Everyone gets their electric bill every month and pays it thinking, ok that’s taken care of. Maybe you look at the total KWH used that month compared with other months and think about how your air conditioning drives your bill up in the summertime. But no one knows how much each appliance contributes to that total? If you want to save money and energy where can you save the most? Well I was looking at a site that lists these costs today and thought I would share.
- I think if people knew it costs $4 bucks in electricity to run all their dishwasher cycles (not including water costs) they might hold off until it’s a little more full.
- And if they knew it cost $3 bucks in electricity to brew coffee every day that they will only drink one cup out of, they might just buy instant coffee that doesn’t require a coffeemaker and is good for making just one cup.
- Or if they knew that a garage stand alone freezer will cost them $75 bucks in electricity a year to run, they might not buy one and might figure a way to get by with buying just what they can eat within a few weeks and just use the regular one in the kitchen.
All these things add up and they don’t just hurt the environment, they hurt your finances too. My appologies for the copy paste, but I just think it’s important to get this info out there. Check out the list from the US dept of energy.
Typical Energy Costs for Household Appliances |
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| EQUIPMENT | MONTHLY EXPENDITURE | ANNUAL EXPENDITURE | COST PER USE |
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| HEATING | |||
| Electric Furnace | $90 for 90 hours | $270 for 270 hours | 80¢ – $1.20 /hour |
| Pilot Light | $3 | $36 | 8-11 ¢/day |
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| COOLING & VENTILATION | |||
| Central Air Conditioner | |||
 ENERGY STAR-labeled |
$35 for 7 hrs/day (in the summer) | $140 for 900 hrs/yr | 13-19 ¢/hour |
| Evaporative Cooler (”Swamp Cooler”) | $1.50 for 40 hrs (in the summer) | $6 for 150 hrs | 3-5 ¢/hour |
| Portable Fan | $1 for 100 hrs/mo (in the summer) | $3 | 1 ¢/hour |
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| KITCHEN | |||
| Gas Range | $1.50, assuming 1 hr/day | $18 | 5 ¢/hr, per burner |
| Gas Oven | $2.80 for 40 hrs | $35 for 500 hrs | 6-8 ¢/hr |
| Dishwasher | $4.50 for 1 cycle/day | $54 for 360 cycles | 13-18 ¢/cycle |
| Refrigerator | |||
| Typical 1990 model |
$6 | $70 | 19 ¢/day |
| Energy Star-labeled 2000 model |
$3.50 | $43 | 12 ¢/day |
| Stand-Alone Freezer | |||
| Typical 1997 model |
$3 | $35 | 8-11 ¢/day |
| Toaster | 10¢, assuming 1 use/day | $1.20, assuming 1 use/day | 0.3-0.4¢ |
| Coffee Maker | $3-4, assuming 1 use/day | $44, assuming 1 use/day | 10-14 ¢/brew |
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| LAUNDRY | |||
| Note: Expenditures for dryers and clothes washers assume 1 load per day. | |||
| Gas Clothes Dryer | $4 | $47 | 10-16¢/load |
| Clothes Washer w/ electric water heater: | |||
| warm wash & cold rinse |
$7.50 | $93 | 20-30¢/load |
| Clothes Washer w/ gas water heater: | |||
| warm wash & cold rinse |
$2.70 | $33 | 8-10¢/load |
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| LIGHTING | |||
| Light bulb, single | |||
| 18-watt fluorescent |
21¢ for 150 hrs | $2.50 for 1825 hrs | 0.1 ¢/hr |
| 300-watt halogen |
$3.50 for 150 hrs | $42 for 1825 hrs | 2 ¢/hr |
| Total lighting cost, typical house | $9 | $107 | 25-50¢/day |
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| WATER HEATING | |||
| Conventional electric water heater | $32 | $390 | 90¢-$1.30/day |
| Oil Water Heater | $19 | $230 | 60-75¢/day |
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| HOME ENTERTAINMENT | |||
| VCR | 5¢, assuming 2 movies/wk | $1 | under 1 ¢/movie |
| Stereo, Component System | $1-$1.50, assuming 10 hrs/wk | $15, assuming 520 hrs/yr | 2-4¢/hr |
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| OTHER/MISCELLANEOUS | |||
| Aquarium | $2-$4, assuming 10 hrs/day | $40 | 6-10¢/day (10 hrs on/day) |
| Cordless Phone | 16¢ | $1.90 | n/a |
Having an electrical engineer who works for the power company as a father is what makes me conscience of power consumption. Electric motors and heaters are the big power suckers. Most electrical items list out how many watts they use.
There are also devices to measure usage. (via SpudArt)
Our electric and water are separate. I was wondering if you had any idea of the cost of leaving your outside spiket on for two weeks? Without realizing it, I left it on (it has a hose and nozzle attached to it)unfortunatly did not realize it for two weeks. I live in Live Oak Florida. I am afraid i may have run up a very high bill because of my forgetfulness. You seem to be very knowledgable and I would appreciate any information you could send my way to help me with this dilema.
Thank you Sharon Fischer
Hi Sharon,
Thanks for your comment. In order to calculate that you would need 2 pieces of information that I do not have. One would be the price you pay per gallon for water. You can get this from past water bills. Second you then have to estimate how many gallons ran out the hose in those 2 weeks. If you have those 2 numbers you can multiply the gallons by the price and find out your answer.
[...] the average household does about 400 loads of laundry per year. On average, that will cost about $93 per year in energy [...]
[...] Energy costs for washing and drying one load every other day are probably $150/yr for 2.5 years (based on the high end of the estimate given here and here). [...]
As for not using a stand alone freezer and buying only what can be eaten in a few weeks. That means more trips to the store to purchase food that I currently can get from my freezer. Those extra trips are by car and that means burning more gasoline. Not so sure that saving $75 per year is the wise move in this case, not only financially but from the enviormental stand point as well.
i would like to know how much does it cost to leave a 42 in tv on all night
I’d just like to point out that at the beginning I believe the cost per use was confused with the monthly expenditure. If you look at the table you’ll see that a dishwasher is listed at 13-18 cents per load, and a coffee maker is listed at 10-14 cents per brew. Although I do agree with your general point that we should be more careful and make sure we run full loads, turn off lights, etc. it’s not quite as excessive as you stated.