By Thad Warren
Most kitchens have a microwave thanks to how handy they can be for quickly heating or reheating your favorite food items. While many rely on their microwave for cooking, you might be surprised at how quickly your microwave uses energy.
The average home microwave oven uses The amount of energy (watts) your microwave uses depends on its size and power rating. For simplicity, we will break down energy usage by common microwave sizes.
To determine how much energy your microwave uses for any given time requires a little bit of math. First, you need to determine what wattage your microwave is. This can usually be found on a sticker on the back of your microwave.
Then you use the wattage to determine how many kilowatts your microwave uses in an hour a.k.a kilowatt-hours. If your microwave is rated at 1000 watts it uses 1 kilowatt (kW) per hour.
Now that you know how much energy your microwave uses in an hour we just need to multiply it by the time it is running. For example, if your 1000-watt microwave runs for 5 minutes that is 1/12th of an hour. You then multiply the time your microwave runs by the number of kilowatt-hours it uses.
1 hour = 1kW of energy used
5 minutes = 1/12th of an hour
1kW x 1/12th = .0833kWh
Now that you know how to calculate how much energy your microwave uses in any given time we can now calculate how much it costs to run it. We will just simply add one extra step to the formula above where we multiply the usage by your costs per kWh.
(Kilowatts/hour) x (time running) x ($ per kilowatt-hour) = Energy cost to run appliance
An applied to our earlier example:
1kW x 1/12th = .0833kWh
.0833kWh x $0.10kWh = $.0083
If you’re energy-conscious like us, you want the best bang for your buck when it comes to energy usage and wallet. We reviewed dozens of microwaves to find the best energy-efficient microwaves at various price points and sizes.
Farberware Classic FMO07ABTBKA 0.7 Cu. Ft. 700-Watt Microwave Oven
Buy it on Amazon for $59.99: Buy Now
Small simple and only 700 watts. This is a great microwave that won’t break the bank and doesn’t use a lot of power.
Toshiba EM131A5C-BS Microwave Oven with Smart Sensor & ECO Mode
Buy it on Amazon for $129.99: Buy Now
A great affordable microwave with all the bells and whistles you would expect plus one green feature, "ECO mode". ECO mode reduces the microwave's energy consumption by 50% while in standby mode.
Panasonic Microwave Oven NN-SN686S Stainless Steel with Inverter Technology & Genius Sensor
Buy it on Amazon for 191.89: Buy Now
Sleek modern design paired with sensor and inverter technology that reduces the time needed to properly heat your food. Less runtime means less energy usage!
