Eli5 Appliance power consumption and what you pay

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How does power consumption with appliances work? For things like refrigerators and coffee machines, is there a low draw of power since it’s in an “idle” mode and only ramps up when it’s cooling or being used? Same with my computer? My Graphics card is rated to 341w. Is that under the highest of loads or is that a constant draw?

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Anonymous 0 Comments

Most appliances pull very little power when idle. The only power consumed might be a low voltage transformer converting high voltage to something for an LED display or array of controls but it’s very negligible compared to say a refrigerator compressor or microwave when heating. For just about any device however, the maximum wattage is usually higher than what you would ever see it demand. That’s because it could be operating on a lower voltage system (208V vs 220) or because it’s operating in a hot environment with a dirty coil. So the data plate showing the maximum wattage is usually a worst case scenario.

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