What is Wattage
Wattage is the rate at which electricity is used. It tells you how much power an appliance consumes per second. One watt (W) equals one joule of energy used each second. In a direct current (DC) system, 1 W is often the same as 1 VA.
Many people ask, “How many watts does my house use?” Different devices need different amounts of power. For example, an old-style incandescent bulb may use 60 watts. A modern LED bulb can produce the same brightness using only 10 watts.
Understanding the wattage consumption of various appliances in your house allows you to cut electricity costs.
Household Watt Calculator
To estimate the total watt of your house, you need to gather the wattage information for each appliance. You can often find this on a label or sticker placed on the back or bottom of your devices. Look for a number followed by a “W,” which stands for watts. If you cannot find it on the device, you can check the owner’s manual or the manufacturer’s website.
However, sometimes your appliance don't tell you watt number. According to Watts law, Watts = Volts x Amps. Well, if you have a bulb with 120 V and 0.5 A current, the watts would be 60 W.
Once you have the wattage for each appliance, list them out. For example, you might write down: refrigerator (120 watts), television (100 watts), laptop (50 watts), and so on.Some household watt calculators let you enter how many hours a day you use each item. For instance, if you use a 60-watt light bulb for two hours per day, that would be 120 watt-hours of energy. After you list the wattage and usage time for each device, the calculator adds them up. It then gives you a total watt-hour or kilowatt-hour figure. A kilowatt-hour (kWh) is just 1,000 watt-hours. Electricity bills usually measure energy in kilowatt-hours. So, if you find out your home uses 900 watt-hours a day, that is 0.9 kWh each day. A household watt calculator is helpful when you want to reduce your energy use. By seeing which appliances have high wattage, you can decide which ones to turn off more often.
Solar Powered House Guide
A solar-powered house can help you reduce your reliance on the grid. It can also lower your electricity costs in the long run. Although installing solar panels can seem expensive at first, the savings may justify the cost over time.
Before you install solar panels, it is important to know how much energy you use. You can see your total energy usage in a day, a week, or even a month. Having these numbers makes it easier to plan your solar system.
Once you know your energy needs, it becomes easier to choose a solar system. You can decide if you want to offset some or all of your power use with solar panels. You can look at how many watts each solar panel can produce, and how many panels you might need.
If you decide you want to power most of your home with solar, you will likely need a larger system. If you only want to lower your electric bill a bit, you might choose a smaller system that covers some of your household demand.
Another part of a solar-powered house is the battery storage system. A deep-cycle solar battery can store the energy your panels create during sunny hours. Then, you can use that stored energy at night or on cloudy days. The household watt calculator can also help you pick the right battery size. You need to know how many watt-hours of energy you want to store. If your home uses 5 kWh each day, you might choose a battery that can store at least that much, or more for extra safety.
Sometimes, you will run into other units, such as milliamp hours (mAh). You might see these on battery labels, especially for smaller backup batteries or portable devices. One ampere is a measure of electrical current. When we say an ampere-hour (Ah), it means the current a battery can provide for one hour. For example, if a battery has 2 Ah, it can theoretically supply a current of 2 amperes for one hour before it is empty.
But many batteries label their capacity in milliamp hours, or mAh. One ampere has 1,000 milliamperes (mA). So, 1 Ah equals 1,000 mAh. If a battery label says 2,000 mAh, that is 2 Ah. You might also need to convert ampere-hours (Ah) into watt-hours (Wh). To do this, multiply the ampere-hours by the voltage of the battery. For instance, if you have a 12V battery rated at 100 Ah, multiply 12 by 100 to get 1,200 Wh (or 1.2 kWh). This figure is the total energy that the battery can store.
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