Air conditioning consumption: How much does an air conditioner consume?
Providing a healthy dose of cool in summer, or gentle warmth in winter with its reversible system, the air conditioner undoubtedly brings a considerable improvement in comfort levels and indoor quality of life. The installation of an air conditioner enables you to enjoy a significant gain in thermal comfort in every room, particularly in the hottest regions. During heatwaves, it's a life-saving device for the frail, so you don't have to endure temperatures outside the norm. An air conditioner is not only useful in summer, it's also very pleasant to have a reversible air conditioner in winter to warm up the various rooms in the house. However, there are many questions about the consumption of air conditioning.
But how much does an air conditioner consume? For many, air conditioning consumes energy and can greatly increase your electricity bill. So before you consider having this appliance installed in your home, it's highly advisable to take into account air conditioning consumption, as well as the right gestures to optimize its use as well as its energy consumption. How much does an air conditioner consume? Discover the best answers in this article written for you by the FrigoTech team!
Air-conditioning consumption: what budget should you expect?
Against a backdrop of global warming and rising electricity prices, the question of the cost of air-conditioning consumption often comes up. For starters, an air conditioner can be an energy-hungry appliance. Its use can easily increase the electricity bill. However, this impact on the cost of energy consumption depends on the wattage of the appliance, the rate applied by the electricity supplier, but also on the manner and habits of use of the air conditioner itself.
The power of an air conditioner
The kWh, or kilowatt-hour, simply refers to the quantity of kilowatts consumed in one hour. In fact, it's a unit of measurement that corresponds to the energy consumed by an appliance with a power of 1000 watts (or 1 kW) for one hour without interruption. Thus, the cconsumption of a 2000-watt air conditioner used for one hour is 2 kWh. If the same air conditioner is used for 30 minutes, it will consume half that, or 1 kWh.
Air-conditioning consumption calculation
To find out how much an air conditioner consumes, you need to take into account the air conditioner's electrical power in watts, the number of hours the air conditioner is used per day and the number of days the air conditioner is used over a certain period.
Thus, to obtain the air-conditioning consumption, these elements will be multiplied together, i.e. the formula :
Consumption in kWh = [(device power in watts/1000)] x (number of hours of use) x (number of days of use)
And to find out how much an air conditioner consumes in terms of price, you then need to multiply this kWh figure by the price per kWh charged by your electricity supplier.
Example
Let's say we want to know what is the consumption of an air conditioner with an electrical output of 2500 Watts that runs 6 hours a day all summer long, for example, or 3 months or 90 days.
We then have: (2500 Watts /1000) x 6 x 90 = 1350 kWh.
Now let's assume that the price per kWh is based on EDF's Tarif Bleu (regulated tariff) at 0.2062 euros/kWh.
So we have: 1350 kWh x 0.2062 euros/kWh = 278.37 euros.
For example, an air conditioner with an electrical powera of 2500 Watts will consume 1350 kWh throughout the summer, at a cost of 278.37 euros.
The type of air conditioner can also affect air conditioning consumption.
Split, mono-split, multi-split, mobile, reversible... there are several types of air conditioner. The monobloc air conditioner is one of the least expensive on the market. Easy to install, it consists of a single part to be placed inside the dwelling. With a multisplit air conditioner, one part is located inside and another outside the home. A mobile air conditioner is the most affordable, and can be placed on the floor or on wheels. Reversible air conditioners have two modes: cooling and heating. Used for both cooling and heating, reversible air conditioners can be monobloc, split or mobile.
An air conditioner with a temperature control system will further reduce your electricity bill. Temperature control is a feature that allows the air conditioner to automatically switch to standby mode depending on the desired temperature or the ambient temperature.
If you want to save on air-conditioning consumption, you also need to take the energy label into account. This is the ratio between the air conditioner's power and its consumption. The higher it is, the lower the air conditioner's consumption. There are 7 energy classes for air conditioners, on a scale from A+++ to G. The energy class of an appliance is indicated on the energy label. It's therefore wiser and more cost-effective to buy an appliance with an A+++ energy label (the least energy-intensive), even if it's a little more expensive to buy.
