Electricity bill goes up in Europe. One of the best ways to cut costs is to identify what uses the most energy in your home. Once you know, you can change your spending habits and save money.
We tell you how to know the electricity consumption of the different appliances and appliances you have at home so that you can decide how often or how to use them.
For example, you may find that the dishwasher configuration you usually use is not the most energy efficient.
There are two ways to find out the energy consumption of an appliance or device. The first, best and easiest way is to use a watt hour meter or meter. It will give you very precise information and allow you to compare the different cycles of the washing machine and the dishwasher, or the different settings of a radiator or an air purifier to see which ones consume the most energy. energy.
The second method, useful for simpler devices like a kettle, is to use the power of the device and information from the electricity bill or a calculator. on line to see how much energy it consumes in an hour.
In this article, we tell you how to do both.
How to use a meter to find out how much electricity an appliance uses
First, you will need to purchase an energy meter. You can find models under $20 like this one from Amazon. It will give you information beyond how many watts a device is consuming at any given time, but it’s still very useful to know.
It may seem counterintuitive to spend money on a utility meter, but you’ll end up paying for it many times over once you figure out how to use your appliances economically.
To use a consumption meter, you must unplug the device you want to measure and connect the meter to the power outlet. Then connect the device to the socket of the electricity meter.
If you don’t have enough space, or if you can’t see the screen because the power socket is not in the right place, use a network extension cord and connect the consumption meter to it, then the device in question. .
Turn on the device and the meter should show how many watts are being used. You can use it to see if the device consumes as much as the user manual indicates: it may be a little higher or lower, since the figure indicated is usually an average or a maximum.
Next, we explain how to measure the energy consumed by a dishwasher or washing machine:
1. Connect your device to the consumption meter, which must be connected to a socket.
2. Turn on the machine and put it in the program you want to check: it can be the fastest mode, the standard cycle or the ecological mode.
3. Adjust the meter display to show kWh (or cost) instead of watts. Please refer to the manual if you don’t know how to do it.
4. You can usually enter the unit rate, which is the cost per kWh (kilowatt-hour) charged by your supplier, to see the actual cost of electricity.
5. Run the program.
6. When done, you’ll see how many kWh were consumed and, if you’ve set the unit rate, how much it cost.
In the example shown in the photo, my standard dishwasher cycle consumed 0.7 kWh at a cost of 22 cents, since my supplier charges 31 cents per kWh.
If your energy meter does not show the cost, you can calculate the cost by multiplying the number of kWh used by the cost per kWh. In this example, the calculation would be: 0.713 (almost 3/4 of a kilowatt hour) x 31 (cents per kilowatt hour) = 22.1 cents.
Power meters often have other functions, such as average power over time (useful for things like TVs and printers), as well as maximum and minimum power used.
You can also use a meter to check the consumption of a device when it is “off”. Modern devices (usually by law) should not consume more than 0.5W when turned off.
If you find that one of your devices consumes more than this, you should remove it from the outlet to prevent it from costing you money unnecessarily.
Some people turn off outlets before going to bed or even after they finish using an appliance. However, this hardly saves a lot of money unless you have dozens and dozens of devices that consume 0.5W.
The biggest savings will come from other modifications, such as using eco modes or ensuring you only run a fully loaded dishwasher or washing machine.
How to find out how much electricity a device consumes from the electricity bill
1. The package
If you look at one of your electricity bills, you will see that your electricity expenses are divided into two parts: the fixed rate and the variable rate.
The fixed rate is the amount you pay for electricity, regardless of how much electricity you use.
Frequent travelers, meaning those who spend more than half of their time away from home, should look for a rate with no fixed costs upfront. Of course, do not rely on price comparisons.
2. Variable rate
The variable tariff is the second part of your electricity bill. It is calculated in kilowatt hours (kWh). This is a standard unit of measurement that allows a 1000 watt device to operate for one hour.
Keep in mind that it varies depending on where you are and should increase again.
Calculate the cost of running a device
Once you know your load in kWh, you can start breaking down your electricity bill by device. To calculate what it costs to run each device, choose a device and look at its power label. Multiply the power by the number of hours of use and divide the result by 1000.
A very simple example is this: if you pay 23 cents per kWh and your microwave is 1,000 watts, it will cost you 23 cents to run it for an hour.
Obviously, it’s not entirely improbable that you’ll microwave for an entire hour. But imagine turning it on for at least an hour every week. This means that, throughout the year, your microwave is responsible for approximately $11.96 of your electricity expenses.
GoCompare has some useful examples of what you can do with 1 kWh:
- Boil a kettle 10 times
- Iron for an hour
- Run a fridge/freezer for three hours
- Watch seven hours of television
Use an online energy calculator
If you don’t have an electricity bill or have trouble calculating it, you can use this calculator from Barcelona City Hall. You just need to enter your data and it will give you the running cost of your devices.
For more energy-saving tips and information, find out if smart heating can help you save money, and check out our pick of the best smart thermostats we’ve tested.
Original article published in Tech Advisor.
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