All appliances use power. But some use a considerable amount more than others.
So, how do you know which are the power-hungry beasts you should be avoiding?
The ones that use the most usually follow this pattern. There is generally a correlation with the amount of heat generated. Next in line would be the appliances that generate motion, then lastly those that generate light.
Obviously, some of those appliances are a necessity, regardless of their energy consumption. So, how do you know which alternatives are good?
Today, we’ll be discussing a few quick changes you can make to the appliances that you use around your home to save a pretty penny.
The Power Hungry Appliances You Should Avoid
Big Ticket Items
You probably already know that one of the major power sucking appliances is the dryer. This one does the double whammy, generating both a lot of motion and a lot of heat. It can use up to 75 kWh/month.
Obviously with the wet and miserable winter months that New Zealand is famous for, sometimes using the dryer is unavoidable.
Whenever possible, using the heat from other appliances around the house can be a great alternative. Rather than putting both the dryer and heater on, hanging your clothes on a rack adjacent to the heater is a great way to try to save power.
Furthermore, throwing clothes on top of the hot water cylinder overnight is another great way to cut down on dryer usage. In the event that neither does the trick, you will at least have done half the job, and can run the dryer for a shorter cycle to finish.
Heaters
Space heaters are another item that draws a lot of power. Space heaters are purposefully designed to be energy inefficient in order to leak heat into the spaces around your home. These appliances can draw up to and over 1500W.
A common mistake that people make is using these heaters inside of the bedroom. The next time that you’re at your local Countdown or Warehouse, look into buying an electric blanket which could use 10% of the power. Used in the bedroom around your body, you’ll feel just as warm, with a tenth of the energy price tag.
There are also lots of other energy efficient heating options you can choose to heat your home, fireplaces and heat pumps are both good options.
Little Lights, Big Bills
As mentioned before, objects around the home that give off light usually rank last in the amount of power used. But have you ever felt an incandescent bulb after it has been on for a while? Piping hot.
The big swap to LED lighting is a sure-fire way to save hundreds of dollars per year after the initial investment. Assuming you are someone that rouses early and turns a few lights on, and uses lights for most hours of the evening, there are great savings to be made. At a rate of 8 hours per day, using eight 50W bulbs, this is roughly 3.2kWh per day and costing $300 per year. Eight LED bulbs would absolutely smash this bill down to 384Wh per day, costing $40 per year.
Combining this with the fact LED bulbs generally have a 25x longer lifespan than incandescent bulbs, this is a no-brainer for anyone wanting to cut costs on power.
Cooking Up A Storm
The oven is probably one of the most useful appliances in your kitchen. But, they do consume a lot of electricity when used.
Now, we aren’t saying to stop using your oven. You can use it in an efficient way to save power though. Check your deals to ensure no heat is escaping and make sure you aren’t setting the thermostat too high. Try to combine your cooking also. Rather than running the oven during the day to bake and then again at night for dinner, combine it into one cooking event.
You may also find an item like an air fryer can work as an alternative. Healthy and halving your cook time, an air fryer is a great option for cutting down on power use.
Detective Work
‘Disconnect your appliances when you turn them off to save power’. This common advice floats around but is oftentimes never followed. Why? Well, as it turns out, most appliances do not use a lot of electricity when switched off. But there are a couple that you should be keeping an eye on.
Laptops. Your computer can’t reliably stay off unless you switch it off. No hibernate mode, no shutting the lid. If you’re a serial YouTube-before-bed watcher, each night you shut the lid and don’t turn the computer off fully, you could be racking up the power usage.
The same could be said for phone chargers, especially third party phone chargers that did not come with your device. Leaving your phone plugged in overnight will result in a fully charged battery in the monring, but it might use more power than necessary. Some chargers keep drawing power even when the phone is fully charged.
The Appliance Low Down
So, which appliances should you avoid? In summary, if an appliance is hot or moves around, think more carefully about your options. Use heat emission as an indicator of power usage and evaluate how you use that appliance. Also, look at the energy star rating for each device.
If you’re after a certified electrician to evaluate options for anything electrical, whether it's heating or lighting, give Retrolec a call today.
