On March 11, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova took to Telegram — a messenger app that the Kremlin is actively attempting to suppress — with distorted claims that the ongoing U.S.-Israeli war against Iran was having devastating economic effects in Europe. According to the Moscow’s diplomatic mouthpiece:
“Rising fuel prices caused by American–Israeli aggression against Iran and Brussels’ energy self-castration are forcing people in the EU to come up with ever new ways of coping with reality. A large Dutch company that supplies energy resources to the public, Energiebank, has suggested that people ‘reduce the duration of their showers.’
I have a feeling they will approach the twentieth sanctions package in good shape.”
The website of the Dutch company Energiebank does indeed list 10 tips for saving energy:
1. Take a shower for no more than 5 minutes. On average, people shower for 9 minutes. By showering for 5 minutes, you can save up to €70 per year.
• Use a timer or a kitchen timer. Ventilate the bathroom for 15 minutes after showering. This will save even more.
2. Use a water-saving showerhead. Using a water-saving showerhead can quickly save you €25 if you take a 5-minute shower.
3. Close doors. This keeps the heat in the room you are in. This can save you about €50 in energy costs.
4. Lower the heating temperature by 1°C. An extra cardigan or a blanket on the couch will keep you comfortable. And you will save money. How much? That varies depending on the home.
5. Lower the heating temperature to night mode an hour earlier. The heat often remains long enough, allowing you to save €20. Ventilate the room for 15 minutes in the morning and then raise the heating temperature. Dry air heats up faster, which allows you to save even more.
6. Use draft excluders for interior doors. Install draft excluders on interior doors to prevent heat from escaping the living room. The strip prevents drafts while still allowing ventilation. This helps save on heating costs.
7. Do laundry at 30°C as often as possible. Sometimes 60°C is necessary, but most items wash well at 30°C. Washing two loads of laundry a week at 30°C will save €20.
8. Hang laundry to dry. Hang two loads of laundry per week instead of using a dryer. This will save €50. If you hang laundry indoors, do not forget to ensure proper ventilation.
9. Use radiator foil. Place it on the back side of the heating panels. It retains radiant heat better and therefore reduces energy consumption. Rooms heat up faster and maintain the desired temperature longer.
10. Additional tips for saving energy and money. Do you also want to save energy and need advice and assistance? Your municipality or energy-saving advisers at Energiebank Rotterdam will be happy to help.
While these energy-saving tips are indeed real (and good advice), they have nothing to do with “Brussels’ energy self-castration,” by which Zakharova apparently means the rejection of Russian energy resources, and they have even less with the American–Israeli operation in Iran. The tips published on the Energiebank website were developed as part of a campaign conducted in the Netherlands in 2021 to combat “energy poverty.”
In October 2021, the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences concluded that more than half a million Dutch households live in “energy poverty” — a situation in which more than 10% of income is spent on energy. The main causes cited were the low energy efficiency of homes and wasteful energy use by residents. The organization developed recommendations for saving energy, and the tips that caught Zakharova’s attention were based on those recommendations.
The estimated annual savings in Energiebank’s recommendations are calculated using 2021 prices. In particular, in 2021 the Dutch nonprofit organization Milieu Centraal in published the following advice on its website:
“Reducing the time spent showering is a simple way to significantly reduce environmental impact. Just look at how long you shower: the average shower lasts 9 minutes. The average household that always showers for 5 minutes instead of 9 will save more than 15,000 liters of hot water and 60 m³ of gas per year (a total of €70, based on 2021 prices).”
The recommendations Zakharova mocks therefore have nothing to do with today’s political situation. Instead, they stem from a long-standing European policy of improving energy efficiency.