in 1999. Such educational institutions are more common in Russia, for instance.
Basic and secondary education are the highest completed educational levels in younger age groups of various mother tongues. Among older age groups, the proportions of people with basic and secondary education tend to be similar across different mother tongue groups. However, among 25–55-year-old native speakers of languages other than Estonian or Russian, the share of people with basic or secondary education is significantly lower than among the Estonian- and Russian-speaking population.
More highly educated people of other mother tongues live in Estonia than ever before
The educational attainment of the population with some other mother tongue has risen in all age groups since 2000, most notably among 25–34-year-olds. In 2000, higher education was recorded for 38% and in 2021 for 78.8% of them. These are young people who have either obtained a higher education in Estonia and then stayed here, or who have come to work and live in this country after completing their tertiary studies elsewhere. When it comes to older people, a major change occurred, for instance, in the 65–74 age group: the share of the highly educated among them is now 33.9% higher than 20 years ago. Overall, educational attainment of men and women rose equally.
NordenBladet – The aim of celebrating the Day of Living in the Countryside is to open doors to active and brilliant people, to help them find a suitable living place in the countryside. This year the municipalities are welcoming you and will be introducing to the guests the kindergartens, schools, society houses, health centers, sports centers, and businesses. Besides they are offering information about free places of residence and will talk about possibilities of creating a job for oneself.
The program of the Day of Living in the Countryside is compiled by municipalities together with communities all over Estonia. The program schedule will help find information about what and where is going to happen. Take your family along and become assured that people actually live in the countryside! In the process of choosing you can get to know stories from the people that recently moved from town to the countryside. News about the Day of Living in the Countryside will be published here. With questions, please turn to the organisers of the Day of Living in the Countryside (Maal elmaise päev).
The programs of the Day of Living in the Countryside are held all over Estonia for the fourth time already. Mostly, events will accumulate in the society houses and village centers, those are welcoming guests and are offering common activities, taste experiences and bits of inspiration regarding life and entrepreneurship in the countryside.
Introducing your home side success stories to the guests, every member of the community feels that it is good to live in the countryside and it will be the home side celebration day!
NordenBladet –The backend of companies that develop and promote friendly AI in the form of advanced machine learning models are likely made up of a combination of several different technologies and architectures, including:
Cloud computing: Machine learning models are trained and run on large-scale cloud computing infrastructure, such as Amazon Web Services* (AWS) or Google Cloud Platform** (GCP), to ensure that they have access to the necessary computational resources to function.
Distributed computing: Machine learning models are distributed across multiple machines, which allows them to take advantage of parallel processing to speed up training and inference.
Machine learning frameworks: Most likely they use popular machine learning frameworks such as TensorFlow*** or PyTorch**** to build and run their models. These frameworks provide a set of pre-built tools and libraries that can be used to train and run machine learning models.
Neural networks: Machine learning are likely based on neural networks, which are a type of machine learning model that is inspired by the structure and function of the human brain. Neural networks can be trained to perform a wide range of tasks, including image recognition, natural language processing, and more.
Large data sets: Machine learning likely have access to large data sets that are used to train their models. The more data a model has access to, the better it can perform.
What is a machine learning model?
A machine learning model is a file that has been trained to recognize certain types of patterns. You train a model over a set of data, providing it an algorithm that it can use to reason over and learn from those data.
What is artificial intelligence (AI) development?
Artificial intelligence is the simulation of human intelligence processes by machines, especially computer systems. Specific applications of AI include expert systems, natural language processing, speech recognition and machine vision.
The definition of an AI developer is pretty self-explanatory: they develop the artificial intelligence software and applications that a particular business might use. They program systems that will change to suit the business’s needs based on the data collected and analyzed.
What is a Neural Network?
A neural network is a series of algorithms that endeavors to recognize underlying relationships in a set of data through a process that mimics the way the human brain operates. In this sense, neural networks refer to systems of neurons, either organic or artificial in nature.
What is an expert system?
In artificial intelligence, an expert system is a computer system emulating the decision-making ability of a human expert. Expert systems are designed to solve complex problems by reasoning through bodies of knowledge, represented mainly as if–then rules rather than through conventional procedural code.
