If you are planning to buy a new electric pressure cooker or wondering how much electricity your existing electric pressure cooker is consuming then this article is for you. In this article we will calculate the power consumption of an electric pressure cooker and also look at how much does it cost to use one.
Also by the end you will learn to calculate power consumption of any electric pressure cooker using a simple calculator.
Electric pressure cooker are normally rated between 700 watts to 1800 watts. A 8 quarts electric pressure cooker rated at 1200 watts running for 30 minutes in a day will consume around 0.6 kWh of electricity in a day. This adds up to around 18 kWh of electricity in a month.
However, during the entire cooking cycle, only 60% of the time electric pressure cookers are consuming power at the rated wattage, for the rest of the time they consume negligible power.
Electric Pressure Cooker Power Consumption:
The power consumption of an electric pressure cooker (for that matter any electrical appliances) depends upon two main things
- First is the wattage of your electric pressure cooker,
- And second is the electricity tariff in your area.
Before we jump in to calculating the power consumption of your electric pressure cooker, lets see what these terms are and how you can find out your electric pressure cooker wattage and the electricity tariff of your locality.
If you already know these terms and just want to use the calculator then please scroll down to use the calculator.
What is the Wattage of an Electric Pressure Cooker:
The wattage of an electric pressure cooker varies from 700 watts to 1800 watts.
You can find the wattage of your electric pressure cooker by reading the label in it or just look for your electric pressure cooker on amazon and you will find its wattage in the description section.
(If you don’t have time to do this then don’t worry, I have put together a table at the end which shows power consumption of a range of electric pressure cooker with different wattages.)
If you don’t know what a watt is then here it is,
Watt is the unit of power. It means the rate at which electricity is consumed or produced by a device. For example, a 50 watt TV consumes power at a rate of 50 watts per hour, it does not mean that the TV consumed 50 units of electricity, it means it will consume power at a rate of 50 watts every hour.
So in short, the wattage of an electric pressure cooker lies between 30 watts to 1000 watts and you can find it by looking at the label on it. With that out of the way lets look at what is electricity tariff.
What is your Electricity Tariff:
In simple words electricity tariff is the amount your electricity provider charges you for one unit (kWh) of electricity. I live in Mumbai, India here the electricity tariff is Rs 12/kWh.
(What is a Kilowatt hour (kWh) – Kilowatt hours or units of electricity is the energy consumption of a device. For example a 50 watt table fan running for 50 hours will consume 50 watt x 50 hours = 2500 watt hours = 2.5 kilowatt hours of electricity = 2.5 units of electricity. (1 kWh of electricity = 1 unit of electricity))
To find your electricity tariff, just look into your previous month electricity bill and find out your monthly electricity consumption, then just divide your monthly electricity consumption with your total monthly electricity bill, the figure you get is approximately your electricity tariff.
If you don’t want to do any of this then just google electricity tariff followed by your location.
Calculate Electric Pressure Cooker Power Consumption:
With these two information in hand you are ready to find the power consumption of your electric pressure cooker.
Let me show you with an example,
I have selected a 8 quarts (7.57 litres), 1200 watt electric pressure cooker listed on amazon. Lets assume we will be using it for 30 minutes everyday throughout the year.
Hence, we will calculate the power consumption of this 1200 watt electric pressure cooker in a day, in a month and in an entire year.
Before we start with the calculation, let me clarify one thing, we are making an assumption that the pressure cooker will be consuming power at a rate of 1200 watts for the entire 30 minutes (our cooking time).
But that is not the case, in real life, pressure cooker will consume power at a rate of 1200 watts only to boil the water and pressurize the cooker, once that is done, its power consumption will drastically drop.
Hence, in reality, in the entire cooking cycle only around 60% of the time rated power is consumed, for the rest of the time there is negligible power consumption.
With the knowledge of your electric pressure cooker wattage and your electricity tariff, just use this simple formula to calculate power consumption.
Power consumption of a 1200 W electric pressure cooker = Wattage of the pressure cooker X operational hours
Cost to run a 1200 W electric pressure cooker = Power consumption of the pressure cooker X electricity tariff.
(Operational hours is basically the number of hours you are using your pressure cooker)
Now let’s calculate
Electricity consumption of A 1200 watt Electric Pressure Cooker:
In our case, wattage is 1200 watts and operational hours is 30 minutes in a day, 15 hours in a month and 182.5 hours in a year.
Hence by using the above formula.
Power consumption of a 1200 watt electric pressure cooker in a day (30 min) = 1200 watt X 0.5 hours = 600 watt hours (Wh) = 0.60 kWh
We will convert this 600 watt hour (Wh) into Kilo watt hour (kWh) as electricity tariffs are given for per kWh. To do this simply divide 600 by 1000, you will get 0.60 kWh (As 1kg = 1000g, 1km = 1000m, similarly 1kWh = 1000Wh)
Similarly, Power consumption of a 1200 watt electric pressure cooker in a month (30min/day @ 30days) = 1200 W X 15 = 18 kWh
And Power consumption of 1200 watt electric pressure cooker in a year (30min/day @ 365 days) = 1200 W X 182.5 = 219 kWh
Now that we know the power consumption just multiply it by your electricity tariff and you will get how much it will cost you to run your electric pressure cooker.
let’s calculate how much it will cost to run this 1200 watt electric pressure cooker for an entire day in Los Angeles, London and in Mumbai.
