At some point, all of us have randomly stared at an appliance in
the home — say your TV or refrigerator — and thought, “Dang, that thing must
use a ton of electricity….” or perhaps even, “I wonder how much energy that
thing uses…” This especially happens to us when we get a larger electricity
bill that we’d expected.
Such thoughts prompted us to do a bit of research on the subject of which appliances use the most energy in our homes. And after some serious consideration, we’re ready to announce the winner.
*drum roll*
It’s your HVAC! What a shocker…
As Texans, this is insultingly obvious. We didn’t need a report from the U.S. government to tell us that our air conditioner uses the most energy in our homes. However, you should know that several other household appliances use a larger chunk of energy than you might realize. For example, your water heater and lighting account for nearly a quarter of your energy bill!
So, rather than just telling you the obvious, we compiled a list
of the 10 most energy-consuming appliances in your home and matched them with
tips on how you can maximize your energy savings by reducing their consumption.
We’ve even added insights for those pesky “miscellaneous” appliances.
To be clear, this situation isn’t the same for everyone, though.
Many factors can influence how much electricity a home uses, including:
Such variables can alter the amount of energy each appliance in
your home uses. For example, a family of four living in a single-family home in
Georgia will use power much differently than a person living alone in a tiny
apartment in New York City.
So, it’s important to remember that the percentages you see below are approximations reported by the U.S. Energy Information Administration. They represent an average of how much the energy usage of a typical home goes toward these appliances. While these numbers are backed by data, we recommend taking them with a grain of salt when it comes to estimating the actual energy usage in your home.
The “AC” part of HVAC, your air conditioner is most likely the
lifeblood of your home, so there’s a reason why it eats the largest chunk of
your energy bill! As Texans, we can’t help but love this monster of a device,
but it’s time to tame the air conditioning beast. We have two tips to reduce
your AC’s energy load in the summer:
The same basic concept used for your air conditioner in summer
applies for when it’s cold outside, but instead of turning your thermostat up,
you should turn it as low as it can go where you’re still comfortable. We have
two specific recommendations for changing how you use your heater so you save
the most on your electric bills:
In terms of energy usage, heating water is not far behind from
heating and cooling. This one definitely surprised us. Luckily, though this is the
third most energy-consuming appliance in your home, our three tips will help
you shave a little off your energy bill, and they require little to NO effort:
Let’s go beyond the typical “turn off the lights” tip. Instead, we
recommend that you replace your archaic incandescent light bulbs with modern
LED ones. This improved light bulb technology uses much less energy and can
last for years.
Just by replacing FIVE of the most frequently used bulbs in your
home, you can save up to $75 per year in electricity costs.4 Now, imagine how much you could save
if you replaced ALL of your light bulbs.
If there’s one really interesting tidbit we learned throughout our
research, it’s that Americans love refrigerators. In fact, nearly 1 out of
every 4 Americans have a second fridge, which doubles their consumption
percentage.5 So, to
save money on refrigeration in your home, follow these three tips:
Many of your electronics still use power when you’re not using
them — even if they’re technically “turned off.” That means you’re just wasting
energy. Examples include TVs, computers, clock radios, printers and DVD
players. Here are two ways you can reduce the amount of energy your consumer
electronics consume:
We’re finally getting into the appliances that don’t use a lot of
energy on the surface, but whose energy consumption could still be reduced. We
have two tips for helping your dryer use less energy:
This tip might sound counterintuitive to the overall tone of this
blog post, but we want your ceiling fans to consume MORE energy. Hear us
out.
The reason is simple: Ceiling fans can make a room feel cooler and
warmer without excessive use of the HVAC. The fan pushes the air across your
skin, helping cool or warm you so you don’t need to keep your HVAC cranked all
the time So, even though you’re technically using more energy to operate your
ceiling fans, you’re comparably using way less energy than you would have if
you turned the AC down or turned the heat up.
“Cooking” in and of itself doesn’t use that much energy in terms
of the actual appliances. However, the heat produced warms up your home
quickly, which causes the AC to kick in. It then becomes a battle between your
AC and your oven, each constantly offsetting the other. This becomes a problem
in the summer, especially when you’re trying to NOT overtax your HVAC. We’ve
assembled three tips to address this issue:
This is another appliance that we recommend you use more
frequently than you might normally. As we just mentioned, microwaves are a huge
energy saver, especially because they don’t add heat to your home like your
oven and stove. So, even though you’ll be increasing its energy usage, it can
save you more money in the long run.
You thought we were finished, didn’t you? Think again! At Chariot, we have an endless number of tips to help you save money by reducing your residential electricity usage so you receive a smaller electricity bill. To read 29 more tips on how you can conserve energy, click here.
Sources:
