AC Bill: How to calculate cost of running an air conditioner

Photo Credit: Pexels

To measure the electricity usage of your air conditioner, you can use a kilowatt-hour (kWh) meter provided by your utility company.

Photo Credit: Pexels

If your utility company does not provide billing data, you can calculate the usage yourself, although it is a more complex process than using a kWh meter.

Photo Credit: Unsplash

Key Factors for Calculation: 1.Your air conditioner uses 100 watts at full blast. 2. A single watt-hour represents 1 watt of power used for one hour. 

Photo Credit: Pexels

3. On average, a home uses about 1/10th of an amp (0.1A) on 120VAC circuits during peak periods. 4. Most appliances consume between 1/10th and 1/100th of an amp, depending on their electricity usage.

Photo Credit: Pexels

Calculation example: Assuming no other electrical appliances are running while the air conditioner is on. Each "cycle" of the air conditioner takes 10 seconds at full blast. 

Photo Credit: Pexels

0.1 amps x 60 cycles = 6 amps x 10 seconds = 60 watts x 100 seconds = 6 kilowatts over one hour. If the thermostat is set at 75 degrees, the air conditioner will run constantly until it reaches that temperature, which may take approximately 5 hours.

Photo Credit: Pexels

If your air conditioner is old and has a side-mounted compressor, it likely uses around 200 watts. To calculate the power consumption of such an air conditioner when running: 

Photo Credit: Pexels

1. Multiply the wattage (200) by the number of hours per day. 2. Divide the result by 1000 to obtain the energy usage in kilowatt-hours. Data provided by TCL.