Washing Machine Power Consumption Calculator

Power Consumption of A Washing Machine

washing-machine-power-consumption

The power consumption of a washing machine depends on three major factors, first is the wattage of electric motor that spins the drum, second is heating equipment that provides hot water mix for cleaning and third is the size (6 kg, 7 kg, 8 kg) and type of washing machine (front, top load). Apart from electric motor other auxiliary components like pumps, automatic valves and digital control panels use only a tiny bit of energy.

Out of all the components in a washing machine, the heating equipment consumes a large chunk of power (70%) and the rest of the components like motor, pump, display consumes significantly less power (30%).

You can find the wattage of your washing machine from the silver color sticker that will be on the back or side of your washing machine or just google your washing machine model with its brand name and you should be able to find it’s wattage.

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Impact of heating water in a BOSCH 7 kg top load washing machine

To use the washing machine power consumption calculator to calculate the power consumption of your washing machine and to interpret the results correctly you should understand the following terms.

If you already know these terms and just want to use the washing machine power consumption calculator then feel free to scroll down the page to use it.

  • What is Watt (W) – Watt is a unit of power. It means the rate at which electricity is consumed or produced by a device. For example a 50 watt LED 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.
  • What is Kilowatt (kW) – Kilowatt is also a unit of power. Kilowatt (KW) is used for large devices that consume more power. For example a 1.5 kW air conditioner, 6 kW elevator. There are bigger units like Megawatt (MW), Gigawatt (GW) to describe large power consumption or generation. For example 100 Megawatt (MW) coal power plant. (1 kW = 1000 W)
  • What is a Kilowatt hour (kWh) – Units as described in electricity bill a.k.a kilowatt hour is the energy consumption of a device. For example a 50 watt Television (TV) 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)
  • Electricity Tariff – Electricity tariff is the amount the electricity provider charges you for one unit (kWh) of electricity. I live in Mumbai, India here the electricity tariff is Rs 12/kWh. If you don’t know how to calculate your tariff then just divide your total bill by monthly power consumption and you will get your electricity tariff.
  • What is operational hours – Operational hours of a device refers to how many hours the device is working. If you run your television for 3 hours then operational hours of your television is 3 hours.

To calculate the power consumption of your washing machine Just put the wattage of your washing machine, operational hours and electricity tariff in your locality and you will get the units of electricity consumed by your washing machine and the impact it will have on your electricity bill.

If you don’t know the wattage of your washing machine then take it 800 watt – 1,000 watt as most washing machine have at least this much of rated power without the heating device and if you want to consider heating as well then take 2,000 watts.

Calculate Washing Machine Power Consumption:

How To Interpret calculated results:

Ignore this if your washing machine does not have water heating feature

NOTE: The results you get from the calculator will give you power consumption of a washing machine when it uses hot water to clean clothes (meaning the heater in your washing machine heats the water), if you use normal regular water (30 C) without heating it then the power consumption of your washing machine will be half of the value quoted in the calculator.

If you want to calculate exact power consumption of your washing machine then please check out this blog.

Tips to reduce washing machine power consumption:

Here are 5 tips which will help you to reduce your washing machine power consumption and save some electricity bill.

  1. Wash your clothes in cold water as often as possible.
  2. Pre-soak stains to easily clean it.
  3. Wait for a full load (Wash clothes thrice in a week instead of daily wash).
  4. Run your washing machine on the shortest cycle (Use eco mode or fast mode, if available).
  5. Switch off the power from the wall socket(No stand by mode).

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