How much will we pay for electricity in 2023? We counted the energy consumption of all household appliances

The new year means another increase in electricity prices. According to the portal’s forecast, households consuming up to 2000 kWh in 2023 will pay PLN 0.99 for energy per 1 kWh (kilowatt hour), which is over PLN 0.20 more than last year. It is therefore worth clarifying which household appliances use the most electricity and which use the least. What’s the best way to save?

How much electricity do RTV devices consume?

It is not difficult to guess that the most economical are small consumer electronics (smartphones, tablets, etc.) and larger RTV equipment (e.g. TV set). For example, charging a smartphone with a 4500 mAh battery requires approx. 16.65 Wh (excluding energy losses, which are small), and a tablet with a 7200 mAh battery – 26.64 Wh. Charging both of these devices (43.29 Wh) costs only four cents. By charging them every other day throughout the year, we will use 7.9 kWh, which will cost only PLN 7.82.

Laptops are a bit more power hungry. Charging a medium-sized notebook with a 56 Wh battery therefore costs about PLN 0.55. Assuming that in 2023 we will work from home half of the 250 working days (the battery is enough for a whole working day), using a laptop during the year will cost PLN 6.93. Therefore, it is not difficult to notice that smartphones, tablets and laptops are extremely economical devices (not to mention, for example, headphones or watches).

Will the use of a TV or game console cost us a lot? Much depends on what specific equipment we are talking about and how long you use them. Let’s assume that a typical 55-inch TV consumes 100W of energy, and a console approximately 145W (average consumption when playing on PS5, which ranges from 90 to 200W).

Let’s also assume that we watch TV for two hours a day every day, and we play the console for four hours every Saturday and Sunday. The total consumption for the TV set is 73 kWh (PLN 72.27), and for the console (console + TV set) 101.92 kWh (PLN 100.90). The total bill for both of these devices is therefore quite large and amounts to PLN 173.17 per year.

How much electricity do household appliances use?

Let’s move on to household appliances, which consume much more electricity. Let’s assume that each of the devices you use every day (without a refrigerator for now) consumes the following amount of electricity:

• Toaster – 750 W (every day for 5 minutes),
• Coffee maker – 1250 W (3 times a day for 2 minutes),
• Microwave oven – 800 W (5 minutes a day),
• Kettle – 2250 W (5 minutes a day),
• Oven – 2400 W (2 times a week for 30 minutes with preheating),
• Induction hob – 2300 W each field (two fields 20 minutes a day).

Now for the results (energy consumption and cost per year):

• Toaster – 22.81 kWh (PLN 22.58),
• Coffee maker – 45.63 kWh (PLN 45.17),
• Microwave oven – 24.33 kWh (PLN 24.09),
• Kettle – 68.44 kWh (PLN 67.75),
• Oven – 124.8 kWh (PLN 123.55),
• Induction hob – 559.67 kWh (PLN 554.07).

To this set you have to add a fridge, washing machine and dishwasher, but in the case of these devices it is much easier to specify the cost of each work cycle, because energy consumption is very uneven. The average annual energy consumption of an example C-class refrigerator is 170 kWh. For a class A washing machine it is 48 kWh per 100 cycles, and for a class C dishwasher it is 80 kWh per 100 cycles. Let’s add that both the washing machine and the dishwasher run two cycles a week.

Add lighting to this. Modern LED lamps consume very little energy, but the total cost will not be small. Suppose we use eight 7-watt light bulbs for an average of five hours a day. This gives a consumption of 280 Wh per day.

The energy consumption and cost is therefore as follows (consumption and cost per year):

• Fridge – 170 kWh (PLN 168.3),
• Washing machine – 49.92 kWh (PLN 49.42),
• Dishwasher – 83.2 kWh (PLN 82.37),
• Lighting – 102.2 kWh (PLN 101.18).

Summary:

Of course, in the calculations, we adopted some average data on energy consumption and time of use of individual devices. You can check the current consumption of each device yourself (usually on the bottom of the device or in the technical data of the product) and calculate your own values.

It is clear, however, that by far the most power-hungry are kitchen appliances, and above all the induction hob. RTV devices consume relatively little energy, even if we use them for several hours a day. Interestingly, LED lighting – despite being extremely energy-saving – consumes a surprisingly large amount in total, bp over 100 kWh per year.

The total energy consumption in the example apartment described above is 1438.92 kWh (187.92 kWh of electronics and 1251 kWh of household appliances and lighting). Based on the previously assumed price of electricity (PLN 0.99/kWh), we would pay PLN 1,424.53 for the entire year of 2023.