A couple of months ago I had a whooper of a power bill which I have managed to make in-roads into this month . It got me thinking about what in our home actually uses the most power, and some of what I found was actually quite surprising.

I used the energywise running costs calculator  to work out the approximate costs of some of our key appliances, and it was a really interesting exercise. This is approximately how much my appliances cost to run each year:

- Heat Pump (Living Area) $136.87 per year*(heating four months of the year)
- Head Pump (Bedroom) $61.23 per year* (heating four months of the year)
- Dishwasher (5 loads per week) $52.88
- Fridge / Freezer (main) $89.92
- Fridge / Freezer (garage) $89.92
- Little Freezer $70.35
- Washing Machine $79.14 (10 loads per week on warm)
- TV $39.97
- Computer $50
* note: heat pump costs are only for heating, does not include use for cooling (I’ve no idea if cooling uses more or less energy than heating?)

Here are some of the things that surprised me:

• I was really surprised that the dishwasher costed so little to use, and it was really good to see how much of a difference the energy stars made to the running cost. When it comes to buying new appliances I'll definitely be buying 5 stars where possible.
• The running cost between a smaller and larger freezer aren't that hugely different, so buying a proper chest freezer wont cost us too much more to run and could potentially save a lot in foods costs (if I'm clever and organised).
• I couldn't believe the difference in cost between doing warm vs cold washes in the machine. Warm washes nearly $80, change it to cold washes less than $20 a year! I don't think I'll be able to / want to do every single wash in cold water but for some of the more lightly soiled items this is a really good cost saving option. Even if I do 50% in cold it will still make a difference.
• While heat pumps are some of the most energy efficient types of heating, they still chew through the power – the above costs are just for heating for 4 months of the year – if I double the costs to include cooling it would be nearing $400 per year to run the heat pumps- ouch!

If I add up the above I know that it doesn't come anywhere near what our annual power bills come to so I'm going to do a bit more investigative work into what the other costs are that contribute to our power bill, particularly in regards to lighting and heating.

This post first appeared on Nested , republished with permission.

The information contained in this article is of a general nature and should not be taken as advice. It reflects the opinions of the writer only and does not necessarily reflect the opinions of New Zealand Home Loans.