Have you ever wondered how much electricity your household appliances consume?
Not every appliance consumes the same amount of electricity. Heavy appliances such as washing machines, air conditioners, and refrigerators consume more electricity.
Every electrical appliance will come with a certain wattage, which is the unit of power. You can find it in the product label. So, the higher the wattage, the more power it will consume.
Apart from this, there are several other methods to calculate the energy consumed by the electrical appliances. We have listed them below.
You can use them to calculate the energy consumption and operating cost of your electrical appliances.
1. Review the Energy Guide Label
Many electrical appliances come with an energy label. With this, you can check the average energy consumption of the specific appliances. It also provides information on the cost to run the appliance. However, not all electrical appliances come with an energy guide label.
If your appliance does not have an energy label, then skip to the next method.
2. Install an Electricity Usage Monitor
The electricity usage monitors can measure the power consumption of appliances that run on 120 volts. However, large appliances run on 220 volts. So, you can not use this device to measure their power consumption.
To measure the electric usage, you have to plug the monitor into an electrical outlet. Then plug the electrical appliance into the other end of the monitor. The monitor will display the electricity used by the electrical appliance in watts.
With this, you can find the power consumed by the appliance in an hour, day, week, or longer. Some monitors allow you to enter the cost of one unit of electricity. Then, they display the cost it took to run the device over a specific period of time.
Many electrical appliances continue to draw electricity even when they are turned off. This is called ‘phantom load’. The phantom load increases the overall power consumption. The monitor will display the phantom load as well. We recommend you unplug the device to cut the phantom load.
3. Calculate annual power consumption and respective costs
Follow this step by step DIY method to calculate the power consumption of different electrical appliances and their costs.
Step 1: Find the run time of your appliance
Make a note of how many hours you run an appliance in a typical. It differs widely from one electrical appliance to another. Appliances like fridges run 24 hours a day. On the other hand, mixer grinders and televisions have a shorter running time.
Step 2: Identify the wattage of the appliance
Every electrical appliance operates at a different wattage. You can find the wattage on the bottom of the appliance. In some cases, the wattage will be on the product label of the appliance.
Do not worry if you can not locate the wattage. You can calculate it yourself. First, you need to find the electrical draw and the voltage of the appliance. Then you will have to multiply them both to find the wattage.
Wattage = Electrical draw (Amp) x Voltage
Step 3: Calculate the daily energy consumption of the appliance
Once you have the wattage of the appliance, you will have to calculate its daily power consumption. For that, first, you will have to multiply the wattage and the total operational hours of the appliance in a day. Then, divide this value by 1000.
Daily Kilowatt-hour (kWh) consumption = (Wattage x Hours run per day) ÷ 100
Step 4: Calculate the annual energy consumption
Now, calculate the annual energy consumption of the appliance. First, identify the number of days you run the appliance in a year. You will run most appliances daily. So, it will be 365 days. But can differ based on your usage. Then, multiply this with the daily energy consumption of the appliance.
Energy consumed annually = kWh consumed daily x Days run per year
Step 5: Calculate the annual cost to run the appliance
You can calculate the annual cost by multiplying the annual energy consumption and utility rate per kWh.
Annual cost = Energy consumed annually x rate of utility per kWh
Using the above formula, let us find the annual cost to operate an AC.
- Run time per day: Let us assume that you run the AC for 7 hours a day.
- Wattage: You will find the wattage on the label or the user manual. Let us assume it as 1500 W.
- Energy consumed daily: (1,500 x 7) ÷ 1,000 = 10.5 kWh
- Energy consumed annually: Most people run the AC only during summers. However, some people run it throughout the year. Let us assume you run the AC for 200 days in a year.
10.5 kWh x 200 = 2,100 kWh
- Annual cost: Let us assume the utility rate is 12 rupees per kWh
2,100 x 12/kWh = 25,200 per year.
4. Install a Whole-House Energy Monitoring System
With this device, you can get detailed data on your home’s energy consumption. You can also measure the energy use of 240-volt appliances. Each monitoring system can monitor a certain number of circuits. If you want to monitor more circuits, you have to get a higher-priced monitoring system.
The installation of these systems is simple. But, sometimes you need an electrician to do it. You have to plug the device into the main breaker panel of your home.
The whole house energy monitoring systems come with a lot of additional features. Some models have in-built smart technology. You can connect them to your home network and see the data on your smart device. Some devices come with a traditional display to show the data.
