How Much Electricity Do My Home Appliances Use

Almost everything you use in your home uses energy. You may not think about it but this is a simple fact of life. Even sitting reading may require you to turn a light on or the kettle for a drink as you read.

One of the few things that don’t use energy is your water filter; although even these can be powered and cause a drain on your energy usage. To avoid this, take a look at the filters offered by cleanandclearwater.com.au.  To reduce your electricity usage you need to understand how much each appliance uses.

Assessing The Usage

You may be surprised to discover that the average Australian household uses 117 gigajoules of energy a year; a figure that is actually dropping. You can assess the energy usage of individual appliances and lighting circuits by looking at the number of watts the appliance draws when in use. You’ll then need to estimate how long the appliance is on every day; this is the amount of time it will be drawing the wattage listed from the grid.

It will then be possible to multiply the wattage by the number of hours and divide the answer by 1000. This will give you the daily kilowatt per hour. You can then multiply this by 365 to work out how much energy an appliance uses a year. Multiply this answer by the charge your electricity company makes per kilowatt and you’ll have how much it costs to run the specific appliance. To reduce the costs you simply need to use the appliance less!

Home Appliance Usage

To help you get started here is a list of the most common appliances and how much electricity they use:

• A 100 watt light bulb uses 1 kilowatt in 10 hours. Don’t forget you’ll have one more than one bulb on at a time.
• Your electric oven will use 2 kilowatts when running for 1 hour at 180°C.
• A crock pot running for 7 hours at 95°C will use 0.7 kilowatts.
• 1 hour’s use of a toaster uses just 0.33 kilowatts.
• A microwave on high for 15 minutes uses 0.36 kilowatts.
• A refrigerator made before 1992 will uses 1100 kilowatts while a modern, tier 3 one will use just 425 kilowatts.
• A dishwasher draws 1200 watts; used 5 times a week it is likely to use 288 kilowatts a year.
• Your washing machine uses 4.5 kilowatts per load.
• 6 hours of your television will use about 1.2 kilowatts

Your Energy Breakdown

You can get a very accurate picture of your electricity usage by installing a smart meter and checking the items which use the majority of your electricity. However, it may be interesting to note that the average household breaks their energy usage into these 4 categories:

1. 25% in the kitchen
2. 28% for cleaning and maintenance
3. 29% for leisure activities
4. 18% on lighting and other uses round the home.

So before you next switch on, consider the amount you’re about to use.