calculating electricity consumption

[Dom Tuk]

Whats the formula for calculating how much you pay in bills for any appliance if its wattage is known. So how much does a 2 KW fan heater cost to run per hour

[brachiopod]

After someone posted a question about light bulbs, I meant to look at my electricity bill to see what a 'unit' of electricity costs.

But anyway, the 'unit' you use and charged for on your bill is a KWh (KiloWatt Hour).

This is the amount of electricity that, say, a 1KW heater would use in 1 hour.

Similarly, a light with a 100W bulb (ie 0.1 KW) would use one 'unit' in 10 hours.

[brachiopod]

Just found an old bill from Spring 2004. They charged me 7.23p per KWh.

So in the examples above, running that heater for 1 hour or having the light on for 10 hours would cost you 7.23p.

(Incidentally, they actually charged me 12.2p for 'the first X units'. This is after they abolished their 'Standing Charge' (around �22 a quarter), which they proudly announced in big letters on the bill 'NO MORE STANDING CHARGE !!!'  and generally made a big fuss about.

Instead, they then started charging a different unit rate for the first so-many units. The extra cost of this increased initial rate? Around �22 a quarter.

[gastwo]

Don't forget the VAT on top of that, brachiopod...

[brachiopod]

You sound like my accountant !

[landie]

One kilowatt is a thousand watts. if you put on ten lights, each of 100w (one hhundred watts), for an hour, then you consume one kilowatt.

If you know the wattage of an appliance then it is easy to figure your electricity consumption.

If your wondering what fuse you need for a particular appliance, a simple way is to divide the wattage by 240 (watts = volts x amps) or (amps = watts/volts).

A 1 kilowatt electric fire, for example, would need a fuse of just over 4 amps (i.e. 5 amp fuse).

[landie]

Sorry should have said you consume one kilowatt-hour or unit of electricity in para one.