There are many factors that contribute to the number on your energy bill. Was there a heat wave that caused you to crank up your A/C unit? Did your college student come home with bags and bags of laundry? Do you run your dishwasher every night? Home appliances can use lots of energy, and the more you use each appliance, the higher your energy bills will be. Paying attention to the energy usage for your appliances can help homeowners save energy and cut costs.
You’ll want to first look at the wattage, or the maximum energy required to power the appliance. It’s often listed on the bottom or back of most appliances. Here’s how much energy these common home appliances use.
HVAC
Homeowners use a lot of energy to stay warm in the winter and keep cool in the summer. Compared to other appliances, heating and air conditioning systems are some of the biggest energy users. Find out the energy usage for your HVAC systems.
Furnace
Ohio winters can be brutal—and so can the amount of energy required to combat the cold. Electric furnaces typically need 15,000 watts or more.
Air conditioner
Air conditioning units are notorious for running up energy bills in the summer. Central air conditioning units use about 3,000 watts. Window and wall units typically use between 730 and 1,800 watts.
Kitchen
From your oven to your refrigerator, here’s how much energy kitchen appliances use.
Oven
Whether you love to bake or just love eating baked goods, ovens depend on lots of energy. Ovens typically use about 2,300 watts. To use the self-cleaning feature, you’ll need about 6,000 watts.
Microwave
Microwave ovens are great for making popcorn, reheating leftovers, and quick dinners. They’re also great for saving energy, when compared to convection and conventional ovens. About 120 watts are needed for every five minutes you use your microwave.
Toaster
Don’t you just love the smell of toast? You’ll also love how much energy this appliance uses. Toasting two slices of bread uses about 40 watts, compared to a toaster oven, which uses about 750 watts.
Refrigerator
Is your refrigerator running? When it comes to energy consumption, it’s no joke for this home appliance. Because it’s using electricity all the time, refrigerators can be one of the biggest drivers of energy usage on your bills. For older units, refrigerators use about 150,000 watts. Newer units like Energy Star refrigerators use between 34,000 to 60,000 watts.
Dishwasher
Regardless of how frequently you run the dishwasher, different cycles require different amounts of energy. A normal cycle (not including the energy needed for hot water) uses about 1,000 to 2,170 watts per load. Choosing the energy saver cycle, which air dries the dishes, dramatically lowers the energy usage to about 500 watts per load.
Coffee Maker
Choosing to brew your coffee at home is certainly an easy way to save money—even when you calculate the energy usage. Coffee makers use about 120 watts per brew, but more energy will be required if you keep the warmer on.
Laundry
Washing and drying clothes is a big energy suck, so it’s best to only wash and dry full loads of laundry. Here’s how much energy your washer and dryer use.
Washing machine
Washing with hot water not only damages your clothes, it also requires a lot of energy. It takes about 6,300 watts to wash your clothes with hot water, compared to the 2,300 watts needed for a cold wash.
Dryer
Depending on the load and heat setting, a clothes dryer uses about 2,500 to 4,000 watts per load.
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