How much electricity does your appliances use?

Take a look at what you can do for just a few pennies with the help of electricity:

• Use a 75-watt lamp for 14 hours for about 7 cents
• Refrigerate food for a day for about 20 cents
• Operate a window fan for about 1 cent an hour
• Cook a meal on an electric range -using all the burners and the oven - for about 84 cents an hour.
• Use the self-cleaning feature on your oven for a total of 35 cents.
• Wash a load of dishes in a dishwasher for about 7 cents.

Electricity really is a bargain. What else can you buy that costs pennies and does so much work? You definitely couldn't do this amount of work or hire someone else to do it for the same value.

Appliances

Water Heating

(Rule of thumb calculation: 100kwhs/person/month + 100 kwhs/month to keep water heated)

All computations based on a 8 cents per kilowatt hour electric rate. Estimated kwhs are based on average estimated consumption of electric home appliances.

What is a Kilowatt-Hour?

We pay for electricity in kilowatt-hours (kwhs). One kilowatt-hour is the equivalent of using 1,000 watts for one hour or using a 100-watt light bulb for 10 hours. While electric rates may vary among electric suppliers, we will use the central Missouri average of eight cents per kilowatt hour for the examples below.

When these kilowatt hours add up, electric bills get higher. And kilowatt hour usage is adding up more and more each year. According to statistics, the average family's use of electricity is increasing at a rate of 4 to 7 percent per year.

For that reason, it seems reasonable that if we become more aware of how we use these kilowatt-hours, we can learn how to use them more efficiently.

What Does it Cost to Run My Appliances?

The appliance use chart below shows the most commonly used appliances and office equipment in homes, the average wattage of that equipment and the estimated average cost.

To calculate the exact use of your appliances, or for those not listed in this chart, use the following formula:

amps x volts = watts
watts x hours = watt-hours
watt-hours / 1000 = kilowatt-hours (kwhs)
kwh x .08 (8 cents) = estimated cost of using appliance.

Look for the serial plate on the bottom or back of the appliance. It lists the power used in terms of watts (120 watts might be written 120 w) or amps and volts.

We will use an electric hand mixer as an example. This appliance requires about 127 watts.

Here is how you would figure its usage for 15 minutes:

15 minutes = 1/4 hour, so
120 watts x 1/4 hour = 30 watt-hours
30 watt-hours / 1000 = .03 kwh
.03 kwh x 8 cents = .0024 cent(two-tenths of one cent)

For a larger appliance such as a water heater, remember that it is only running when it has clicked on and is actually heating water. The time your water heater is on varies according to how much you do laundry, take baths, or run the dishwasher. But, let's say your water heater is on for 3 hours on a particular day (the national average):

4,500 watts x 3 hours = 13,500 watt-hours
13,500 watt-hours / 1000 = 13.5 kwh
13.5 kwh x 8 cents = $1.08

Or, from another angle, you can see that you would be using 4.5 kwh for every full hour that your water heater is on. That means it costs you 31.5 cents per hour.

There are several things you can do to use electricity more efficiently.

You will find that your electric furnace, air conditioner and water heater will make up the greatest percentage of your electric bill, so these are the areas in which to concentrate your energy management efforts.

There are other things you can do as well, such as change furnace filters at least once a month, use compact fluorescent light bulbs, and make sure the coils on your refrigerator are clean so it runs more efficiently.