Electrical appliances

What can you do for 1 unit (1 kWh) of electricity (cost: 15p in 2010)?

Appliance	Time for one unit	Appliance	Time for one unit
Mains radio	30 hours	Colour TV	3 hours
Blender	Blend 300 litres	Mains clock	3 months
Electric blanket	Warm bed for a week	Food mixer	Mix 60 cakes
Power drill	4 hours	Curlers	Wave 22 heads
Can opener	Open 6000 cans	Toaster	Toast 70 slices
Extractor fan	24 hours	CD player	24 hours
Hair drier	3 hours	Sewing machine	Make 11 dresses
Electric shaver	2000 shaves	Light bulb (100W)	10 hours
Battery charger	One day	Light bulb (100 W energy saving)	4 days
Vacuum cleaner	2 hours	Iron	2 hours
Radiant heater	1.25 hours	Stereo system	8-10 hours
Carving knife	220 joints of meat	Microwave	3 kg joint
Black and white TV	7 hours	Sandwich toaster	38 sandwiches

How much energy do appliances use?

Appliance	Energy used
Electric cooker	1 kWh per person per day
Freezer	35 kWh per week per m3
Fridge	1 kWh per day
Unlagged hot water tank	160 kWh per week
Lagged hot water tank	80 kWh per week
Microwave	0.4 kWh for each kg cooked
Shower (7 kW)	3 to 4 kWh per week
Storage heater (2 kW)	45-75 kWh per week
Electric blanket	3 kWh per week
Tumble drier	Dry 4kg for 2.5 kWh
Knife sharpener	15000 knives for 1 kWh
Slow cooker	1 kWh in 8 hours

It is interesting to compare the power of various types of television. Televisions come in different sizes so I have picked a 40” screen size.


For the LCD screen with the standby of 40W you would use 105 kWh if you simply left it on standby for a year!