It is important to know the consumption of the household appliances we use on a daily basis in order to understand how much we can save in terms of energy and emissions, i.e., how much we can reduce our impact on the environment and our bills. The electrical power absorbed by household appliances is expressed in watts (W) or kilowatts (kW): one kW is equivalent to 1,000 watts. How can we find out the power of our electrical appliances? Usually the value is found on the labels of household appliances or on tables available on the Internet. To calculate consumption, multiply the power by the hours of use, i.e., kWh (kilowatt-hours): for example, if I use a 2 kW washing machine for 20 hours per month, the total consumption will be 40 kWh. To estimate the expense, multiply the kWh by the cost of a single kWh, a value that can be found on a utility bill or by searching the Internet. So considering an average cost of 0.2 Euro per kWh, using the washing machine in our example costs 8 euros per month.
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