Understanding your household appliance usage
There are a number of factors that determine your electricity bill, so it can often require a bit of digging to understand the main culprits of your household energy usage.
The Energy Rating website is a terrific place to start when it comes to understanding electricity consumption and subsequent running costs of the major appliances in your home.
Alongside a stack of interesting insights into how their rating system works, there's an awesome tool where you can enter the specific appliance models used in your home, to calculate consumption and running costs #Winning
Appliance use in the kitchen
Fridges
Fridge electricy consumption varies greatly depending on the size and efficiency of your fridge, showing how important it is to consider the efficiency rating and how big a fridge is when you’re on the hunt for a new one.
| Fridge Size | Typical annual energy consumption (kWh) |
| 100-199 litres | 358 |
| 200-299 litres | 410 |
| 300 - 399 litres | 490 |
| 400 - 499 litres | 495 |
| 500 - 599 litres | 738 |
Source: South Australian Government. Costs based on electricity price of 33c/kWh.
Ovens
The type of electric ovens most Aussie households will be familiar with are generally about 600mm wide, with a capacity of 60L .
An average 600mm oven usually has between 2kW and 8kW capacity, menaing those delicious roast dinners can quickly add up if you’re not careful. Using an oven at the lower end of the power spectrum(2.3kW), you can expect to use around 5 kWh for every hour of cooking.
With this said, given that a lot of meals take less than an hour to cook, you might find your electricity costs ‘not so bad’ after all.
Source: Canstar Blue
Appliance use in the laundry
Washing Machine
As with your fridge, choosing the right size washing machine is an important step in achieving your energy saving goals.
Many people now favour cold wash cycles for the majority of their washing, as this can reduce washing machine energy usage by up to 80 per cent.
Energy rating labels are a useful indicator as to the costs of using certain large appliances. The more stars a model has, the cheaper it is to run. In fact, the energy rating website claims that each star represents a 27% cut in the running costs.
You'l also notice that washing machines have a ‘water rating’ label. Each half-star represents 10 litres of water savings on a regular load, so once again, the more stars a washing machine has, the less water it uses.
For more on the specific running costs for the different type of washing machines, check out the following guide.
Source: Canstar Blue
Clothes Dryer
When it comes to drying your precious clothes, using on an indoor rack or the clothesline should always be your first option, as dryers are one of the more notorious energy-drainers full stop and our high level advice is to simply try and stop using it, especially in a sunny country such as Australia.
If you do require the dryer in your household, here's how you can gauge the expected annual running cost.
Appliance use in the living room
TV Usage
It goes without saying the exact amount of electricity a TV uses will depend considerably on how much you use it. But we also know from the data that your choice of technology will make a massive difference too.
These days most new TVs that use LED technology, are much more efficient. Based on a daily usage of four hours a day, a 32-inch LED TV can use around 50 kWh/year, a 42-inch LED TV will use 80 kWh/year, and a 70-inch screen will use 150 kWh/year.
Of course, these figures are just a guide, however no matter what, it can pay to monitor the humble TV’s energy consumption and ensure you’re switching the TV off at the wall when it’s not being used.
Source: Canstar Blue