Conducting a Home Energy Experiment
See how small changes affect your energy use
Use a home area network monitor to test how much electricity different appliances use in your home or business. This experiment helps you understand the cost of running devices like electric ovens, clothes dryers, or hair dryers.
How to perform the experiment
Safety and equipment
Before starting, make sure the area is dry and free from water sources like sinks. Make sure children are supervised if they're present while you're conducting the experiment.
You'll need a home area network monitor (or its connected app) and an electric appliance, such as a hair dryer, oven, or clothes dryer.
Steps
- Find your home’s baseline energy use—check how much electricity you're using before starting.
- Plug in and turn on the appliance
- Wait a few seconds and observe the energy usage increase
- Record the new energy usage from the monitor
- Turn off the appliance and note how usage decreases
- Subtract the original baseline from the new usage number to determine how much electricity the appliance consumes
- Repeat with other appliances and compare results
Final test – Identifying 'always-on' energy use
Some appliances use energy 24/7, even when turned off. To measure this:
- Turn off lights and all safely handled devices
- Check how much electricity your home still uses
- The remaining energy usage comes from appliances that run continuously, such as refrigerators or devices with "vampire loads"