Every appliance in your home or business draws its own level of particular energy. The level of energy needed to run that particular appliance is measured by the appliance’s power rating, in watts or kilowatts, and the amount of time that the appliance is on. The combination of power that is needed and the length of time that it is needed results in an energy usage, in watt-hours or kilowatt-hours. For example, a cellular telephone charger has a power rating of 10 watts. If you charge your phone for 1 hour, that charger has used 10 watt-hours. Because you purchase kilowatt-hour units of electricity from the national grid, the power ratings below have been given in kilowatts instead of watts.

In order to calculate your energy requirement, make a list of the products in your home or business. Next to each appliance record the power rating and the amount of hours the appliance is used for in one day. By multiplying the power rating and the number of hours, you will have the number of units of electricity that appliance uses in one day. Add all the appliances energy requirements for a total energy requirement per day. For those that are comfortable with the Microsoft Excel Workbook, it is an excellent tool to use when estimating your power requirement (click here to download). Note that, your television draws the same amount of energy “on” as it does on “standby”, the television will only stop drawing electricity when the power button is “off”. Also a cellular phone charger draws energy continuously whenever it is plugged into a plug point, to stop this unplug the charger when it is not in use.

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Federal solar tax credits extended thru 2008!