Typical household appliance power use?

[FiftyIsTheNewTwenty]

Does anyone have basic stats on how many watts, and/or kW-hr each household appliance typically uses? 

I'm trying to get a handle on our electric bill, which is largely heat or AC depending on season.  But for April and May we barely used either, and our bill was still $100 (vs. $180-200).  It makes no sense -- this is the most expensive it's ever been, there's just 2 of us here vs. 4-5 of years past, it's a 1300 sq-ft house, we don't even take showers every day, and our base rate around here is like 12 cents a kW-hr.

The only thing I'm "careless" about is 3-4 ceiling fans running at the lowest speed 24/7.  But this cuts the need for AC substantially.

[KarefulKactus15]

IF you get bored one day, go outside to your meter and watch it spin.   Cut individual items on and off.  I spent 5 hours one day doing this for every item in my house selecting almost every configuration of power usage.  Was very enlightening.

If you dont know how to read the meter, just google it.  All you need to take accurate measurements is a stopwatch or some other time keeping device.

[HPstache]

Was very enlightening.

Pun intended?

[lbmustache]

When my old electricity bill spiked suddenly, we found that the fridge was pulling too much current (? not sure if this is the right term) and was on the fritz. Could be a possible source of the price hike - but doesn't your bill show energy usage? If the energy usage hasn't spiked on the bill - and your bill is high, it's probably something else.

[BudgetSlasher]

Does anyone have basic stats on how many watts, and/or kW-hr each household appliance typically uses?

I do not have a baseline for each appliance, but when we went on vacation I turned off the water heater, central heat, and ceiling fans, but left all of the other day-today toys plugged in and humming away. (Think printer, cable modem, router, all the LED lights on the appliances, a refrigerator, and a chest freezer). Then end result was the house in its resting state drew and average of 3.03 KWh without us in it.

If you are looking for appliance by appliance, you could look up ratings on energy star (it give KWh per year) to get a ballpark of what each appliance should draw.

I'm trying to get a handle on our electric bill, which is largely heat or AC depending on season.  But for April and May we barely used either, and our bill was still $100 (vs. $180-200).  It makes no sense -- this is the most expensive it's ever been, there's just 2 of us here vs. 4-5 of years past, it's a 1300 sq-ft house, we don't even take showers every day, and our base rate around here is like 12 cents a kW-hr.

Have you added or changed anything electrical recently?

How does that bill compare to past years at this time of year (I know you said it was higher, but how much)? My in laws saw a spike in one and it turned out to be a refrigerator that had gone bad. Heck I had a co-worker track his power issues to a GFIC outlet that was warm to the touch.

Does your utility use digital meters? Ours does and allows you to view month-to-month, day-to-day, and hour-to-hour graphs of energy consumption (with a few days lag). It has helped me identify behavioral patterns that are consuming energy by looking at the time of day and it has driving home the cost the little things.

How much TV related stuff to you have? We have a "vampire killer" or appliance switched power strip that does a hard power down of everything, but the TV (I won't admit to all the toys associated with it) when the TV is not on and those things can draw a fair bit of power in standby.

What is your source of domestic hot water? An electric water heater will drive your bills up and you should look into the incentives for a hybrid heat pump water heater (especially as it seems you are in a warm climate they have the added benefit of cooling and dehumidifying). What is your cooking source, if electric did you do a of cooking over the past month?

The only thing I'm "careless" about is 3-4 ceiling fans running at the lowest speed 24/7.  But this cuts the need for AC substantially.

How old are your ceiling fans? I swapped out a 25 year old AC motor ceiling fan with a modern AC motor ceiling fan that has cupped blades and got much better energy consumption, out most recent fan is a DC motor fan and it is even more efficient.

Running a ceiling fan 24/7 is pointless unless you are in the room; they do not cool the air they only move the air and if you are not in the room to feel the air moving it is not saving you anything. Turn them off when the room is unoccupied (if that is not accomplished consider either fan timers or occupancy sensors in place of switches). I saw a marked drop in energy use (with the older fans) when I understood this and went from running 4-5 fans on low to only running fans in occupied rooms.

[FiftyIsTheNewTwenty]

Thanks all for your replies.  It turns out our electric company does provide a usage chart, which had some surprises. 

First, the big user besides heat and AC was hot water.  No surprise, except how much -- almost equal.  Now, there are only two of us, and I've really cut back on laundry and showers.  We have a 40 gallon regular electric water heater that's 5-7 years old.  Our water isn't particularly hard, but I will flush it and see what happens.  I really think we have a hot water leak.

Second, and this is the big surprise since we're in the Southeast -- we're actually spending more on heat than AC.  We have two separate heat pump systems, one of which is broken.  So we're using the "emergency heat" in both -- the electric coils -- more than we should.  Thus the ceiling fans, which keep the air circulating enough to get by on the one system that works.  Without the ceiling fans, the front part of the house is uncomfortable, and the moisture starts taking its toll on the walls, etc.  With fans running, the rear house AC set at 78F keeps the front of the house just cool and dry enough.  Our electric bill now is a bit lower than when both systems were working.

I doubt the fans are using more than 15-20W each at low speed.  It would be interesting to find out for sure.

When we can afford it, I'll probably replace both systems with a single mini-split with 2-4 heads.  The system that works now is old enough to die any time, so it makes sense to replace both.

Of course, the thing to fix right now is the hot water leak, if that's what we have.

[Highbeam]

How could your power company possibly know how much each of your appliances use? At best, they are making huge assumptions based on current technology. Those of us on this forum are not regular users so you can't take their charts too seriously.

Water heaters don't use much at all in your situation.

