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How to reduce home electricity bill, What makes electricity bill high?

Electricity bills are calculated from the reading taken monthly on your electric meter. The best way to understand what electricity is, is to think of electricity as water under pressure which can turn your fan and make the lights come on. So the electricity meter is like a water meter measuring how much quantity has been consumed. Like the measure of water is a ‘Liter’, the measure for electricity is called a ‘Kilowatt-Hour’ commonly referred to as a ‘Unit’ of Electricity. 

What makes electricity bill high is mainly the use of high electric consuming appliances like AC (Air Conditioners), electric heating appliances like electric cookers including induction cookers and electric kettles, Fridge, etc. Therefor to reduce your monthly electricity bill the first thing to do is to avoid using any electric heating appliances like electric hot plates, induction cookers, electric kettle. Use a gas stove for this purpose, using gas for all heating is much cheaper than paying a high electricity bill. Regarding AC and fridge, use more efficient inverter models of AC and Fridge.

How electricity bill is calculated

To give an example of how electricity is measured, imagine a ceiling fan of 100 watts working for 10 hours. The electricity consumed by this fan will be the fan watts multiplied by the time it runs. So  100 watts x 10 hours = 1000 watt hours. 1000 watts is 1 Kilowatt, so 1000 watt hours will be equal to 1 Kilowatt hours or 1 unit of electricity. If this fan works for 10 hours daily for 30 days or a month, then the monthly electric bill for the fan will be 30 days x 1 unit per day = 30 units in a month. Assuming a unit of electricity costs Rs.5-, then the monthly electricity bill for this fan will be 30 x 5 = Rs.150- per month.

How to reduce electricity usage

What makes high electricity bills are the use of high power consuming electric appliances and the use for long time of fans, lights, etc. So these are some of the ways to save and reduce electricity use at home and thereby reduce house electricity bill: 

1. Use less watt electrical bulbs, like LED bulbs which give same light output but using less watts.
2. Reduce the time of operating electrical equipment like fans.
3. Use star rated electrical appliances like fridge, ACs, etc.
4. Electrical heating uses lots of current or electricity. So do not use electricity for cooking.  Normal Electric water heaters in the bathroom consume around 2 to 2.5 units of electricity per hour. Use of a solar water heater can save quite a bit of money.
5. Talking of solar, if you have the possibility of having a grid connected solar power system installed in your house, then it could be possible to get your electricity free with no monthly electric bill at all. I have 
   in my house a 4 KW solar power system with 16 solar panels connected to the Government Electricity Board Grid. Even though I am using an AC daily in the night, I get no electricity bill, it is free. So a Solar Grid connected System is the best solution for high electricity bills.

Let us work out a real world example of trying to calculate the expected monthly electricity bill for a typical middle class family in India. The following table gives the wattage and daily usage time of typical household appliances owned by a middle class family in India. The total electric power consumption is calculated as follows:

Monthly electricity bill calculation

Appliance	Watts	No.	Hours	Watt x Hours	Units /day
CFL Bulbs	15	8	4	480	0.48
Cieling Fans	100	3	8	2400	2.40
TV 32 inch LED	40	1	4	160	0.16
Fridge 250L 4★ 501 U/year*			24		1.37
Micro wave	700	1	0.5	350	0.35
induction cooker	1200	1	1	1200	1.20
Air Fryer	1500	1	0.5	500	0.5
Others	150	1	3	450	0.45
Total					7.01

To calculate the monthly electricity bill, the total daily usage of 7 Kilo-watt hours calculated in the above table has to be multiplied by 30. So 7×30=210 Kilowatt hours or 210 units of electricity a month. If the charge for electricity is ₹5- per unit then the monthly electricity bill would be Rs.1050-

How some of the items in the above table is worked out is explained like this. For the example of ceiling fans of 100 watts each. We assume daily usage of 3 fans running for 8 hours daily. So you consume 100 watts x 8 hours x 3 fans = 2400 watt-hours which is = 2.4 Kilo-watt hours, since 1000 watts makes 1 Kilowatt. So every day you consume 2.4 Units of electricity when you use the 3 fans of 100 watts each for 8 hours a day.

