How much power do your appliances use?

Every appliance has a label that tells you how many watts it consumes while in use. For example, depending on the type:

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a 50-inch smart TV, around 75 watthours (W hours) while in use;

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a washing machine, 500-1500W hours per load (cold wash);

• fridges, 800-1000W hours per day. If the current grid connection to your house has a smart meter, you can see how many watts you use per day – the average NZ household uses around 1300 watts or so an hour (6am10pm) for a total of 22kWh per day.

However, those labels are an approximate measure. You can buy a power or energy meter to get an accurate reading for a particular appliance, especially one as powerhungry as a fridge. These are plugged into an outlet. The appliance is then plugged into it, and the meter tells you exactly how many watts it’s using.

“I’d say 90% of our customers run normal household appliances on our systems,” says Ethan. “Twenty years ago, a lot of people would use RV or boat appliances because they were more efficient, but these days there’s so much focus on energy efficiency in household appliances that most of the stuff you buy at a normal retailer is as efficient or more efficient.”