[Syonyk]

How could your power company possibly know how much each of your appliances use? At best, they are making huge assumptions based on current technology. Those of us on this forum are not regular users so you can't take their charts too seriously.

If you have precise enough power data (which some of the modern smart meters provide), you can have fun with data analysis. ;)

Give me minute by minute power consumption data of a house for a month along with the area weather, and I could tell you an awful lot about the people who live there.

=======

A Kill-a-Watt gizmo is well worth the money for tracking down power draw of appliances.  Leave it plugged in for a few days with anything you're interested in, and you'll have very accurate usage data.

[Spork]

I have kill-a-watt data from most (not all) of my appliances.  I didn't try to measure hardwired things like ceiling fans.

One thing I might point out to OP:  If you don't have a smart meter, you often get estimated readings.  This can make intermediate bills seem either high or low... and then you get a "real" reading... and the bill can swing hard the other way.  My point is: if this is the case, the real data will work itself out over time.

[Rezdent]

Thanks all for your replies.  It turns out our electric company does provide a usage chart, which had some surprises. 

First, the big user besides heat and AC was hot water.  No surprise, except how much -- almost equal.  Now, there are only two of us, and I've really cut back on laundry and showers.  We have a 40 gallon regular electric water heater that's 5-7 years old.  Our water isn't particularly hard, but I will flush it and see what happens.  I really think we have a hot water leak.

Second, and this is the big surprise since we're in the Southeast -- we're actually spending more on heat than AC.  We have two separate heat pump systems, one of which is broken.  So we're using the "emergency heat" in both -- the electric coils -- more than we should.  Thus the ceiling fans, which keep the air circulating enough to get by on the one system that works.  Without the ceiling fans, the front part of the house is uncomfortable, and the moisture starts taking its toll on the walls, etc.  With fans running, the rear house AC set at 78F keeps the front of the house just cool and dry enough.  Our electric bill now is a bit lower than when both systems were working.

I doubt the fans are using more than 15-20W each at low speed.  It would be interesting to find out for sure.

When we can afford it, I'll probably replace both systems with a single mini-split with 2-4 heads.  The system that works now is old enough to die any time, so it makes sense to replace both.

Of course, the thing to fix right now is the hot water leak, if that's what we have.

Our hot water heater was costing a lot even without leaks.  It was keeping water hot 24/7 which was overkill as we only used it early morning and evenings.  We installed a programmable timer to cut down on hours used.  I dont remember the exact numbers atm, but this made a noticeable difference in our bill. We bought the timer on Amazon, made the money back in three months.

[FiftyIsTheNewTwenty]

How could your power company possibly know how much each of your appliances use? At best, they are making huge assumptions based on current technology.

Bingo.  But it may be pretty accurate, especially with a smart meter.

Water heaters don't use much at all in your situation.

Which is why I think we have a leak!  I may try Rezdent's timer idea.

[Spork]

Water heaters don't use much at all in your situation.

Which is why I think we have a leak!  I may try Rezdent's timer idea.

Since it's 240v, my kill-a-watt can't measure the water heater in my shop.  I can tell when it is on, it adds $25-30 a month to the shop's electric bill (at 9.5c per kwh)

[Choices]

1. Have you tried an insulating blanket for your hot water heater and foam wrap for the pipes near it?

2. Your library might also have a kill-a-watt meter available for checkout.

3. Does your power company have any baseline charges built in? Ours has all sorts of taxes and regulatory fees that make the bill high even with minimal usage.

[FiftyIsTheNewTwenty]

1. Have you tried an insulating blanket for your hot water heater and foam wrap for the pipes near it?

2. Your library might also have a kill-a-watt meter available for checkout.

3. Does your power company have any baseline charges built in? Ours has all sorts of taxes and regulatory fees that make the bill high even with minimal usage.

1.  Not yet.  The case is hardly warm -- very well insulated.  But the pipes are copper, and they conduct heat right out.  I've read that doing the first 6 feet can make a huge difference, about half as much as doing all of it.

2.  I had no idea!  I'll check.

3.  Yes, but I don't know how much.  Previous places I've lived had $18-25 baselines.  I rarely made it above -- in no-AC-required SoCal.  In other places it was included in my rent.

[Spork]

1. Have you tried an insulating blanket for your hot water heater and foam wrap for the pipes near it?

2. Your library might also have a kill-a-watt meter available for checkout.

3. Does your power company have any baseline charges built in? Ours has all sorts of taxes and regulatory fees that make the bill high even with minimal usage.

1.  Not yet.  The case is hardly warm -- very well insulated.  But the pipes are copper, and they conduct heat right out.  I've read that doing the first 6 feet can make a huge difference, about half as much as doing all of it.

2.  I had no idea!  I'll check.

3.  Yes, but I don't know how much.  Previous places I've lived had $18-25 baselines.  I rarely made it above -- in no-AC-required SoCal.  In other places it was included in my rent.

On #2... I have no problem with you borrowing one from the library, but I'll also mention:  They're pretty cheap.  They're under $20 from Amazon.  And they're actually pretty darn useful.  For appliances that cycle off and on a lot, it is a really nice way to tally up average usage over time.

They're also really nice if you have a generator.  You can set it to display Hz and dial in the generator to the exact right RPM.

[wienerdog]

Here is what a days use looks like.  At 22:00 it is the AC unit running along with the well pump cycling on and off.  The big spike at 6:55 is the water heater during and after a shower.  It also came on at 10:35 to keep water at temp.  It came on again at 17:10 from washing hands at the sink after rooting around outside in the dirt.  At 15:00 the attic fan was turned on to move some hot air from the house.

[KarefulKactus15]

Was very enlightening.

Pun intended?

Omg I finally just now got that.  No pun intended, but it does fit nicely