Tag: Electricity Consumption

What Home Appliances Use the Most Electricity

Home Appliances Use the Most ElectricityThe question about what home appliances use the most electricity is actually a little more complex than the obvious answers. At first glance we might think that appliances such as ovens, refrigerators, freezers, clothes dryers, pool pumps, furnaces and air conditioners would use the most energy around the home. The real answer is that it depends on the actual appliance and your life style regarding how you heat your home, cool your home, conversion to energy saving devices and so on.

For example, our neighbor sets his air conditioning at 21 C or 70F all day and all evening long. His wife likes to sleep with the window open in the summer and the winter time with the corresponding energy loss that is associated with open windows. Another neighbor sets his AC at 24C or 75 F at night and even higher during the day.

Major issues for What Home Appliances Use the Most Electricity

Time of Day Energy Costs

Clothes dryers take a lot of energy and can cost a lot unless you only use then during non peak times such as in the evening and weekends. In a situation where you only dry your clothes in the evenings or on weekends, your clothes dryer may actually use even less energy than your AC system.

What about the oven? It uses a lot of energy when in use, but if you cook during non peak times or use the microwave which is very efficient, you can reduce your oven energy use significantly.

Should We Measure Real Usage or Per Event Usage

From a ranking perspective, ovens, dryers, air conditioning units and incandescent lights use a lot of energy. If you know which appliances use the most and then try to limit their use, then you can actually save and reduce total energy use. For example use the microwave whenever you can instead of the oven. Set your fridge temperature a degree or two higher. The same applies to the AC system. If you heat your home in the winter time, setting your inside temperature at 21C or 70 F will reduce your overall usage compared to someone who keeps their home at an even 24 C or 75F all day long.

There are all kinds of steps that consumers can take which will reduce their energy usage and save them a great deal of money. Use your appliances wisely even the ones that use a lot of energy, but limit their usage to reduce your overall energy foot print.

Turn up the temperature in the summer to reduce AC, turn down the temperature in the winter to reduce heating energy, use the microwave instead of the oven, turn up the temperature of the fridge and the freezer, use the clothes dryer and all appliances in non peak hours, turn your pool pump on at night and only run it for a few hours a day and so on.

We have a number of posts  on this site that provide more detail and more information on how to save energy overall. It is not always the appliance that uses the most electricity that you have to focus on!


Reducing Electricity Consumption at Home

Reducing Energy UsageMany people do not pay attention to reducing electricity consumption at home for a number of reasons. Some just do not have the time to focus on this issue. Others do not realize how much it is costing them because they do not pay the bill each month. Quite a few people also just do not care. They want to be comfortable. Consumers do not want to be bothered by anything like this. They figure that they have worked for their money and they can spend it in whatever way they wish to.

There are many people who are on tight budgets and every dollar they can save is a dollar that can go to other more important things like food on the table and paying for kids clothes or whatever is important in life to them. These are the people that should really pay attention to reducing electricity consumption at home and of course those of us who just want to avoid paying companies for services that we do not need.

Reducing Electricity Consumption

The following is a long list of suggestions that can be considered. They will not apply to everyone since we all have different circumstances, but they can save all of us money and our lives can still be very comfortable. If you notice something missing, let us know and we will be happy to add it to our list:

  • Turn the lights off when not in the room
  • Turn the TV off if you are not watching it for longer than 15 minutes
  • Cook using the microwave instead of the oven
  • Use a clothes line to dry your clothes
  • If you have time of day charging, take advantage of the rates and run AC, pumps, dryers etc in off normal time.
  • Run the AC only at night
  • Turn up the temperature during the day so the AC does not run as much
  • Turn down the temperature in the winter to use the furnace less
  • Unplug TV’s and other electronics in unused rooms to avoid trickle usage
  • Convert all lights to fluorescent or LED’s
  • Take advantage of discount when buying these lights.

These are just a few of the ways to ensure that your electrical consumption at home is kept to a minimum and even if you save $300 to $500 a year in electrical charges, the money is better in your pocket than someone else’s.


Electricity Consumption

Electricity ConsumptionMany people are just not aware of what their electricity consumption is during the day or even during the month.  The chart on the left is for one day in June of 2011 for our home. It illustrates a number of things. But before we get into that we need to explain the chart a bit and how it relates to energy consumption.

In our city we have time of day billing for energy consumption. The green represents electricity used from 7pm until 7am. Yellow represents two time zones, one from 7 am to 11 am. The other from 5pm until 7pm. This is the mid level while the green is called off peak usage or consumption. The red runs from 11am until 5pm in the afternoon and is called peak usage time. They charge almost double for energy consumption during the peak times compared to what they charge in off peak times. The idea is to encourage customers to use less power during the day and more at night. It tends to balance out the electrical load between commercial customers and residential customers.

We have found that we can reduce our electrical bill a great deal by drying our clothes in the dryer during the evening, shifting air conditioning to the evening hours and generally not using electricity during the day.

Electricity Consumption – Why Should I Bother

Many people might take this attitude when they look at the chart and see that they are only talking about a dollar a day for peak hours. However if you multiply this by 365 days and you can save lets say even two or three dollars a day, pretty soon your getting close to a thousand a year that you can save.

I do not know about you , but a thousand dollars in my pocket instead of the electrical utility is a lot better in my books! It is not that difficult to save this kind of money compared to doing nothing at all. it is really just getting into certain habits which will not impact your life that much and will save you money.

What Do I need to Do to Reduce my Electricity Consumption?

It is pretty simple really. First focus on the big consumers of electricity and try to move their consumption from peak or mid peak to off peak hours. Drying and washing clothes, washing dishes in the dishwasher, adding a timer to your pool pump, running your furnace on your home later in the day are all good examples of major consumers of electricity. Anything with a motor or a heating element should be shifted into off peak usage rate hours.

Next turn off all appliances that are not in use. If you are not in the room , turn of f  the TV set for example. While things like radios and other electronics draw very little electricity, they all draw something, so why have them on if you are not in the room. Same thing with lights. turn them off if you are not in the room. Convert all lights from incandescent to LED or fluorescent lighting and save big time on your usage in this category.

Once you and your family get into the habit of turning off things especially during the day, it will become second nature and you will see the results when your electrical bill arrives. this is extra money that can be used to spend on trips, clothes or whatever your families needs are.

Electrical Consumption is All About Attitude

Some people just do not want to be bothered about reducing electricity consumption, while others consider it beneath them to even have to worry about something like this. One neighbor really just cannot be bothered. He would rather work and pay his higher bills instead of reducing his electricity consumption. Early we talked about potentially reducing your electricity bill by as much as a thousand dollars.

Did you consider how much  you need to earn in order to pay that extra thousand. Depending on your income tax rate, you might have to earn as much as $1500 to $2000 in order to pay that thousand dollar bill. I do not know about you, but I would rather put that money to other uses and or work less.

Something to think about when it comes to reducing electricity consumption and reducing your overall energy cost.

For more electricity reduction ideas, click here.


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