I got bored one day and decided to look into why the bills from our Electricity company were so large. I came across a handy wee gadget which is a mains power meter. You simply plug it into the mains socket and then plug your appliance into it. It has a LCD display that shows you the Voltage, Amps, Watts, Max Watts, KWh and you can program in your current electricity price per KW and it will auto matically calculate how much that particular appliance has cost you to have on.
I decided to do some tests around the appliances in my house and this is what i come up with.
Prices are in NZD and based on the current charge from Contact energy of 0.19c per unit. The prices shown are calculated at 25c per unit and that allows for GST and meter charges etc. Months are calculated at 30days.
1 Unit of electricty is equal to 1000Watts or 1KW
There is another website i found from a guy in NZ that has done far deeper research than what i have and he worked out that for his house alone he was wasting $400 odd dollars a year in leaving appliances on standyby. So far my readings have determined that the largest consummer of electricty in my house on a daily basis is my waterbed. I used to always think they ran at about 20cents a day but they don't , mine is 90cents a day but its one of the items i wouldnt trade for the world so i dont mind paying for it.
| Appliance | Watts in standby | Watts during usage | Total Consumption in 24Hours | Price per month | Price per day |
| Queeen sized waterbed | 0 | 328 | 3.6 KW | $27 | 90c |
| Russel Hobbs Jug | 71Watts in simmer mode 7watts on standby |
2187 | |||
| Westinghouse fridge/freezer | 22 watts just fan going | 108watts | 1.7KW | $12.75 | 42c |
| Deep freezer - 50litre | 0 | 110 - Max was 396 | 1.2KW | $9.00 | 30c |
| 32" Sony triniton TV | 21 | 80 | (on for 9hours a day) 720w | $5.40 | 18c |
| Sony surround sound /DVD player | 0 | 26 | (on for 9 hours a day) 234w | $1.70 | 0.05c |
| Sky decoder | 12 | 12 | (on for 9 hours a day) 108w | 81c | 0.027c |
| TV,DVD,Sky,14w lamp | 33 | 130 | (on for 9 hours a day) 1.17KW | $8.80 | 29c |
| TV,DVD,Sky,14w Lamp | 33 | 130 | (on for 9 hours and standby for 15 hours ) 1665w | $12.50 | 41c |
| My wifes 1.8Ghz atx pc with printer, dual monitors, sub and speakers | 45 | average of 97 | 2.328KW | $17.46 | 58c |
| My wifes pc as above | 45 | average of 97 | (on for 12 hours, standby for 12) 1.7KW | $12.75 | 42c |
| My wifes pc as above | 45 | average of 97 | (on for 12 hours, unplugged for 12) 1164w | $8.73 | 29c |
| My PC , dual monitors, network switch, 2.08Ghz atx pc, surround sound system and loads of other stuff plugged into it | average of 93 | ( on for 9 hours a day) 837w | $6.27 | 20c | |
| Pump house - Water pump | 0 | 875 | 700w | $5.25 | 17.5c |
| 5 * 14w CFL light bulbs | 0 | 14w each = 70w | 840w for 12hours | $6.30 | 21.5c |
| Washing Machine - Samsung SW65ASP- 3 star energy rating. | 0 | 728 | 0.1KW to do a heavy cold wash that took 59min | 0.3cents | |
| Fisher & Pykel Dish draw dish washer | 7w | cant recall because i forgot to write the readings down when i tested it. I do recall that the wash was a heavy cycle that took just under 2 hours to complete | just under 2 hours it cost only 20cents to do a heavy load of dishes in the dish washer | 20cents |
I will say that saving $4 a month for switching just 1 appliance off when not in use doesnt sound like alot but if you have 4 appliances that save about $4 each then work it out over a year or 2 and it sounds alot worse hehe
EG: 1 appliaance saves $4 a month if switched off when not in use ( like my PC or Home theatre system )
then 4 appliances saves $16 a month if switched off when not in use
thats $16 * 12months = $192 a year or $576 for nothing over three years
So far based on what i have tested if i turn the home entertainment system, wifes pc and my pc off at the wall when not in use i will save around $144 a year in electricity, that means registration for one car is almost free for the year, or... thats almost 4 * 24packs of beer. At the moment since i've been monitoring the KW i average 20 KW a day usage, so far i can only account for 12.5KW so i'm still looking for things to test.
I haven't listed the hot water because that is on a seperate meter and is not apart of the 20KW per day average
Updated 24-Aug-2008
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