_______________________________
* AWS (Amazon Web Services) is a comprehensive, evolving cloud computing platform provided by Amazon that includes a mixture of infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS), platform-as-a-service (PaaS) and packaged-software-as-a-service (SaaS) offerings.
** Google Cloud Platform, offered by Google, is a suite of cloud computing services that runs on the same infrastructure that Google uses internally for its end-user products, such as Google Search, Gmail, Google Drive, and YouTube.
*** TensorFlow is a free and open-source software library for machine learning and artificial intelligence. It can be used across a range of tasks but has a particular focus on training and inference of deep neural networks.
****PyTorch is a machine learning framework based on the Torch library, used for applications such as computer vision and natural language processing, originally developed by Meta AI and now part of the Linux Foundation umbrella. It is free and open-source software released under the modified BSD license.
NordenBladet – In Estonia the electricity prices have already been very high for several months. The record was December 7th 2021 when the power price reached as high as 1000 euros per megawatt-hour, i.e. for a kilowatt-hour, before VAT and other taxes (excise + network price) a full euro had to be paid. December’s unusually expensive electricity prices were reflected on January’s bills, which in many cases exceeded people’s monthly income.
Table 1. Power prices in Estonia on December 6th and 7th 2021
Although the valid stock exchange power price is today, on January 13th, more favorable than earlier (almost a week the price has been in the yellow zone), the prices, as compared to Finland, are partly 20 times higher. While a Finnish citizen pays 1.3 euro cents for electricity’s kilowatt-hour, then in Estonia up to 21 euro cents per kilowatt hour must be paid.
Table 2. Comparison of Finland’s and Estonia’s power prices. Today’s (January 13) power prices in Finland (left column) and Estonian prices in the right column.
What can a simple homeowner do in order to alleviate their complicated situation created by the high power price?
1. Observe power prices daily – you will find real time power prices from the power prices LIVE guidelines. Estonia’s power prices are on NordenBladet.ee site and Finland’s power prices are on NordenBladet.fi website. All who have concluded an hour-based tariff electricity package, for you the amount of the bill will depend on the amount of electricity consumed each hour and on the stock exchange price valid during that hour. Thus it is very important to daily observe the hourly power prices!
NordenBladet’s hour-based power prices graph (electricity market’s PRICES GUIDELINE) allows you to easily and conveniently observe power prices and plan the day’s more power consuming activities to a more favorable time zone. The price guideline functions as a traffic light (red light warns that the prices are high and the green light lets you know the prices are in a favorable zone). We define a price favorable when it is up to 10 euro cents per kilowatt hour.
(Those who have a fixed price stock exchange package need not worry, since the kilowatt-hour based price has been fixed for a certain time period and the bill shows a similar kilowatt-hour price every month).
2. Be aware of the amount of home appliances (technology) that are consuming electricity in your home. A long and thorough insight about domestic appliances that consume power can be found HERE. By knowing how much an electric stove, television, washing machine, computer and other home appliances consume energy, you will be able to make decisions that in conclusion will positively be reflected on your electricity bill.
3. It is possible to cut electricity costs by using several saving tips at home – beginning from a simple “switch the lights off” principle to a proper heat insulation of the building. You can find various tips and recommendations on how to limit electricity consumption HERE.
NordenBladet – People have received their first enormous electricity bills and those who did not yet observe the power prices have carefully started checking the electricity prices and have limited or even completely avoided electricity consumption during the expensive hours. If you are not willing to lose all your salary due to the rising prices of electricity, then the daily power prices should be calculated and you should plan doing laundry, using the oven for several hours or having the floor heating turned on during the more favourable hours, in order to consume electricity in a smart way.
The following is a major and thorough insight – all that you might like to know about power prices and electricity consumption!
1. HOW MUCH DOES ELECTRICITY COST right now in real time? How much does electricity cost today and tomorrow? How do I know when electricity prices are good and when it is expensive?
