Household Appliances That Use Too Much Power

Are you the type of person who dreads getting your power bill each month? Do you wonder why it can fluctuate so much from month to month? Electricity bills don’t have to be so scary when you understand how they’re calculated.

The majority of power used by a household is with heating and cooling, which depending on the region you live in, can be tricky to control. The rest of the bill is taken up with lighting and appliance use, the latter of which use more energy.

An easy way to see how much power an appliance uses is by looking at the appliance. There will be a label to see its wattage and the higher the wattage, the more electricity is consumed. Let’s look at the household appliances that use too much power:

1) Water Heater

Though technically not an appliance, a water heater consumes a great deal of power because it has to constantly keep approximately 50 gallons of water constantly hot so that when you turn on your tap, you have instant hot water.

In addition to that, there are many things that we do on a regular basis that consume a lot of hot water. A shower for instance, uses up to 3 gallons of hot water a minute. Even typical personal usage can be up to 5 gallons a day.

2) Electric Clothes Dryer

Even though an electric clothes dryer isn’t on continually, when it is in use, it consumes a lot of power. Electricity is needed to power the motor to spin the drum, heat the air and power the blower through which the heated air flows.

If the clothes you are drying are extremely soaked and heavy, the longer your dryer will run, using up more energy.

3) Washing Machine

The majority of power used by a washing machine is just in heating the water. When hot water is used, it draws the water as-is from the hot water heater. If cold water is used, the less energy a washing machine will use.

Front-load or top-load machines are very different in how much energy they consume. A top-load washer uses much more because it has to fill the entire washing tub with water. A front-load only uses enough water to wet the clothes, not immerse them.

4) Refrigerator

A refrigerator uses power all the time just simply for the fact that it is plugged in, but consumes even more when the compressor comes on. The compressor is the unit which keeps the fridge at constant cold temperature. When it starts to warm, the compressor comes on to cool it.

5) Electric Oven

Like a fridge, an electric oven uses a bit of power all the time, especially if it comes with a clock feature. When the oven is on, the amount of electricity consumed depends on the temperature and length of time it takes to cook or bake the food.

The above items are the ones which typically use too much power, but there are other factors which determine consumption, such as age of appliance or even which brand.

What are some tricks you use to reduce power usage?

By: Kole McRae for Green My Tires