Lifehack logo

How to Save on Watt Usage in Your Home

What You Need to Know About Your Home's Power

By Jade PulmanPublished 5 years ago 3 min read
Like

A watt is the measurement that is used to size up the amount of electricity that is being used at any given point. A watt-hour determines the amount of power used during a specific amount of time. To decide on the amount of power used by household appliances kilowatts are used. For example, studies show that the average home in the USA uses over 7,000 kilowatt-hours in a 365 day period.

The term megawatts is used to measure power used in very large quantities. It is used to determine the amount of power used in city or in a large factory etc. If you're trying to picture how watts are carried out in our daily lives, just consider over 300 homes. And in each of those homes electricity is being used. So within about one hour, this measurement in hourly terms would have accumulated one watt. And lastly gigawatts are used to measure the energy output of a very large power plant.

Appliances that Use Large Amounts of Energy

The appliances that use the most energy in the typical American home are:

1. Oven

2. Dishwasher

3. Refrigerator

4. Water Heater

5. Cooling/Heating

On average, a household will spend almost $100 per year by using the oven daily at a high temperature. When it comes to the use of air conditioners in the home, the yearly amount that will be spent will be almost $400. In the winter the average amount to heat a home will be almost $700. What uses the most power in your home? There are a good number of devices that use plenty of energy besides the usual equipment. Some of these machines are not expected to utilize so much energy, but they do. The laptop is one of those devices. It draws huge amounts of energy, much more energy than a desktop. Televisions, microwaves and many more types of equipment: All of these contraptions are not expected to draw such large amounts of power, but they do.

Ways to Reduce Your Power Bill

Many of us remember growing up and our parents yelling, 'Turn off the lights if you're not using them!' Now it's our turn to do the yelling. This might have aggravated us when we were younger, but now this discipline has taken on a whole new meaning. Turning off the lights in parts of the house that you are not using is important if you want to cut down on power usage. After all, what sense does it make to have the lights blaring in the kitchen if no one is in it. Or if everyone's upstairs why would you have the entire downstairs lit up?

Another way to save energy is to unplug the appliances when you are not using them. Yes, this may sound strange to a lot of people, however taking the cord out of the socket cuts down on even more energy than simply turning the appliance off. Changing a few laundry habits can also reduce your power bill. Two ways you can go about that is to:

1. Wash larger loads of clothing

2. Allow your clothes to air dry

Not only does hanging your clothes outside to dry instead of putting them in the dryer save energy, but it also reduces CO2 emissions. With a little planning and awareness, the average family has the potential to save $100s of dollars per year. The different activities that can be done range from fixing leaking faucets to insulating your windows. If you're actually serious about saving on your power bill, there are quite a few ways it can be done.

house
Like

About the Creator

Reader insights

Be the first to share your insights about this piece.

How does it work?

Add your insights

Comments

There are no comments for this story

Be the first to respond and start the conversation.

Sign in to comment

    Find us on social media

    Miscellaneous links

    • Explore
    • Contact
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms of Use
    • Support

    © 2024 Creatd, Inc. All Rights Reserved.