NordenBladet.fi (Finland’s power prices) and NordenBladet.ee (Estonia’s power prices) hour by hour electricity price tables (electricity price guidelines) give you easy and clear information about electricity market prices (stock exchange of the moment). Simple, intelligible and convenient info about all day’s hour by hour electricity price in a graph showing the current electricity price.
Electricity prices are displayed on NordenBladet home pages sitewide, in the right hand side of the page, in a table. You can look up the exact electricity price from one full hour to the next.
2. How to use NordenBladet’s electricity guideline so that you would be able to consume less power and thus receive a smaller bill by the end of the month?
For a start, check the general provisions of the contract that you have with the service provider and understand exactly what type of conditions you have. In case you have an hour-based stock exchange package then it is vital that you observe the power prices!
Electricity price guidelines can be read as the traffic lights:
? Red – expensive price zone, i.e the day’s highest prices (20-… euro cents kWh) (In order to save money, try using less electricity during this period of time!)
? Amber – average price zone (10-20 euro cents kWh)
? Green – the day’s best price zone (… -10 euro cents kWh). (If you wish to save money and economize, we recommend that you use power during the green time zone!)
(extra to the prices indicated, there will be + VAT, network price according to your network service provider and location of the domestic consumer’s zone, and excise tax)
Home owners and entrepreneurs that have a stock exchange package, are better off when daily observing today’s and tomorrow’s stock exchange price and completing the most power consuming procedures during the most favourable (green) time zone.
By observing the electricity prices you will receive a smaller electricity bill and will be able to save considerable sums (hundreds, in some case even thousands of euros)!
? NordenBladet LIVE electricity price table has been exactly adjusted to the local time (we are displaying Finland’s as well as Estonia’s prices) and it shows in kilowatt-hours the CURRENT POWER PRICE!
Easy, free and intelligible time-based price table for working days as well as weekends.With this Nordenbladet application we will be displaying the daily electricity price that you can easily observe from our website from a computer as well as from your smartphone. Great help every day! Many people who used NordenBladet’s electricity prices already last month, received half of the size of the electricity bills that they might otherwise have received!
3. HOW TO CONSUME LESS POWER and thus save money? What can I do to consume less electricity? I want my average electricity consumption to be less so that I could save electricity. How to limit the electricity costs?
a).Heat insulation
When your living space is not well insulated and your home does not maintain the warm temperature, this will bring forth greater energy consumption. You might consider a proper insulation for the basement, the window sills, and walls. Also during the dark time of the day, use window coverings to minimise the necessity of heating during cold weather. The quickest and cheapest way is to roll up and place a small blanket or a large towel on the window sill as a temporary „wind shield”.
b). Room temperatures
Should you need to heat the rooms directly or indirectly with electricity (geothermal heating / electric radiators), a great financial difference already comes from lowering the temperature just a few degrees. And again, switch the electricity on just during the good price time zone.
c). Review your lighting
About one fourth of the household’s energy costs is usually due to lighting! We recommend you to exchange all light bulbs/halogen lights for LED lamps. LED, i.e. light-emitting diodes is a semi-solid semiconductor that converts electric energy directly into light, as opposed to the light bulb where 95% of the bulb’s light is converted to heat. By using LED lamps/LED bulbs, you save electric energy up to 90% as compared to regular light bulbs!
The life cycle of a LED lamp is up to 50 000 hours which also means economizing on the maintenance side. Also check that the lights are not on without a purpose, in the rooms that are empty, switch the lights off.
d). using the washing machine
Set the program on the day’s best time zone, if necessary, use the machine at night in case the electricity prices are in the red zone (extra high) for long periods of time. Usually night time prices are two times better. Also, usually during the weekend the electricity prices are better. The drier consumes about 450 kWh a year. Drying the clothes on a laundry rack will help you save money.
e). Refrigerator and deep freeze
Quite a few households use more than one fridge and deep freeze. It is reasonable to place all things in one fridge and eliminate the other for winter time. Annually, the energy consumption of an older generation fridge reaches dozens of euros, which may turn out more expensive than the products that are kept in cold. When the temperatures sink and the weather is cold, you may just as well switch off the fridge in the garage or the shed for 24 hours, when the prices are extra high, and then switch them back on again.
