Every household electrical appliance, always have its power rating labelled on it. Power rating is very important as it gives information regarding its power consumption.

Knowing the power consumption rating of your electrical appliance will help understand and analyze your electrical bills. It will also help when you have to determine the capacity of generator or inverter you will need to power up your appliances.

There are two important information to look out for in a power rating label;

1. Voltage rating  (v)
2. Power rating   (w)

You should always check the voltage rating of any appliance you buy, this is necessary to make sure it is not different from the voltage rating supplied to your home.

Since electrical bills are determined by power consumption you should always check power ratings of your electrical appliances to have good idea of how much you would be paying for electricity by the end of the month.

Power consumption on electricity bills is usually measured in kilowatt hour (kwh).

For example, an electric fan with a power rating of 50w will consume 50w in one hour or 50/1000 kwh = 0.05kwh.

An electric cooker with power rating of 2500w and used for 2 hours everyday will consume 2500 x 2 = 5000w in 2 hours or 5kwh. (Note: 1kw = 1000w). Doing this every day for the month you consume 5 x 30 = 150 kwh! Just for using the electric cooker!..

Total power consumption of all active electrical appliance in your house is added up by your electric meter. You pay for total electrical power (kwh) consumed every month.

It is very important to switch off electrical appliance when not in use to save cost of electricity bills.