While it is fine to say “let’s reduce our power consumption”, often we may not have much idea of the typical total consumption of an individual appliance over a period of time:
- Work out (often found on a label at the back or underneath an appliance) what the item’s power consumption is, and then multiply it by typical hours used per month (assuming your electrical bill arrives monthly).
- (Even easier if your appliance has an Energy Rating sticker, showing typical kWh per year.)
- Now, from your electrical bill, find out your cost per kWh and multiply the above figure by your cost per kWh.
[A typical monthly electricity account for my household]
[Minus the 22% discount]
- You can also buy a power consumption meter to plug into your power points.
- A useful list showing the power consumption of typical household appliances is provided on the Daftlogic website.
- Remember that the worst offenders may not always be the power-hungry culprits we most suspect, once the time factor is considered. To take a contrived example, that power-guzzling 1000 watt belt sander you have stashed in the garage may only be used for 2 hours per month (2 kWh total). On the other hand, your economical 150 watt 25 inch colour TV might easily average 180 hours per month (27 kWh).
- One power-saving move I made a while ago was shifting my work from a desktop computer (100 – 450 watts) onto a laptop (50-100 watts).
- As in my example shown above, your electricity retailer may offer a substantial discount if you save them the trouble & expense of mailing out printed accounts. In my case I receive an impressive 22% discount just because I opted to pay online.