Some household appliances can use as much energy as electric cars.

The popularity of electric vehicles is growing. More people than ever want to buy it, and car brands are producing a wider range of EV models than ever before.

As their popularity grows, some people worry about how the surge in electric vehicles could affect their electricity bills.

Mary asked to CHECK in the email if there are any home appliances that are “equivalent” to electric vehicles in terms of electricity consumption. “Will charging an electric car be about the same as buying another refrigerator or air conditioner, or is it much worse?” she asked.

Does charging an electric car use the same amount of electricity as other household appliances?

Some household appliances consume the same amount of electricity as electric vehicles, but this varies by appliance and vehicle. Some people use less and some more.

The power requirements of both electric vehicles and home appliances vary depending on the efficiency of your models as well as how often you use them.

We’ll show you what we mean by comparing several electric vehicles to several different appliances, including multiple models of the same type of appliance, based on how much the average home uses per year.

First, let’s count electric vehicles.

According to Fueleconomy.gov, which is run by the US Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), new electric vehicles use anywhere from 0.24 kWh (kilowatt-hour, a measure of electricity consumption) per mile to 0.53 kWh per mile.

The Federal Highway Administration reported that the average driver drove 14,263 miles in 2019. So if you were to drive as much as the average person and fully charge your car at home for a year, you would use between 3,423 kWh and 7,559 kWh to charge a new electric car.

Here is a breakdown of how much electricity each of the six popular EV models using this model will consume annually:

Now let’s compare this to household appliances.

According to the US Energy Information Administration’s 2015 Residential Energy Survey, the two most energy-consuming appliances in the average American household are water heaters and electric stoves. The average home uses just over 3,000 kWh of electricity per year to heat air and another 3,000 kWh to heat water, which means that an electric car will need at least a little more electricity than is required to run each of these appliances in the home. average American home.

But one reason this statement needs context is that not all appliances are created equal. There are some appliances that use more electricity than many electric vehicles.

EnergySage, a renewable energy market funded by the US Department of Energy, reports that the most common electric stove consumes about 3,163 kWh of electricity per year. But EnergySage also notes that electric furnaces are powerful enough to consume 4,745 kWh of electricity per year.

When it comes to water heaters, the average model usually uses slightly less electricity than the most common electric vehicles, but some water heaters require much less electricity. A single Rheem water heater consumes about 3,531 kWh of electricity per year, according to the EnergyGuide label required on many appliances by the federal government. On the other hand, Rheem’s high-efficiency water heater consumes 1,219 kWh per year, according to its EnergyGuide tag.

Air conditioners also vary in size. For example, a typical 1.5 ton central air conditioner, the smallest size available for most product lines, consumes about 1485 kWh over the course of a year. However, according to PickHVAC, an online heating and cooling buying guide, a 5-ton air conditioner, the largest size in most household product lines, typically consumes 4,950 kWh of electricity per year.

Many other appliances consume much less electricity. New refrigerators use several hundred kilowatt-hours per year, while 25-year-old refrigerators consume 1,031 kilowatt-hours of electricity per year, according to Sense, a company that makes home energy monitors. EnergySage says a typical washing machine consumes no more than 220 kWh per year, while the average dishwasher is likely to consume about 300 kWh or less per year.