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Recently, we covered how to save money on your electricity bills. There is no magic bullet to lowering your bill, however; understanding how much electricity each of your appliances uses can help you to understand what usage affects your power bill the most. Understanding how much power each of your appliances draws can help you to understand which ones you may want to limit use on to help ease the burden of your electricity bill each month. Keep up to date with all of the latest tips and information with The Wire Doctors blog!

How Much Power Does an AC Unit Use?

The usage of some appliances may be easier to monitor than others. During the hot weather you may want to sacrifice the use of some of your other appliances, to increase the use of others, such as your central air conditioning or window/wall units. Central air conditioners use approximately 3.0 kWh per hour (kilowatt per hour) which equates to roughly $0.45 per hour. Now there’s several factors that can go into affecting your price, depending on the area you live in, how much you’re using the appliance, in this case your central air conditioning. Window and wall units can come anywhere between one fourth of the cost and one half ($0.11 per hour – $0.27 per hour) of the cost of central air conditioning, but obviously you’d have to weigh that against the benefits of using window and wall units compared to central air conditioning. 

How Much Power Do Kitchen Appliances Use?

Now looking at some of your kitchen appliances. Similar to air conditioning, kitchen appliances are difficult to completely cut out of your daily life, but monitoring their use can help in the long run. Appliances such as an oven, have multiple features that all have different outputs. The oven itself runs about 2.3 kWh per hour, which is roughly $0.35 per hour. Then the oven surface uses 1-1.5 kWh per hour (approx. $0.15-$0.23 per hour) and the self-cleaning feature uses 6 kWh per hour ($0.91 per cleaning) according to Silicon Valley Power. You could be someone who doesn’t use your oven, but understanding the usage of it and what goes into it makes much more sense and can help you make a better decision. 

Take a look at something that is commonly used in a debate when it comes to saving money, the coffee machine. How much electricity does your coffee machine use and how much does it actually save compared to making a run to your local coffee shop? On average, coffee makers use about 0.4 kWh per hour ($0.06 per hour). Obviously, much less than running to your local coffee shop.

How Much Power Do Entertainment Appliances Use?

Certain appliances, like your television, have different factors that go into their usage. The size of the television and the type (4k LED, OLED, 720P etc.) have an effect on what the usage will be. While there is a very small difference, maybe this can be used as something that helps you make a decision when buying a new television and seeing how the electricity usages are different. 

Understanding your appliances can help you properly monitor their use and affect your electricity bill. However, trying to track how many kilowatts per hour you’re using can be a complicated headache of its own. It’s best to just make sure you aren’t egregiously overusing appliances and in times of need where you need to up the usage of one, try to cut down the use of other appliances and that should help balance out your usage.

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