Bills, bills, bills for electricity! We all hate getting them each month. You may be aware of your spending, but do you also know how much energy you use daily or monthly? Or the median American household’s average electrical energy usage? Do you know How Many kWh Of Electricity Does A House Use? What about the daily kWh consumption of a house? What exactly are a watt and a kWh?
Naturally, all of this depends on a wide range of variables, such as lifestyle, the size of the household, the construction type, the location, and much more. We’ll break down everything you need to understand to make sure you’re fully armed with the right knowledge to assist you in assessing your average home power usage and better managing your expenses if you’re unfamiliar with science and physics and want to obtain a clearer understanding of your home energy usage.
How Many kWh Of Electricity Does A House Use?
A home utility client in the United States used 10,632-kilowatt hours (kWh) per year or 886 kWh on average monthly.
How Much Electricity Does A House Use Per Day (And Per Month)?
The next issue to consider is how much electricity a residence uses each day and each month. You can use this to assess how your electricity use stacks up against the national average. Before assessing how much energy you use at home, let’s first look at how power is measured.
The Difference Between kW & kWh
First, let’s distinguish between the two measurements before calculating how much kW or kWh a residence needs monthly. Each home’s power is measured in kilowatts (kW). Kilowatt-hours (kWh) measure your energy usage, or simply the power consumed every hour, whereas one kW equals 1,000 watts. Let’s put this in a current-day context. A 1000-watt appliance would require 1 kWh to run for one hour (assuming no efficiency loss). Alternatively, a 100-watt lamp would use 1 kWh to run for 10 hours.
What Is The Average Size Of A Home?
First, we’ll calculate the typical size of a house to get the average electricity usage per household in the U.S. In June 2021, a single-family home in the U.S. had a median size of 2,261 square feet. In 1973, over 50 years ago, a home in the United States had a median size of 1,660 square feet.
We may determine that the average-sized home must be about 2,000 square feet in total ((1600 + 2261) / 2 = 1960.5) by assuming that the older, smaller dwellings are still in existence and considering the newer, considerably larger homes.
How Many Watts Does A House Use?
The median kWh per day will then be used to get the average wattage for a dwelling per day. The unit of measurement for electrical power is wattage. The formula for changing kWh into watts is given below:
Watts equals (kWh times 1,000) hours.
If a house requires 30 kWh of energy each day and increases that amount by 1,000, we find that 30,000 watt-hours of energy are used up in 24 hours. Therefore, 30,000 divided by the number of hours in a day (24) yields a figure of 1250 watts per hour needed to power a dwelling. That works out to 900,000 watts each month that your appliances might use.
To be sure, this is based on the national average, which is determined throughout 24 hours, assuming that appliances are in use throughout that time. When assessing your wattage consumption, take note of the wattage of equipment that must be used continuously throughout the day, such as a refrigerator or freezer, as well as the wattage and frequency of other devices.
How Many kW Does A House Use?
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the average monthly electricity consumption for a home in 2020 was 893 kilowatt-hours or about 30 kilowatt-hours per day.
To determine how many kilowatts are required to run a house using straightforward calculations, divide the median daily watt-hour usage of a dwelling by 1000 to get 30. The formula for converting watts into kilowatts is given below:
P(W) / 1,000 equals kilowatts.
The average kW utilized in American houses is 30 kW per day or almost 900 kW per month. Please note that the calculations for these numbers were made using the daily average for homes in the United States. Conducting your home audit by being familiar with the kW and kWh on each appliance would enable you to make a more accurate computation.
How Many Watts Are Used By Appliances?
Insulation
Second, the building materials used to construct your home may impact the monthly energy consumption. It can be more expensive to heat or cool an older home because the materials used in their construction frequently allow hot or cold air to enter or depart.
In light of this, insulating your home from the roof down will guarantee significant annual cost savings. Draughts are another source of energy loss. Installing draught excluders for your doors will seal in the heat or cold air and ultimately save you electricity if you’re concerned about energy waste.
Home Entertainment Systems
Your equipment can use more kWh than you know, depending on how frequently it is used and how many people live there. For instance, depending on the features, a gaming laptop can consume between 300 and 500 watts, or 1 kWh, every couple of hours. Imagine three additional family members utilizing electronics simultaneously, such as a T.V., a laptop plugged in, and a sound system. The costs can add up very rapidly.
Washing And Drying Machines
In addition to rinsing and drying your usage, washing machines (500w) and dryers (1800w–5000w) can significantly increase it, particularly if you have several family members or roommates who frequently use them. A 5000w clothes dryer may use an astounding 3.5 kWh for a 45-minute drying cycle, or you could pay about 33.60 cents all at once.
