How to Tell What Appliances Are Using the Most Electricity

Top Energy-Draining Appliances

• Dishwasher – The dishwasher uses electricity to run the machine and to heat the water. To decrease electricity usage, you can run the machine on light-cycle and quit using the heated drying option. The drying can be done by itself if you give it some time. It’s not a significant part of cleaning up your dishes nor does it do anything else to help the cleaning process.
• Hair Dryer – It seems like a small appliance that doesn’t use up much energy, but it’s got you fooled. In reality, the hair dryer uses up to 710 watts per hour. You would have to have a ceiling fan running for hours to catch up to the amount of energy a hair dryer uses in a couple of minutes. if you want to cut down on the waste of energy coming from a hair dryer, allow your hair to air dry. This will save your electricity and is better for your hair.
• Refrigerator – The refrigerator actually only uses about 225 watts per hour, which doesn’t seem like a lot. However, let’s not forget that our refrigerators stay running throughout the day and night, all the time, to keep our food cold. So, in the long run, your fridge can cost you to use a lot of energy. You can’t fully shut down energy usage for your fridge unless you want your food to go bad, but you can form some easy habits to minimize energy usage. Starting off, the location of your fridge is very important. Don’t put it next to a heat source or directly under the sunlight. An average temperature for the refrigerator should be about 5 °C. Also, always close the doors of your fridge quickly. The more you leave them open, more warm air enters your fridge, and it takes more time and energy for the fridge to get back to its normal temperature.
• Heater – Your heater needs to produce heat for your entire house, so it’s going to use a lot of electricity to make that happen. You are likely to use your heater more during the winter months, naturally. Your energy usage will vary depending on how long your heater runs. If you set the heater to a lower temperature, this may help you save energy as well.

As you may have noticed, appliances that use energy to produce heat use up the most electricity. Now that you know which appliances to limit the energy usage for, you can save your money. If you need to upgrade to a more energy-efficient appliance, call an electrician from Mr. Electric.