How much is all the electrically powered junk around your house really costing you? Remember that you keep paying for appliances after you buy them through the energy they consume.
You can use a cool tool called the Kill-A-Watt to find out exactly how much electricity your appliances are using, and how much they are costing to operate.
Another method is to use this template (adapted from an Excel sheet here) to roughly calculate your energy consumption and costs.
Usage:
Plug in your cost per kilowatt-hour (you should be able to find this on your utility bill). According to to information I found on this page, the average cost per kilowatt-hour in the US is $0.115.
Then, enter the name of your appliances in the lower table, with their watts used per hour. If you can’t get the information from the appliance’s manual, you can get an approximate value from this online guide.
Next, enter the number of hours per day you use each item.
The sheet will then calculate the cost per year to operate the appliance.
Enjoy!
Download: Home Electronics Cost Calculator Template for iWork Numbers
