Do you wonder why your monthly electricity bill is not consistent or not meeting your estimates? Perhaps you need to take a look at the wattage consumption of your appliances. It’s a good thing to know at least a rough calculation of the monthly energy consumption of your appliances at home so you can think of ways on how to reduce the usage. A lot of appliances differ in terms of their watt usage. The importance of cost-effective living involves knowing how to save energy consumption on the appliances that you use.
Keep in mind to always check the label of any appliance to determine how much electricity it uses. Nowadays, manufacturers are required and have made it easier for people to locate the information regarding energy consumption. Commonly you’ll be able to find the label at the back of the appliance or in its adapter or power cord. The lower the wattage, the better; however, there are various factors to consider in calculating for your total energy consumption for an entire month and so as to an annual approximation. In fact, the actual cost of your electricity usage will still depend on how long you use a certain appliance as well as how much your electricity provider charges you per kilowatt.
Avoid using typical high-wattage appliances such as clothes dryer, iron and electric water boiler for a long duration as this will surely affect electricity costs to rise. Do you know that a clothes dryer can consume as much as 5 kilowatts (or 5000 watts), a microwave oven can consume as much as 1.5 kilowatts (or 1500 watts), and an iron can consume as much as 1 kilowatt (or 1000 watts)? By the way, as you may have noticed, 1 kilowatt (kW) is equal to 1000 watts (W). Below is the formula for you to compute the energy usage of your appliances:
(Wattage x Hours Used per Day) ÷ 1000 = Daily Kilowatt-hour (kWh) consumption
Using the given formula above is one way to effectively manage your electricity consumption. Although it will not provide you with the exact daily kWh consumption of your appliances, but then it’s still going to be efficient by giving you a better understanding on how to properly manage your appliance usage.