Lights And Lamps
Lighting fixtures are a cunning source of power use. Using a 100-watt lightbulb could result in daily energy use of 1 kWh, or 11.20 cents. If your family uses light sources concurrently throughout the day, it might seem like little, but it adds up quite quickly.
Air-Conditioning Units & Heaters
Depending on the circumstance, heating, and cooling systems are energy-intensive. For instance, if you work from home around the clock and must have your air conditioning on to maintain a comfortable working environment during a Californian heatwave, this will undoubtedly consume a large portion of your kWh usage.
One typical 1800 W air conditioner running continuously for up to 8 hours may consume 14.4 kWh per day, which is approximately half the daily average. At 1500 watts, space heaters can use almost as much energy as cooling equipment in the winter.
Tips To Limit Your Home Energy Consumption
You can start considering ways to reduce consumption now that you know how much energy your home needs, especially when compared to, for example, the typical kWh usage for a 2,000-square-foot home.
Every one of the numerous strategies for energy conservation in your home is significant. After all, the more you can cut back on your home’s energy use, the more money you’ll be able to save each month. Here are some suggestions on how to get started:
Automate Your Home With Smart Devices
Utilizing innovative technology to automate your home’s appliances and other components is another way to reduce the energy your home requires. Additionally, certain technologies let you remotely monitor and modify your energy usage for those who are often on the move.
A smart plug is one example of a smart home appliance that saves electricity. Appliances are plugged into these after they have been placed into wall outlets. Once your appliance is connected, you can track its energy usage and manage it from any location. Try out different innovative plug applications until you discover the one that saves you the most energy.
Invest In Energy-Efficient Appliances
Investing in high-efficiency appliances is an excellent method to manage your household’s energy use. Remember to check for appliances with the yellow ENERGY STAR® logo when shopping around. These appliances use less energy than conventional ones and could be eligible for incentives.
Let’s use refrigerators as an example to show how much energy high-efficiency appliances may save you. An ENERGY STAR ® certified electricity-efficient refrigerator will typically consume 33% less energy than models over 15 years old.
Add Insulation To Your Walls, Attic, And Roof
If your home doesn’t have enough insulation, some of the hot or cold air your HVAC system produces will escape. To keep the interior of your home at a comfortable temperature, your heater and air conditioner will have to work more. As a result, you are increasing your electricity consumption.
It is wise to inspect your home for insulating gaps everywhere. Your walls are a crucial area where insulation may be added. Your home’s efficiency and drafts can be reduced by insulating your walls. Increasing insulation in your attic and roof can also significantly reduce the typical energy consumption of your house.
Adjust Your Energy Consumption Habits
Changing energy-wasting behaviors can help you lower your average home power usage; turning off the lights when you depart a room is one example while reducing your laundry load is another. It’s a terrific place to start if you utilize gaming consoles or streaming services. Although you might not be mindful of it, streaming services can use a lot of electricity.
Additionally, the energy used by your game consoles may eventually add up to a significant portion of the power used in your home. The more you limit how often you use these tools and services, the more energy you can conserve.
Unplug Electronics When Not In Use
Start unplugging your electronics while not in use if you’re concerned about how many kilowatts your home uses. By doing this, you can ensure that your devices use the least amount of energy possible. To conserve power, most electronic devices provide a “sleep” or “standby” mode.
Even when these devices are set to an energy-saving mode, they use a tiny amount of electricity. The best strategy to reduce your power usage is to turn off and disconnect your devices. If you’re a home worker, this energy-saving advice is exceptionally crucial.
Schedule A Home Energy Audit
You can have more control over how much energy you consume by hiring an expert to conduct a home energy audit. The auditor will be able to inform you of your energy usage patterns and provide advice on how to reduce your typical household power consumption.
For instance, searching for potential air leaks, which can be significant energy wasters, is a step in the home energy audit process. If the auditor does discover air leaks in your home, they will be able to advise you on which areas need to be sealed to save energy.
It’s critical to understand both the typical daily energy consumption of a home your size and the unique energy consumption of your home. A much-needed source of inspiration to ensure you’re paying enough for energy can come from comparing your home’s power usage to the national average.
Knowing the elements and appliances that influence your home’s energy use the most is also beneficial. You can better learn your energy costs and their origins with the help of this information. Deciding what you need to do to use less energy and pay less for it will be more straightforward.
Conclusion
To sum up, you should now have a much better idea of How Many kWh Of Electricity Does A House Use? You may determine the best energy plan for you and invest in a DELTA pro-environment designed to fit your home lifestyle by keeping a record of your average monthly use and identifying behaviors or variables that may be losing you valuable kWh and extra money.
