Cost of running your applicances

Thanks Darryl, bookmarked and will test later in the week. Always wondered what its costing me when the kids leave everything on in the house:rolleyes:
 
it is worth noting that many appliances dont draw their full rated power (watts) all the time..... that power rating is the MAXIMUM power consumption the appliance has.

Best way to work out how much your appliances are costing you to run is to install one of these:

http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID=MS6160&keywords=ms6160&form=KEYWORD

... and then you can see how much your whole house is costing you to run.

Realistically, the most costly appliances in your household are:
- air con
- hot water service
- pool pump (if you have a pool)
- halogen downlights
- other household lighting
- fridge
- electric cooktop
- oven

These appliances above will make up for typically 60-90% of your typical household power bill. In fact, a typical pool pump alone will cost you upwards of $100/quarter to run, just to give you an idea.

Best ways to save power/$$ on your power bill
- run your aircon less
- keep your fridge full (the cold food acts as cold brick inside the fridge, hence the fridge has to work less to keep itself cool)
- minimise use of halogen downlights, or use them on a dimmer
- turn your lights off
- use low power lighting alternatives, like energy savers and LED lighting alternatives
 
there was a show on tv that showed if you instal the special box that then tells you what you have on and how much they are costing you to run, then it really makes you aware to shut things off or its burning money uneccesarilly.
 
This is part of the "Guilt Industry". The more they can make you feel guilty the more you accept higher charges/taxes.

Have any of you noticed your council/state/fed government go on a diet and seriously try to reduce wastage of water or power? Overpaying for a Prius for the deputy Mayor to drive does not count. :D

My Mac uses 1 watt in "sleep" mode. I can afford that. I am NOT saying you should throw away whatever you have now and buy one. When what you have reaches the end of it's life, consider this as just one of the many things that are important to you.

Unplugging power packs for your phone etc makes sense. Seems they are a fire hazard so they are switched off in this house.
 
Switch the tv off on the set! The remote "off" is still chewing the power.

Boy, doesn't the wall of plasma tvs give off heat in JB HiFi. *melting* :p

Other pet peeve is people standing at the kitchen bench watching the kettle boil and boil, and boil until it builds up enough steam to click "off". Boiled is boiled! Kettles have a high wattage and use a lot of energy. I put boiled water into a thermos to top up my tea cup/pot. Less electricity than if I boiled each and every time I want a top up.... being environmental and getting my anti oxidents, I drink a lot of jasmine tea :p
 
Unplugging power packs for your phone etc makes sense. Seems they are a fire hazard so they are switched off in this house.

not anymore
the old ones that were based on transformers were
the modern ones (small and light ones) are all switchmodes so they are both energy efficient and don't heat up so much that they can cause fire
 
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