How can I calculate the consumption of an electrical appliance?

To calculate the consumption of an electrical appliance in kWh, you have to take into account three factors:

1. the power of your electrical appliance, expressed in watt.
2. the number of hours that the appliance is in use in one day.
3. the number of days per year when the appliance is in use.

The calculation is as follows:

[number of  hours’ use] x [number of days’ use] x ([capacity of appliance expressed in watt] / 1,000) = number of kWh

The capacity should be divided by 1,000 to convert the number of watts into the number of kilowatts. This finally gives us the number of kWh (kilowatt hours).

Calculate the electrical consumption of an additional fan heater

Imagine the use of an electric fan heater (power of 2,000 watts) 1x per day for 30 minutes (the time it takes to have a shower).

Assuming that the heater is used for 150 days, i.e. the five coldest months of the year (October, November, December, January and February), we obtain the following result:

Annual electrical consumption of an additional heater: 0.5 x 150 x (2,000 watts/1,000) = 150 kWh

Calculation for the energy consumption of a vacuum cleaner

In the table below we assume that the vacuum cleaner is used for two hours once a week.

Annual energy consumption of vacuum cleaner: 2 x 52 x (800 watts / 1,000) = 83,2 kWh

Take a look at the list giving the consumption of the most common electrical household appliances.