Similarly for 8 CFL bulbs of 15 watts each used for 4 hours daily on an average, the total current consumption of the CFL lamps will be 8x15x4=480watts and for a month the current consumption of the 8 CFL lamps will be ⁴⁸⁰/₁₀₀₀=0.48 KWH or units of electricity in a month.

For the fridge we have taken the annual consumption of a 4★ (4 star) rated fridge of 250 Liter capacity as 501 units in a year running 24 hours daily for 365 days in a year. This information is obtained from the Government of India’s Bureau of Energy Efficiency. Dividing 501 by 365 gives us the daily power consumption of the fridge as 1.37 units a day.

In the case of an Air fryer 1500 watts is the highest power on Air fryer models. The maximum time an air fryer needs to cook a main meal is about 30 minutes. During this 30 minutes, the air fryer heater will not be ‘ON’ all the time, meaning that there will be intervals when the heater coil will be switched off by the automatic temperature control when the cooking temperature has reached the set cooking temperature. The heater of an air fryer consumes more than 90% of the power, the blower and other parts together consume less than 10% of the power. So it can be safely assumed that the air fryer heater coil power is ‘ON’ for two thirds of the time during cooking and one third of the time the power to heating coil will be ‘OFF’.

Two thirds is = 0.67 and 30 minutes = 0.5 hours. So the air fryer will consume 1500×0.5×0.67 = 502.5 watt hours or approximately 0.5 Kilo-Watt Hours or half a unit of electricity per air fryer cooking cycle of 30 minutes.

An air fryer cooking time with 30 minutes is only reached on rare occasions, most of the recipes for air frying takes only about 15 minutes on an average. Thus the maximum electricity an air fryer can use is not more than half a unit of electricity in a day. In case you do 2 air frying cooking of 30 minutes each, the maximum electric power consumed by the air fryer will only be 1 unit of electricity in a day. The Air Fryer in the example given above is the one with 1500 watts power, but most of the Air Fryers have a power rating which is less than 1500 watts and therefore consume much less than the half unit of electricity in a day.

Electric power used by domestic appliances

We have provided below a table with the approximate wattage of some typical everyday used electrical appliances. Most of the electrical domestic appliances have their wattage on a label prominently fixed or stamped on the appliance. So that way you will know exactly how many watts the appliance consumes.

Advantage of Online buying of Home Appliances

Whatever Home Appliance you plan to buy, it is best to first do an online research about all available types and models on the leading online retailers in India, namely Amazon, Flipkart and Snapdeal. The advantage of first doing an online research about products you plan to buy is that you get to see all the available models of the product and you get to compare prices online. After this you can go around to the showrooms and do window shopping.

You should then decide to buy from the cheapest and most reliable source. When buying online, you can be sure that you will not get fake products and you are assured of after sales service. This is because the giant on-line retailers arrange for delivery to your house directly through the manufacturers of the product. Due to the high volume of business from the big online retailers, all manufacturers will make sure that any delivery on behalf of the big online retailers are of the best quality and that after sales service is provided on a priority basis.

If ever you have any problems, then you can go back to these online retailers and complain. All of these big online sellers have a reputation to keep and they always make sure that all complaints are promptly solved.

Advantage of buying AC, Fridge, Washing Machine, etc. online

Buying online fridges, washing machines, dishwashers and other major kitchen appliances is now the better option in India, just like it is in the USA and other advanced countries. There are several advantages of buying online. First of all, you get unbeatable bargain prices. Secondly, you get new and genuine products. Other benefits include no interest EMI payments, able to return the product for a full refund if not satisfied, etc.

Just to give you an example, below are some of the benefits Amazon India, the leading global online retailer, offered in India during their last sale. The same deals are not always available, but it is a good idea to check this link to the special offers page on Amazon.in India website.

• 30 to 50% off on ACs, Fridges, Washing Machines, Microwaves, Small Appliances, Chimneys, etc.
• Up to Rs. 10,000- off in Exchange
• No cost 0% EMI
• 10% Cashback on CitiBank Cards
• 100% Genuine Products
• Pre-Scheduled Delivery and Installation

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