How Many Watts Does a House Use?
How many watts does a house use per day in South Africa? It’s a question that you are likely to ask if you have plans to move over to solar. Having a properly sized system is a good way through which to ensure that there are no disruptions when it comes to the running of your gadgets.
A lot of people make the mistake of not carrying out proper calculations. If you go down this route, you may discover that your system is grossly undersized. As a result, you will have to switch off some appliances at certain times, which can be a hassle. So, you need to know the average wattage needed per house in a day, week, month and year.
Average wattage needed per household in South Africa
The table below answers the question “how many watts does a house use per day in South Africa,”
| Duration | Number of watts needed |
|---|---|
| Daily | 1200 watts |
| Monthly | 36000 watts |
| Annual | 432000 watts |
Factors that affect power usage
That’s the answer to the question how many watts does a house use per day, per month or per year in South Africa. But what are some of the factors that affect power consumption in the country?
Income level
In general, richer households use more power than poorer ones across the country. There are a number o reasons for this. For one thing, richer households tend to have more power draining appliances. They also tend to be not so cognizant of their power usage. Meanwhile, poorer households usually take steps to proactively reduce consumption.
Number of appliances
This is something to which we have already alluded in the above section. In general, the more the appliances that you have the more likely it is that you are going to end up using up a lot of power. Households whose only appliances are a TV and lights are not likely to use much power. As noted, this is related to wealth.
Size of home
Bigger homes need more power. They tend to have more appliances and they tend to require more energy for heating or colling purposes. Meanwhile, smaller, compact homes do not suffer from this problem.
Number of people living in a house
A household that is composed of 10 people, as an example, will likely consume more energy than one that is composed of only 5 people. So, the fewer the number of people live in a home, the more frugal power consumption is going to be. On average, the South African household has 3.4 people.
Sizing your solar system
So far in this article, we gave the answer to the question “how many watts does a house use in South Africa per day?” It was noted that the average home needs 1200 watts per day.
This information can come in handy when it comes to choosing the right system. Note however, that you need to take a really good look at your appliances when it comes to sizing your system.
When you choose an inverter, you need one that can take the load of your biggest appliance. This tends to be a refrigerator. It has an average running wattage of about 800. However, you need to consider the startup wattage. For a refrigerator, this can be up to 2400 watts.
If you have a refrigerator that requires this, you will be better off get a 3kva system or even a 5kva system. Most people simply reduce the number of appliances that are run on solar. As an example, heating and cooling on solar requires a lot of power.
So, you may want to remove that from the options if you are setting up your system in South Africa. That’s particularly the case if cost is an issue.
Summary
This post was dedicated to showing you the answer to the question how many watts does a house use per day in South Africa. It was noted that average usage stands at around 1200 watts, though this tends to be different depending on the wealth within the household. Richer households tend to use more power than poorer ones.
What can you power with a 5kw solar system?