How to Calculate the Cost Per Year of an Appliance

It is important to know the amount of energy an appliance uses.

It is important to many people to know how much the yearly cost of energy usage is for the appliances in their home. Knowing this number may help in reducing energy costs by running some appliances fewer hours in the day. For instance you may find that you can combine smaller loads to wash fewer loads of clothes overall, thereby saving electricity. Some appliances, like refrigerators must remain running in order to keep food fresh. But it may pay to replace a refrigerator that is using an inordinate amount of energy.

Things You'll Need

• Calculator

Instructions

1. Locate the electrical specifications label on the appliance. The tag contains a number followed by a w for watts or kw for kilowatts (thousands of watts). Write down the number. Convert the watts to kilowatts by dividing the number by a thousand using a calculator. Do nothing if the number is already in kilowatts.

2. Estimate the number of hours that the appliance runs in an average day.

3. Multiply the number of hours that the appliance runs per day by its kilowatt usage using a calculator. The result of this operation gives you the kilowatt hours of the appliance per day. Multiply that result by 365 to get the number of kilowatt hours that the appliance uses per year.

4. Find the cost of your electricity per kilowatt hour. This information is located on your electric bill and marked as kwh.

5. Multiply the yearly kilowatt hours used by the appliance by the cost per kilowatt hour of electricity from your bill. This result is the energy cost per year of the appliance.