Understand Your Electricity: which appliances use the most electricity?

Here are some numbers from the Energy Information Administration. They are from 2001, the most recent available.

The two biggest components of household electricity use are heating, ventilation and cooling, which go by the catchy acronym "HVAC," and kitchen appliances. HVAC accounts for 31% of the total household use and kitchen appliances account for another 26%.

Air-conditioning is the single biggest electricity user in American households, totaling more than 182 billion kWh. More than 85% of that is for central A/C.

Space heating alone accounts for more than 10% of U.S. household electricity use, more than 115.5 billion kWh; space heaters account for more energy use than either lighting or home electronics, even though space heaters are found in only 43% of all households.

After A/C, refrigerators are the biggest electricity users, requiring 156 billion kWh per year. The average fridge uses 1239 kWh per year. Current Energy Star models use between 400 and 500 kWh per year.

Stand-alone freezers use a remarkable 3.5 % of the household total, even though they are found in only 34% of all homes. Dishwashers, which are found in 56% of all homes, account for only 2% of the household total.

Lighting accounts for 8.8% of the U.S. household total, about 100 billion kWh.

All home electronics account for only 7.2%, or 82.3 billion kWh.

Not surprisingly, TVs are the most common household electronic item, averaging more than 2 per household; they account for about 33.1 billion kWh. or 2% of the total.

Way down on the list, cordless phones and answering machines each account for less than .2% of the household total, or about 4.4 billion kWh between the two of them.