Electric Heaters: Power Use (Wattage) and Cost Calculation

As the name suggests, like other regular home electrical appliances, we have to plug electric heaters to electric outlet in order to make them run because they also consume electric power to operate! The electrical energy will be converted to the heat energy that eventually will be used to warm up the temperature of the room. And having accurate data about how much the power consumptions of your electric heaters will be helpful to estimate and calculate the amount heat will be produced as well as the running costs that we have to pay for each month. The calculation of power use of your unit is also important to make sure you use the correct size unit so thus you can avoid improper size either lower or over size!

The power use calculation can be mathematically counted from the power rating and wattage specification of your unit! The following is simple guide on how to calculate the power use and cost to operate your electric heaters!

1. The wattage of the unit usually can be found on the appliance casing. So take a look at your appliance casing and then find the wattage specification! Instance, if you see a 2.5 kW in the cashing, this means the unit needs 2.5 kilowatts / hour to run. The wattage may be stated in W (watts) or kW (kilowatts).
2. If you cannot find the specification of your unit in watts or kilowatts, you can calculate it from amperes (electric current) and voltage (to plug in the unit). Standard electric heaters are usually plugged into 120 Volt. Instance, if the amps of the unit is 10 A, so you can get => 10 Amps x 120 Volt = 1,200 Watts =1.2 kilowatts!
3. You can use a simple formula to calculate the power consumption ‘kilowatts x hours (time)’! Instance, to get the data of the power usage of a electric heating unit with 10-kilowatts left working for 3 hours, you can calculate for the power usage = 10 kW x 3 hours = 30 kWh!

Now, how to calculate the costs:

1. Gather the correct data of the total wattage for all active electric heating units that you have in your home!
2. Find KWH (the cost/ kilowatt-hour) of the electricity in your local area! To get the correct information about it, you can ask to electric company in your local area.
3. Then multiply the KWH by the total wattage of all electric heating units that you have. Instance, the total wattage of all units that you have is 3 kW/ hour, and the KWH of electrical power in your local area is $ 0.21; then you will get the total cost is “3 x 0.21= $0.63 /hour to operate!
4. And to estimate the total cost that you have to pay for each month, first you have to approximate the average hours per day to operate your electric heaters. Instance, for each day you can turn on your units at around 10 hours / day, then you can get total energy bill that you must pay in the end of the month = 10 hours/ day x 30 (1 month = 30 days) x $1.89 = $189!

Read also infrared heaters and kerosene heater!