How To Calculate Power Consumption Of
Any Appliance
Ever wonder how much electricity does the light bulb in your kitchen consumes or how much
power does your TV consume.In this article we will see how to calculate power consumption of
household appliances.
To calculate power consumption of any appliance, you have to multiply it’s wattage by the
number of hours it is being used (operational hours).
For example, a 1000 watt electric iron running for one hour will consume (1000 watt X 1
hour) 1000 watt hour or 1 kilowatt hour (kWh) of electricity. Similarly to calculate the
monthly power consumption multiply the daily power consumption by 30 days and for
annual power consumption multiply the daily power consumption by 365 days.
Before we start with the calculation there are few things you need to know
Things To Know Before Calculating Power Consumption of
an any appliance:
1. Wattage Of The Appliance: Wattage is the rated power of the appliance. For example a
LED TV wattage ranges from 50 watt to 200 watt. Wattage gives us an indicator of the
rate at which the appliance will consume power. From the above example a 50 watt
television will not consume 50 units of electricity, instead it means the TV will consume
electricity at 50 watts per hour.
2. Operational Hours: Operational hours is the number of hours a device is in operation.
For example if you want to measure power consumed by your ceiling fan in 5 hours, the
operational hours is 5 hours.
3. Kilowatt Hours: Kilowatt hours (kWh) is the unit of power. This is the value we want to
calculate our electricity provider charges us for every kWh (unit) of electricity our house
consumes.
To know your operational hours is pretty easy but what about wattage, let’s see how to find
wattage of any appliance.
How To Calculate Wattage Of An Appliance:
Every electrical appliance we use have a technical specification at the bottom or on it’s back.
You will find the appliance wattage in that sticker.
Wattage Of A Panasonic LCD TV
If for some reason you can’t find the wattage then just go to amazon and search for the appliance
(similar one will also work) and check out it’s wattage from the product description. You can
also go the appliance manufacturer website to get an accurate value.
Wattage of An Hair Dryer
If you don’t want to do any of this then check out this table which I made. It has wattage of over
150 household appliance. Wattage of household appliances.
Calculate An Appliance Power Consumption:
Now that you know the appliance wattage and operational hours lets see how to calculate power
consumption.
Power consumption of an appliance – Wattage X Operational hours
Let’s see some example,
Example 1 : Power consumed by a 100 Watt LED TV running for 24 hours in a day for the
entire month (Netflix Binge Watch !!)


Wattage – 100 Watt
Operational Hours – 24 X 30 – 720 hours in a month
Power consumed by The above TV = 100 Watt X 720 Hours
Power consumed by The above TV = 72,000 Watt Hours = 72 kWh
( 1 kilowatt hour (kWh) = 1000 watt hour)
Example 2 : A 1000 watt water heater running for 1 hours daily for the entire month.


Wattage – 1000 Watt
Operational Hours – 1 X 30 – 30 hours in a month
Power consumed by The above TV = 1000 Watt X 30 Hours
Power consumed by The above TV = 30,000 Watt Hours = 30 kWh
If you use the above calculation to calculate power consumption of AC’s, Refrigerator, basically
any appliance which has a compressor in it, then the calculated value will be very high than the
actual value, we will discuss this in later part of this post).
Now that you know how to calculate power consumption of an appliance, let’s calculate the
amount of electricity bill you will get for using that appliace.
Calculate The Electricity Bill You Get For Using
Appliances:
To calculate the amount of electricity bill you will get for using an appliance just multiply the
power consumption of the device by electricity tariff.
Electricity Bill For Using An Appliance = Power Consumption X Electricity Tariff
Electricity Tariff – Electricity tariff is the amount your electricity provider charges you for one
unit of electricity. I live in Mumbai, India here the electricity tariff is Rs 11 / kWh. You can find
your area’s electricity tariff by dividing your monthly electricity bill by monthly power
consumption.
If we take the above TV example,
Total electricity bill for using that TV would be = 72 kWh X Rs 11 / kWh = Rs 792.
(Now you know how much it will cost you to binge watch Netflix for the entire month.)
I have made a simple calculator for you guys, just type in the wattage of your appliance, daily
operational hours and electricity tariff and it will show monthly, annual power consumption of
that appliance.
Power Consumption Calculator:
Rated Power Of Your Appliance (Watt)
1 Kilowatt = 1000 Watt
Daily Operational Hours ( Hours )
Electricity Tariff (Any currency)
Daily Units Consumed By The Appliance (kWh)
Monthly Units Consumed By The Appliance (kWh)
Annual Units Consumed By The Appliance (kWh)
Monthly Electricity Bill Because of This Appliance (Your Currency)
Exception To The Above Calculation:
As i said before the exception to the above calculation is appliances with compressor’s in them.
You see an AC compressor is not always ON or even if it is it does not run at the same speed
hence power consumption is different at all times and it varies with the load on AC.
Hence if you have a 1 Ton AC which translates to roughly 800 watts and you run it for 5 hours
daily for the entire month then,
AC’s Monthly power consumption = 800 watt X 150 hours = 1,20,000 watt hour = 120 kWh
But in reality the value will be lower than this.
Luckily most high power consuming appliances are BEE rated and have a sticker on it front
which tells you it’s annual power consumption any other useful details.
The annual power consumption is calculated in standard operating conditions and 1600 hours of
annual operation hence, the values will be vary on the number of hours you use the appliance and
operating conditions (slightly higher in real life scenario for same operational hours).
1 Ton Split Inverter AC Annual Power Consumption is 598 kWh
My Refrigerator Power Consumption
If you want to know exact power consumption then there is a way for that too.
Calculate Power Consumption Of A Device Using Kill A Watt Meter:
Kill A Watt Meter
Kill A Watt meter is a simple device which measures live power consumption of any device.
You can buy it from amazon using this link. Best Kill A Watt Electricity Usage Monitor
To use a Kill A Watt meter to measure power consumption.
Just plug in the device you want to measure power consumption of to the Kill A Watt meter and
plug the Kill A Watt meter in your wall socket and you are good to go.
The Kill A Watt meter will display live power consumption of the device plugged in.
For appliances which have compressor like refrigerators it is advisable to take the reading for 3-7
days to get exact power consumption.
If you are worried about your house electricity bill then read this article on tips to reduce your
house electricity bill.
What is Watt (W), Kilowatt (KW), Kilowatt hour (kWh) (unit) of electricity?
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I feel using the above information you can calculate the power consumption of almost all the
devices or at least get a close idea of how much power it will consume.
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Thank You For Reading