The electricity usage of a household might differ due to country, lifestyle and climate. For example, if you live in the United States of America, then your house might consume between 10,000 and 15,000 kWh per year. The average electricity usage of a house can be as low as 500 kWh per month or as high as 1,200 kWh per month. Of course, if you have a very large house, then the electricity usage might be as high as 2,000 kWh per month or even more.

How much energy does my house consume?

It will be easy to check if you receive an energy bill from your power utility company. The energy bill will show how much electricity your house uses every month. You can use this to calculate average monthly and annual usage.

How many watts does my household appliances use?

A quick reminder on what is a kilowatt-hour. One kWh equals the amount of energy required to run a 1,000 watt appliance for one hour. For example, a 1,000 watt electric motor will use about 1 kWh to run for one hour.

You will need to make a list of all your appliances and then check the labels of each gadget to find the wattage. Write down the numbers for each appliance.

The most energy hungry appliances in your house are probably those responsible for either heating or cooling. This includes the hot water geyser, furnace fan, electric oven, dishwasher, refrigerator, freezer and the central air conditioning system. If you do not get water from a municipal system, then the well water pump will also use a significant amount of electricity.

For example, here is a table with the approximate wattage required by common household devices. I will list both the rated watts and the surge watts. Please note that only items that require more power to start will have a higher surge watts when compared to running watts.

As indicated in the list above, the most energy hungry devices are the central air conditioning unit, electric oven, water heater, dishwasher and washing machine.

Tips To Reduce Energy Usage In Your Home

The simplest way to use less energy in your home is to turn off the light when you leave a room.

Moreover, you should consider plugging in your electronic devices into a power strip so that you can use the switches to turn off gadgets that are not in use, yet are still using a tiny amount of standby power.

Furthermore, look out for appliances that are very efficient at using energy. Most appliances these days have energy ratings to guide you in your purchase.

The geyser is on, but there is nobody home. Remember to turn off your geyser before going on vacation and to turn it back on when you get back home.

Conclusion

In brief, an average house might consume about 1,000 kWh per month or about 12,000 kWh per year. However, for a larger house (3,000 square feet) this figure might double or even triple. Therefore, it is very important to be aware of the overall power consumption of your house, as indicated on your monthly utility bill. Then you can take steps to reduce your electricity usage where possible. Furthermore, you will be able to calculate how much emergency backup power your household needs during an inevitable power cut due to bad weather or poor maintenance.

Photo by Clay Elliot on Unsplash.