British Columbia International School Bangkok

Gift/Krittiya Sagaekhao
Grade 11
22128

Household Electricity Bill Investigation

Physics 11
Semester 1

Instructor: Mr. Maciej Tomczak

Date: 2020-12-07
Introduction
Electrical bills are one of the most essential payments we cannot avoid.
However, it is possible to lessen the cost we need to pay through reducing the
usage of electricity. This can be achieved through determining the total amount
of power consumption we use during a month time period. In identifying the
most power consuming appliances, I can respond accordingly and manage my
usage of electricity on the daily basis.

Method
To begin this investigation, I explored my house and recorded every
electrical appliances which were currently in use. During the search, the wattage
of the objects were noted down and converted to kilowatt. While some of the
appliances included the wattage on label, several might not state the value of the
wattage itself. This was common in some of the appliances such as a computer
charger or a refrigerator. Nonetheless, the wattage can still be acquired through
multiplying the amps and the voltage of the appliance. (see Equation 1).

P=A*V (Eq. 1)

Where:
P is the power (W)
A is the amps (A)
V is the volts (V)

If the label of the appliance was inaccessible, then searching the model up
on its official website will be another alternative. The label will usually be
included on the manual of the appliance. In the case of the model being too old
or the official website never specifying the specification, ​DaftLogic​ (DaftLogic,
Undated) was a website that lists minimum and maximum wattage of most
household appliances. Another website that listed wattages of different
appliances was ​Save Joules (​ Farid, Nida R., 2020). Unlike DaftLogic, Save
Joules only listed wattage for televisions, lights, air conditioners, fridges, fans,
printers, deep freezers, generators, and washing machines. However, this
website provided specific wattage of different models of an appliance not a
wide range of wattage for each appliance.
 H​m​ = H​d​ * 30 (Eq. 2)

Where:
H​m​ is the hour per month (hr)
H​d​ is hour per day (hr)
30 is the amount of days in a month (d)

After all the appliances and their wattage were noted down, estimated the
hours of usage of each appliance per day. As shown in Eq.2, multiply H​d by
​ 30
to have the estimated hour of use per month. Then, H​m need
​ to be multiplied by
P to have the monthly energy usage. (see Equation 3).

E​m​ = H​m​ * P (Eq. 3)

Where:
E​m​ is the monthly energy used (kWh)

Once the monthly energy usage was calculated, the appliance that
consumed the most energy in a month would be apparent. To find the price of
E​m​, find the average cost of electrical energy per kWh in your country. In
Thailand the price was 4 baht. Thus, multiply E​m​ of each appliance by 4 to find
the cost of electricity in Thailand. (see Equation 4).

P​kWh =
​ E​m​ * 4 (Eq. 4)

Where:
P​kWh​ is the price of electricity per kilowatt-hour (baht)
4 is the average cost of electrical energy per kWh in Thailand (baht)
Results

Figure 1. A Sankey diagram showing the power consumption of each

appliance in a kilowatt-hour unit.

As seen in Figure 1, the most power consuming appliance in the house

was the air conditioners. Since Thailand was a tropical country, air conditioners
were very important to most households. In this sankey diagram of this month
estimated electrical power consumption, the air conditioner took up
approximately 68.58% of the total electrical usage. This was a result of the
heavy power consumption from the air conditioners themselves and the
abundance number of this appliance in my house. (see Figure 2).

Figure 2. A Sankey diagram showing the power consumption of each air

conditioner in a kilowatt-hour unit.

To verify the accuracy of the estimation, I compared the estimated value

and the true value of the total power consumption from the electrical bill
together. The true value is 2546 kWh, 636.4046 kWh less than the estimated
value. I find the error percentage through using the equation: ε% = |xEstxT−rue
xT rue|
.
The percentage error of the estimated value was about 24% - 25%.

Discussion
According to ​Howard Air​ (Howard Air, 2020), the air conditioner has a
thermostat which senses the temperature inside the room. When the room
temperature reaches the commanded temperature, the air conditioner shuts off
and turns on again when the room temperature rises. This causes a fluctuation in
the power consumption during the usage of the appliance. Thus, the same rate of
wattage cannot be simply multiplied by the hours of usage. In this investigation,
the energy used by the air conditioner was assumed to be the same throughout
the entire period of usage. Therefore, this caused the estimated value of monthly
energy used by the air conditioner to be slightly overestimated.

The same can be assumed for the refrigerators. As shown in Figure 1, the
refrigerators consumed the second most energy in the sankey diagram. It takes
up approximately 15.16% of the total power consumption. I assumed that the
power rating label on the refrigerator is the same amount of power consumed by
the refrigerator per hour. However, refrigerators behaved like air conditioners.
According to ​Cosmos​ (Port, Jack 2020), when the desired temperature is
reached inside the refrigerator, the compressor stops running. The wall’s
insulation ensured that the cool air remained trapped inside the refrigerator.
Unless I installed an electrical meter for the refrigerator or counted how many
times a month my family opens the refrigerator’s door, there is no way to
estimate the right amount of power consumption of the refrigerator. Thus, the
estimated value of refrigerator monthly energy used will be slightly higher than
the true value.

Conclusion
I came to the conclusion that the air conditioner is the most power
consuming appliance in the house. While its usage was certainly inevitable in a
tropical climate, there were methods which can reduce the amount of power
wasted. Arrangements such as opening the window, turning off the air
conditioners when leaving the room, and turning it off when the temperature
was bearable would assist in reducing the power consumption.
Reference list
DraftLogic (Undated) ​List of the Power Consumption of Typical Household
Appliances​ [Online]. Available at:
https://www.daftlogic.com/information-appliance-power-consumption.htm
[Accessed 7 December 2020].

Farid, Nida R. (2020) ​Save Joules​ [Online] Available at: ​https://savejoules.com/

[Accessed 7 December 2020].

Howard Air (2020) ​How Does Air Conditioning Work?​ [Online] Available at:
https://howardair.com/how-does-air-conditioning-work/​ [Accessed 7 December
2020]

Port, Jake (2020) Trying to explain. ​How a refrigerator keeps its cool 22 June
2016​ [Online]: Cosmos] Available at:
https://cosmosmagazine.com/space/black-holes-behind-first-gravitational-wave-
detection-were-once-massive-stars/​ [Accessed 7 December 2020].