How to Calculate Estimated Energy Expenditure

Estimating the amount of energy, especially electricity, is an important activity for all home and business owners. Most people use electricity without much knowledge or care over the amounts being consumed, as generally the cost of electricity is quite cheap. Over time, however, these costs can add up to substantial sums. By estimating the amounts of energy you will use, you will be better equipped to reduce it by using more efficient appliances, or simply turning them off more often.

Calculator
Local energy cost information (cents per kWh)

Instructions

- 1
  Create an inventory of the power rating of all the appliances you use. This value will be stated in watts on the device itself. Also make a note of the number of each appliance, the number of light bulbs of a particular wattage, for example.
- 2
  Determine the average amount of time, in hours, you will use the device in one average day, week, or month.
- 3
  Multiply the number of like appliances with their wattage value, and multiply this value by the number of hours the appliance is used in a time frame to get a figure in kWh's. For example, if you have 20 100-watt light bulbs that are on for 5 hours a day, this will mean that you use 2000 watts of electricity for lighting, and over five hours will consume 10kWh (kilowatt-hours) of electricity.
- 4
  Multiply this value with the cost of electricity in your area per kWh. In the above example, if the cost per kilowatt-hour was 10 cents, running the 20 light bulbs for 5 hours would cost you $1.

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