Electricity Costs......?

Question

Probably a daft question, but how much does it cost to run things at home? For Example: i have a electric fan which is rated 35w, how much does it cost average per hour to run...

and if a item says, 12w, does that reduce on standby, or is that always 12 watts used??

Thanks for your answers

Answer 1

The power company charges you 'per kw hr.'  = maybe 10 cents ??? I've no idea, really ... I'm going to assume 10c per kw/hr for discussion below ..

This means you get charged 10c for each 1,000 watts used for each hour.

SO, IF you only use 100w for an hour (or 1000w for 1/10th of an hour = 6 mins) you only get charged 1cent = the cost of each hour for each 100w electric light bulb (so if you have eg. 10 lights on, then you are burning power at 10cents an hour)

Now you can start to work out costs .. a 35w fan will work out at 35/1000 x 10 = 1/3rd of a cent per hour ..

Your kettle is likley to be 2kw .. so it costs 20 cents an hour .. but if it only takes 3 mins to boil a kettle of water, it's only on for 1/20th hr. so it only costs 1 cent ..

Power supply bricks are difficult to work out = a 12w power brick will likley deliver less than 12w and maybe less than 1w on standby .. same with a TV ...

You PC is likley to be rated at 500w or so - but chances are it uses only half of that .. even so, that's 250/100 x 10 = 2 & half cents an hour

These costs may seem low, but when you start leaving lights, TV's and PC's on for 24hrs at a time it soon mounts up ..

Answer 2

Low wattage equipment has a negligible effect on your total electric billl.

Answer 3

You can use this formula to estimate an appliance's energy use:

Wattage × Hours used per day × Days used per year ÷ 1000 = Kilowatt-hour (kWh) consumption per year

For example: Personal computer (120 Watts) and monitor (150 Watts)

(120 Watts + 150 Watts) × 24 hours per day × 365 days per year ÷ 1000 = 2365 kWh/year **

**figures used assume computer and monitor are left on at all times

Then, calculate the annual cost to run an appliance by multiplying the kWh per year by your electricity rate per kWh consumed.

2365 kWh × $0.049 (sample residential rate) = $115.88 per year

You can usually find the wattage of most appliances stamped on the bottom or back of the appliance, or on its nameplate.The wattage listed is the maximum power drawn by the appliance. Since many appliances have a range of settings(hairdryers), the actual amount of power consumed depends on the setting used at any one time.