View Single Post
Old 09-14-10, 01:29 PM   #1
RobertSmalls
Journeyman EcoRenovator
 
RobertSmalls's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2009
Location: Buffalo, NY
Posts: 344
Thanks: 3
Thanked 17 Times in 15 Posts
Default Electricity usage breakdown by appliance



My monthly usage in KWh is posted above. In the absence of use of A/C, furnace, or grid charging my car, I'm using 84-110KWh/mo. Btw, my bill ranges from $26-$36, which includes the $16/mo service charge.

In the interest of figuring out where I spend the ~100KWh/mo I use, I created a quick and dirty spreadsheet based on KaW readings. It breaks down the measurable electricity consumers in my house and how many KWh each uses in a month.



Column A is total KWh for a 30.5 day month. I populate either column C for items where I measured Watts, or D and E for items where I measured KWh. You can see the formula for cell A15 in the formula bar. Column C is also very close to $/yr @ $0.12/KWh.

Excluding charging my car, I was able to account for 68KWh/mo, which is about two thirds of my usage. The rest of it must be mostly power tools and cooking.

Illumination: I figured four bulb-hours a day, times 13W per bulb. YMMV, but illumination really is a tiny contributor to my electric usage. If I want to make a dent in my electric consumption, I need to look elsewhere. The fridge seems like the easiest target, as it uses about a third of my electricity. Powering down my PC and internet when it's not in use would save another third, but I'm not going to do that.

I have a natural gas clothes dryer and hot water heater, so the total energy consumption of the dishwasher, laundry, and showers are not fully captured here.

RobertSmalls is offline   Reply With Quote