- In case of Los Angeles, the electricity tariff in Los Angeles is around 25.8 cents per kilowatt hour (kWh), hence it will cost around $ 4.64 (18 kWh X 25.8 cents) to run this 1200 watt electric pressure cooker for 30 minutes daily for an entire month.
- In case of London, the electricity tariff in London is around 36p/kWh , hence it will cost around £ 6.48 (18 kWh X 36p/kWh) to run this 1200 watt electric pressure cooker for 30 minutes daily for an entire month.
- In case of Mumbai, the electricity tariff in Mumbai is around Rs 10 per kilowatt hour (kWh), hence it will cost around Rs 180 (18 kWh X Rs 10) to run this 1200 watt electric pressure cooker for 30 minutes daily for an entire month.
For your reference I have calculated the cost to run this 1200 watt electric pressure cooker for 30 minutes daily throughout the entire year in Los Angeles, London and Mumbai.
| Country (Tariff) | Daily Power Consumption of an Electric Pressure Cooker (1200 Watt @ 30 min) | Monthly Power Consumption of an Electric Pressure Cooker (1200 Watt @ 15 hours) | Annual Power Consumption of an Electric Pressure Cooker (1200 Watt @ 182.5 hours) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Los Angeles (25.8 c/kWh) | 0.6 kWh, cents 15.48 | 18 kWh, $ 4.64 | 219 kWh, $ 56.50 |
| London (36p/kWh) | 0.6 kWh, pence 21.60 | 18 kWh, £ 6.48 | 219 kWh, £ 78.84 |
| Mumbai (Rs 10/kWh) | 0.6 kWh, Rs 6 | 18 kWh, Rs 180 | 219 kWh, Rs 2,190 |
The above figures suggest the maximum power consumption of a 1200 watt electric pressure cooker, however, the actual power consumption would be 60% to 80% of these values.
Hence, as you can see from the above table, a 8 quarts, 1200 watts electric pressure cooker running for 30 minutes everyday will consume around 131.4 kWh (60% of 219 kWh) of electricity in a year.
Electricity consumption for different Wattage Electric Pressure Cooker:
For your reference, I have made the below table which shows the power consumption of a range of electric pressure cooker having different wattages. I have assumed 30 minutes of operation everyday for an entire year.
(1 Quarts = 0.95 Liters)
| Volume | Wattage | Daily Power Consumption (30 minutes) | Monthly Power Consumption (30 min x 30 = 15 hrs) | Annual Power Consumption (30 min x 365 = 182 hrs) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 Quarts | 700 watts | 0.35 kWh | 10.5 kWh | 127.75 kWh |
| 6 Quarts | 1000 watts | 0.50 kWh | 15 kWh | 182.50 kWh |
| 8 Quarts | 1200 watts | 0.60 kWh | 18 kWh | 219 kWh |
Again, the above figures show maximum power consumption, the actual power consumption will be 60% to 80% of these values.
The reason for this variation is,
For our calculation we had assumed that the pressure cooker is consuming 1200 watts of power at all times throughout the 30 minutes cooking cycle.
However, this is not the case in real life. At the beginning of the cooking cycle, electric pressure cooker will consume power at 1200 watts to boil the water and pressurize the cooker, but once that is done it will pretty much stop or run at very low power for the remainder of the cooking cycle.
Now go ahead and use the below calculator to find out the power consumption of your electric pressure cooker.
Just type the wattage of your electric pressure cooker, hours of usage and your electricity tariff and let the calculator do the math for you.
Electric Pressure Cooker power consumption calculator:
Take 60% of the calculated value as the final power consumption.
If you are not happy with the approximate results and want to know exact power consumption, then I would suggest you buy a cheap Kill A Watt Meter from amazon.
Calculate exact power consumption of an electric pressure Cooker using Kill A Watt Meter:
Kill A Watt Meter is a simple device which gives real time data of power consumption of any device.
You can check it on amazon using this link – Kill A Watt Electricity Usage Monitor
To use a kill a watt meter to calculate the power consumption of your electric pressure cooker, first connect your electric pressure cooker plug into the kill a watt meter and then plug the kill a watt meter in your wall socket and you are good to go.
Then start using your electric pressure cooker and you can see in real time how many kWh (units) of electricity it is consuming.
You can check out this article to know more about power consumption of common household appliances.
Check out my articles on solar power for home and how it can help you save your electricity bill.
Thank you for reading.
Aavjo 👋
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References:
- https://www.globalpetrolprices.com/electricity_prices/
- https://www.statista.com/statistics/263492/electricity-prices-in-selected-countries/
- https://mecs.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Low-Power-Electric-Pressure-Cookers.pdf
