Appliance energy useage in the home

thor

i'm not looking for an exact answer but roughly what appliance would use the most energy over a period of a month? I would say that the fridge freezer comes out top as it is on all the time and needs a lot of power. I would class PCs quite low down as they are not power hungary and only switched on for a fraction of a day(in most cases). TVs also would be cheap to run unless they are left on standby but equipment like freeview boxes, sky digital decoders and dvd players are usually left on all day since people can't be bothered to set up time&date etc each time they are powered on and consequently must use quite a lot of energy. However would turning them off at the mains really make a large saving?

espresso

thor wrote:

i'm not looking for an exact answer but roughly what appliance would use the most energy over a period of a month? I would say that the fridge freezer comes out top as it is on all the time and needs a lot of power.

Obviously it depends on the make model and type of fridge freezer but they don't use much and are not actually on 100% of the time. Figures quoted for a Hotpoint 8.9 cu.ft gross capacity fridge freezer (RFA52S) show a consumption of 292kw/yr.

I would class PCs quite low down as they are not power hungary and only switched on for a fraction of a day(in most cases).

A desktop PC system probably uses up to 120W but in many houses it may be on all day long.

TVs also would be cheap to run unless they are left on standby but equipment like freeview boxes, sky digital decoders and dvd players are usually left on all day since people can't be bothered to set up time&date etc each time they are powered on and consequently must use quite a lot of energy. However would turning them off at the mains really make a large saving?

No because they use very little energy when on standby. The things that actually consume the most energy are electric showers (9kWh) immersion heaters (3kWh) and any other high wattage device used for heating, cooking etc.

:eek:

Cardew

Sky boxes are rated at approx 14 watts - so approx £12 a year at 10pkWh.

As espresso states TVs on standby use very little - with modern sets it is measured in pence per year. While switched on TVs can consume anything from a few watts to 500watts for big plasma screens.

My set up of 32" Sony TV, Sony DVD home cinema, VCR, separate amplifier for remote headphones and Sky + box uses 18 watts. So left on standby 24/7will cost about £16 a year @ 10p/kWh. Given it is switched on some of the time and I pay 7p kWh the cost is less than £10 a year.

You need to be a little wary of some older VCRs which can have heavy standby consumption, but modern DVDs and VCRs have very low standy consumption - again a pound or two a year.

Sultana

Electric cookers use a fair bit of power, but obviously not everyone has one.

Transformers are something to watch out for. My mother recently bought an LCD TV - power consumption in standby is about 3W but that figure doesn't take account of the transformer which is quite hot to touch (and therefore consuming power) all the time.

Cardew

Sultana wrote:

Electric cookers use a fair bit of power, but obviously not everyone has one.

Transformers are something to watch out for. My mother recently bought an LCD TV - power consumption in standby is about 3W but that figure doesn't take account of the transformer which is quite hot to touch (and therefore consuming power) all the time.

What external transformer(that you can touch) is there on an LCD TV?

3 watts is above average as a total for a new LCD TV - Mine is less than 1 watt and that is in total - measured at the 13 amp plug.

thor

espresso wrote:

No because they use very little energy when on standby.

Interesting. We are constantly being told how wasteful it is to leave things on standby as it consumes so much energy so I assumed that must mean that they use a significant fraction of what they use when they are turned on. Of course many millions of tvs on standby will be wasting a huge amount of energy but perhaps nowhere near the amount when left on.

Sultana

Cardew wrote:

What external transformer(that you can touch) is there on an LCD TV?

There's a black brick separate from the TV, 24V DC output. That's how it came. (i'm not in my mum's house now so I can't tell you any more)

Clasics

MY 32" Philips CRT TV uses 0.34 watts on standby. I looked it up as Mrs Clasics was having ago at me for leaving it on standby the other night. Certainly allayed her fears. lol.

debj_3

I heard on the radio (!) yesterday that DAB radios use a lot of electricity compared to normal ones. Does anyone know if that's true? I have 2 at home and one is one most of the time I'm at home.

thanks

espresso

debj wrote:

I heard on the radio (!) yesterday that DAB radios use a lot of electricity compared to normal ones. Does anyone know if that's true? I have 2 at home and one is one most of the time I'm at home.

thanks

Why don't you look on the device and see what it is rated at? It should have a wattage rating on it somewhere. They probably do consume more power than a conventional radio, due to the extra digital processing required.

jennifernil

We have a "black brick" with our LCD TV too.