f). See if you are at all using all the appliances
Plug off the appliances! When bringing home technology, be smart and choose the energy saving appliances. However… even though the domestic appliances are more and more energy efficient these days, the number of various appliances in homes is very high and thus our energy consumption keeps increasing. Studies have shown that more than one fourths of people keep their utensils on standby. This however means that each watt spent on standby regime brings along the cost of one euro a year. Plug off the utensils and the battery chargers that you are not using daily. The standby energy consumption of your utensils may make up as much as 10 percent of the household’s electricity bill.
4. HOW MUCH DO DIFFERENT UTENSILS consume power? Which home appliances consume most electricity? How much do home appliances /technology consume energy on an average?
The electric stove and oven consume the annual 23%, around 280 + 420 kWh. Considering the average one time consumption to be 1.4 kWh and considering that the stove is being used 300 and the oven 200 times a year, we get the annual energy consumption of 700 kWh. Glass ceramic stove generally consume less energy that metal top stoves with a heater.
Refrigerator – a ten-year-old refrigerator will annually consume 850 kWh electricity, at the same time, the new A+ fridges will use an annual 280 kWh. An average fridge will consume an annual 420 kWh. PS! The more ice gathers, the more grows the energy consumption!
Television – a TV-set will consume the annual 100 kWh. The newest A+++ class led-televisions consume one third less energy than the regular A class efficiency television set, and about 60% less than plasma televisions.
Dish washer – it consumes around 280 kWh annually. On an average, the dish washer can take 12 sets of dishes, using 1 kWh energy. When washing the same amount of dishes by hand, the heating of the water would take an average of 2,5 kWh energy. Therefore the dish washer takes 60% less energy when compared to washing by hand.
Washing machine – consumes about 260 kWh annually.
Tumble dryer – this consumes a lot of energy, an annual 450 kWh. Since it is largely a convenience device, it would be reasonable to give it up to save money. Older machines consume 4 kWh energy per working cycle, for 200 working cycles it will sum up the annual 800 kWh.
Computer – the most energy efficient is a laptop, it consumes 80% less energy than a personal computer. Even more efficient are tablets. The PC consumes the annual 500 kWh electricity, the laptop 60 kWh and the tablet only 3 kWh.
Other home appliances – from smaller home appliances the kettle, the iron, the microwave oven and the vacuum cleaner consume most power. Less power consuming are the coffee machine, blenders and food processors, blow dryers, ventilators, air cleaners. Heating water with an electric boiler makes up about 20% of the annual energy consumption.
Observing the current stock exchange power prices, economizing and awareness of electricity consumption, knowing how much your home technology consumes power, you may save hundreds of euros per month. In case you have an hour-based stock-exchange electricity package, start observing the power prices already today!
NordenBladet – The government has announced a temporary scheme that will help ordinary people across Norway to cope with their electricity bills this winter, with energy prices recently reaching new record highs. The scheme will provide support to households to allow them to deal with extraordinary electricity prices through a deduction on their bill.
‘An extraordinary situation like this requires extraordinary measures in response. I am happy that we are now in a position to announce positive, targeted action that will help ordinary people to weather this electricity bill crisis. It is a forceful response to what we are aware many people are finding to be a difficult and serious situation,’ says Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre.
Support will be available to households for up to 5000 kilowatt hours of monthly electricity use. The scheme will take effect as of December 2021 and remain in place until the end of March 2022 and is to be administered by the Transmission System Operators (TSOs). The government will present the scheme as a proposition to the Storting as quickly as possible. The scheme is in addition to previously announced measures including housing assistance and student support.
‘This scheme will see about NOK 5 billion spent directly on paying the most expensive component of people’s bills. This will be in addition to reductions in the electrical power tax, increased housing assistance and improvements to student support. We have focused on helping as many people as possible – when spending this much money, it is important for everyone to feel the benefit. We hope that these measures will provide a little more breathing space for many people as we enter the Christmas period, regardless of whether you live in a draughty house, a flat or a farm,’ says Minister of Finance, Trygve Slagsvold Vedum.
