Electricity is the most visible form of energy that is crucial for improved living standards as people use it on a day-to-day basis for lighting, heating, cooling, and to keep household appliances running, hence it is an essential part of modern life.
Factors that affect your home’s electricity usage
In order to figure out why your house uses more or less energy than the national average, it helps to first understand the factors that influence your consumption. These include:
- How big the house is as big residential homes consume more power depending on the number of rooms that need to be powered and the number of lights that the house has. Lighting uses a significant amount of electricity, especially if the lights are on for a longer period. larger homes tend to consume more energy than smaller homes because it takes more energy to heat and cool a bigger space.
- The number of people living in the house also increases electricity usage, whether they’re charging phones, cooking meals, heating or cooling everyone uses energy in the home. So, the more people that live in your home, the higher your average household electricity consumption will be per day. More people in the house result in increased household energy through their purchase of electrical appliances and through their continuous use of these appliances.
- The type and number of the appliances also determine the amount of energy used in the home. There can be a wide range of different appliances in use in a household and these appliances will have a range of different power
consumptions.
Standby appliances, in particular, consumer electronic equipment such as televisions, radios, and decoders have three basic modes of operation: in use; on standby; or switched off. Standby use occurs when an appliance is not in use but is still consuming power. Appliances can be on standby even when they appear to be switched off and the only certain way to prevent them from drawing power is to disconnect their power supply.
Cold appliances, such as fridges and freezers, are in continuous use however they do not draw a constant amount of power. Instead, their power consumption cycles as they can keep your food cold all day the motor does not run all day long.
How to calculate how many kw/h (kilowatts per hour) an appliance uses
You can calculate how much electricity your appliances use with a simple exercise. This can help you figure out how many kWh your house uses per day and where the power goes.
- Make a list of major appliances in your home (refrigerator, washing machine, television, iron, heater e.t.c should be on there…)
- Write down the number of watts consumed by that appliance
- In the next column, write down how many hours a day you use that appliance.
Now calculate the kWh for each appliance, following this example:
Appliance: Refrigerator
Number of Watts: 300 watts
Hours used per day: 8 hours (while it keeps your food cold all day long, the motor is only running about 8 hours a day)
300 watts X 8 hours = 2,400 watt-hours per day
2,400 watt-hours per day / 1000 = 2.4 kWh per day
2.4 kWh per day X 30 days in a month = 72 kWh per month
There are also several online sources and calculators that can help you with this if you prefer that to pen, paper, and calculator!
How to See Your Electricity Usage
When most people look at their electric bill, they just glance at the total to see how much they have to pay that month. Some might look to see if their meter reading matches the one on their home, but very few people look further. Knowing the average electricity consumption of your household per day can help monitor electricity usage so you make educated choices about saving power and lowering your monthly electricity bill.
The easiest way to see how much electricity you use is to simply check your electric bill. Your electricity provider will show the number of kilowatt-hours you use each month. If you are interested in reducing your electricity bill, knowing your kWh usage is the first step. When you’re ready to shop for your next electricity plan, you will be more familiar with your usage patterns and be able to find the perfect electricity plan for your lifestyle.
Tips to save your home electricity
Now that you understand how much energy your house uses you can start thinking about how to limit consumption and save more energy. There are many ways you can save energy in your home and save more on your monthly electricity bill. The most important step is to switch to solar to enable you to save more money and use renewable energy. Solar systems help you change your energy habits as the heavy appliances would be used on the national grid and the appliances that use less power will be used on solar such as home entertainment devices and refrigerators will less wattage will be used on solar.
5kva Bulawayo residential solar system that can power 40+ LED lights, 2 BY LED TVs, WiFi, phone charging, laptops, Full Upright Fridge/ Deep Freezer, Security Lights, 2 High-End Fridge, booster Pump 1hp, 1HP Borehole Pump, Limited Ironing
Taqon Electrico offers different types and sizes of solar systems depending on your energy requirements and budget. we install backup solar systems that charge batteries with the national grid without panels and those that use panels to charge the batteries to give you access to affordable and reliable energy.
Contact us for all your solar system design and installation services.
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