In addition to this, they show data on when and which devices consume more power. Using these data, you can develop practices to reduce power consumption.
Wattage of Home Appliances
Finding the power consumption and cost of running different appliances can be a difficult task. Instead of that, you can compare their consumption. Power consumption is measured in watts. Technically speaking, the more power an appliance consumes, the higher will be its operating cost.
We have created a comprehensive list of the common household appliances with their minimum and maximum wattage.
| APPLIANCE | MINIMUM WATTAGE | MAXIMUM WATTAGE |
|---|---|---|
| 2 Ton Air Conditioner | 1300W | 2000W |
| 2 Ton Inverter Air Conditioner | 1000W | 2000W |
| 42 Inch LCD TV | 110W | 130W |
| 42 Inch LED TV | 70W | 90W |
| Air Fryer | 1500W | 1500W |
| Air Purifier | 25W | 30W |
| Amazon Echo | 3W | 3W |
| Bread Toaster (4 Slice) | 1200W | 2500W |
| Ceiling Fan (48 Inch) | 60W | 80W |
| Coffee maker | 800W | 1400W |
| Computer Monitor | 25W | 30W |
| Deep Freezer | 19W | 19W |
| Dehumidifier | 240W | 240W |
| Desktop Computer | 100W | 450W |
| Dishwasher | 1200W | 1500W |
| Domestic Water Pump | 200W | 1500W |
| Electric Heater Fan | 2000W | 3000W |
| Electric Iron | 800W | 1500W |
| Electric Kettle | 1200W | 3000W |
| Electric Stove | 2000W | 2000W |
| Espresso Coffee Machine | 1300W | 1500W |
| Exhaust Fan | 12W | 12W |
| Food Blender | 300W | 400W |
| Fridge | 150W | 450W |
| Front Load Washing Machine | 500W | 2200W |
| Fryer | 1000W | 1000W |
| Gaming PC | 300W | 600W |
| Guitar Amplifier | 20W | 30W |
| Hair Blow Dryer | 1000W | 3000W |
| Hair Straightening Iron | 75W | 300W |
| Home Internet Router | 5W | 15W |
| Home Phone | 3W | 5W |
| Hot Water Dispenser | 1200W | 1300W |
| Humidifier | 35W | 40W |
| Induction Cooktop | 1400W | 2000W |
| Inkjet Printer | 20W | 30W |
| Iron | 1000W | 1000W |
| Laptop Computer | 40W | 120W |
| LED Light Bulb | 7W | 10W |
| Oven | 1000W | 2150W |
| Phone Charger | 4W | 7W |
| Projector | 220W | 270W |
| Refrigerator | 100W | 200W |
| Scanner | 10W | 18W |
| Set Top Box | 27W | 30W |
| Sewing Machine | 70W | 80W |
| Steam Iron | 2200W | 2800W |
| Table Fan | 10W | 25W |
| Top Loading Washing Machine | 500W | 2500W |
| Treadmill | 280W | 900W |
| Tube Light | 22W | 22W |
| Vacuum Cleaner | 450W | 900W |
| Washing Machine | 500W | 500W |
| Water Filter and Cooler | 70W | 100W |
Frequently Asked Questions
The more you use electricity, the higher you pay per unit of electricity. When your electricity bill is twice as high, it does not mean you used twice the electricity. The price per unit increases the more units of electricity you consume.
According to a survey in 2014, an Indian household consumed 90 units of electricity per month. It is sufficient to run four ceiling fans, four-tube lights, a refrigerator, a television, and kitchen appliances.
Televisions, air conditioning units, refrigerators, and washing machines consume more electricity than others. These appliances amount to 50% of our electric bills every month.
The amount of electricity taken to turn on a fluorescent light is the same as operating it for a few seconds. If you turn off the fluorescent lights for more than 5 seconds, it will save more energy than when you leave them on.
Most lamps consume a small amount of power even when you turn off and leave them plugged in. In fact, almost all electrical appliances consume a small amount of power even when they are off. Lamps consume the least amount of power as they have no batteries or complicated parts.
Conclusion
As you have seen, it is easy to calculate the power consumption of electrical appliances. With this, you can also calculate the annual costs of running the appliance.
If you think the calculations are time-consuming, you can refer to our wattage table. The table contains the maximum and minimum wattage of all the commonly used household electrical appliances.
If you have any queries or doubts, let us know using the comments section below. We will help you out. You can also share your thoughts and post your views in the comments box.
