Calculating Electrical Cost of Household Items

Question - Can you translate the cost of electrity per month according to the electrical appliances. In simple language like RMXX amount if you use a 1.5HP aircond for XX hours.

Calculating the energy cost of an item is easy once you know the following two bits of information:

.The total number of watts it takes to run the item
·The cost per kilowatt hour (Kwh) your power company charges you.

Every electrical appliance or object that takes electricity to operate will be marked, on the item itself, on its packaging, or in its instruction booklet/information sheet, with either the watts it uses or with amps and volts.

To Find Watts:
·Look for the watts on the item, package, or information sheet/booklet that came with it.
·If there is no watts figure, but there is amps and volts (often appearing as VAC), simply multiply the amps by the volts to get the number of watts.

Before anything else, bear in mind that all calculations are done in Kilowatt Hours (Kwh)hence, the term Kilowatt Hour Meter that we use to call the TNB meters we have on our porch.

Taking example of a 1.5 hp air-con, let’s find out the watts for that. From my knowledge, 1 hp = 746 watts. Therefore, 1.5 hp is equivalent to about 1119 watts. If the unit is being used say, 8 hours per day, then, she will be consuming 8952 watts. Divide this number by 1000 to get the Kilowatt value. Using this information, multiply it with the current rates that TNB is charging, i/e. 0.218 sen for the first 200 Kwh., and 0.258 sen for anything above that (for private homes). Muitiply 8.962 with 0.218 and you get about 1.95 or about 2 riggit per day. If used for 30 days a month, she will have to pay about 60 ringgit in electrical charges for the air con alone. Of course, this will depend on the condition of the unit. If it is in tip top condition, then you might save a little bit. In simpler terms, the calculations will look something like this.

1.5 hp = 1119 watts
1119 watts x 8 hours/day = 8952 watts
8952 divided by 1000 = 8.952 Kwh
8.952 x 0.218 = Rm. 1.95/day
Rm.1.95/day x 30 = Rm.58.50/month

All electrical items in your house are calculated the same way.