The scheme will provide a deduction on household electricity bills at times when prices are extraordinarily high. When the average market rate for electricity exceeds 70 øre per kilowatt hour for one month, the state will provide a rebate of half the amount beyond this ceiling. The share paid for by the state will be deducted from the bill by the TSO or electricity provider.
‘Households will now see a reduction on their bill when electricity costs are extraordinarily high. Plans are already in place to implement the first reduction of this kind in January when electricity bills for use in December are due for payment. This scheme will benefit ordinary people throughout Norway,’ says Minister of Petroleum and Energy, Marte Mjøs Persen.
The scheme is designed to ensure that it will still pay to reduce your electricity use.
The household support scheme is part of a larger package of measures intended to help electricity customers.
Facts about the scheme:
If the average electricity spot price in a month exceeds 70 øre per kilowatt hour, the state will provide support for household electricity bills.
Norway’s power grid is divided into five different pricing zones. The spot price for electricity in the pricing zone that a household is located in will be used as the basis for calculating any support due.
The state will provide a rebate of half the price beyond the ceiling of 70 øre per kilowatt hour up to a maximum of 5,000 kWh per month. The rebate amount will be independent of which type of electricity package a household has.
Examples:
For a household living in a self-contained house that uses 3,280 kilowatt hours of energy in December, the scheme will provide support of up to NOK 1,025 for the month. For a household living in a flat that uses 1,336 kilowatt hours of energy in December, the scheme will provide support of up to NOK 418. The formulae use a sample rate for power in Southern Norway for the month of December that is equivalent to 120 øre per kilowatt hour.
The actual level of support will depend on how much electricity is used by each household and how energy prices develop in your local area.
Overview of key measures in the government’s electricity package:
Direct support for electricity customers in terms of the distribution network tariff: approximately NOK 5 billion (including VAT).
Reductions in electrical power tax: NOK 2.9 billion.
Housing assistance: NOK 1,500 per month per household for the period December–March. Households comprising multiple persons will receive a supplement of NOK 150 per additional person beyond the first resident.
Student support: Increased support for students worth NOK 3,000, of which NOK 1,200 will be a non-repayable grant. NOK 190 million.
Efficient energy use initiatives under the auspices of Enova: NOK 100 million.
Compensation to municipalities in relation to additional costs incurred around the provision of financial welfare assistance measures worth NOK 100 million.
Additionally, the government has initiated dialogue with the TSOs in order to enable the deferment of payments for more customers.
NordenBladet – NordenBladet launched today, on November 15, a new app that allows visitors of our websites keep track of daily electricity prices at any chosen time
Electricity tariffs will be displayed on NordenBladet’s front page and sitewide on the right side of the page in the form of a table. You can check the exact price of electricity during one full hour until the next. The Estonian site (NordenBladet.ee) publishes Estonian electricity prices, the Finnish language site (NordenBladet.fi) publishes electricity prices of Finland.
PRICE GUIDE*:
? Red – the day’s highest prices
? Yellow – the day’s typical price
? Green – the day’s most profitable price
(prices in the table are given before/without value-added tax)
Estonia and Finland belong to the Nord Pool Spot electricity market trade region. Besides Estonia and Finland, the NordPool also involves Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Latvia and Lithuania. In the Nord Pool Spot, electricity prices will be determined separately for every hour of the day and separately for every region. Each country has the minimum of one price zone, countries with larger territories may have several zones.
Electricity’s market value will be calculated by Nord Pool electricity stocks individually for every hour. For each hour, all electricity production offers beginning with the most inexpensive will be ranked, and all electricity demand offers will be ranked beginning with the most expensive. In the intersection of these two lines the price of electricity will be shaped.
__________________________________ ATTENTION! * Electrical grid level depends on the electrical network service provider and the location of every individual consumer’s electrical substation. The price guide has been designed based on Nord Pool data in a supporting manner, with the aim of simplifying the price market overview – NordenBladet will not accept responsibility regarding your electricity consumption!
