What Items Use the Most Power

Discussion in 'Creating and Using Electricity' started by Aneye4theshot, Jan 24, 2016.

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  1. Aneye4theshot

    Aneye4theshot Expert Member
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    Some items in your home use more power than other items, and these are going to be obvious to the average person. However some items use more power than you might imagine, and they might not be so obvious to you. When you ask somebody what item uses the most power in your home, typically they're going to say that it is the air conditioning unit or the heater that uses the most. Second runners up are usually the refrigerator and stove. Well, all of those are great answers and very factual answers. There are other items that can eat up just as much power however when you least expect it. Outdated light bulbs left on such as an outdoor flood lamps or outdoor porch lights can suck power down in a rapidly alarming rate. Be sure that you have low watt LED alternatives for your lights in order to save power.
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    There are many different LED lights that are even solar powered that may be attached to the outside of your home for security lighting that does not deplete natural resources or end up costing you an arm and a leg. Your TV and video game system also will end up starting to suck down a lot of power. Instead of leaving these systems on for hours or sometimes days on end when you're not using them turn them off. This is why TVs and video game systems come with off buttons. Video game systems also come with save options so that you can return to your game when you power the unit back up. Even most TVs have the same option of powering back up on the channel that you left it on and some even will start right back up in the show where you left off at. Hair dryers, dishwashers, electric yard equipment and blenders surprisingly suck up a lot more energy than we think as well.
     
  2. Edprof

    Edprof Expert Member
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    And don't overlook the "invisible" power suckers in your kitchen--coffee makers, toasters, microwaves. Each of those will pull around a thousand watts while left on. Make the coffee and then turn it off if you are on auxiliary power.
     
  3. Ystranc

    Ystranc Master Survivalist
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    1000 Watts switched on but not in use? My microwave only uses 950 Watts of electricity to deliver 650 Watts in the form of microwave energy when in full power usage Edprof....leaving electrical appliances on standby is wasteful but possibly not quite to the extreme that you're suggesting.
    Refrigeration including freezers consistently use quite a large proportion of the energy consumed by the average home in a developed nation. While other electrical appliances such as electric kettles, clothes dryers or water heaters may use energy much faster they don't tend to be switched on 24/7 for 365 days a year.
     
    Last edited: Aug 1, 2018
  4. TexDanm

    TexDanm Shadow Dancer
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    Making heat with electricity is a massively inefficient process. ACs are only power monsters because they run 24 hours a day. Electric dryers will really spin the meter but they don't run all the time. The same is true of stoves, water heaters, coffee makers and hair dryers.

    To really understand your power usage you need to look at the amount of time that it is used. The dryer may pull 4500 watts but only run on average and hour a day. My daughter used to leave every light in her room on all the time if I didn't go in and unscrew the light bulbs. When you added up the wattage of all those light bulbs and realized that they probably burned 16 hours a day you found a big drain.

    A lot of times the things that you think are big costs actually aren't. Water heaters in general are high watt drawing devices that don't run much. There is a reason they put them in garages, attics and little closets sealed up on outside walls. Most attics are so warm in the summer that the ambient heat difference between the air in the attic is not much cooler than the hot water. I've known people to spend a bunch of money on either on demand water heaters or timers that turned off the heater when they weren't home. Basically if you do this you will never save enough money in power reduction to pay for the change over.

    ACs are not all that bad. If you want to save money don't spend it on a high efficiency AC unit unless you have already maxed out the insulating and seals on your house. Modern ACS are pretty efficient. The same amount of money that you would spend on a better unit would be better spent on better windows, solar screens on the south and west sides of your house and attic insulation and ventilation.

    I am a certified AC/Heating tech and owned/operated a residential/commercial AC/Heating and appliance repair business for about 25 years.
     
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