What your appliances actually draw, and where to read it off the plate yourself
Search what a fan uses and you are told 30 to 100 watts, which covers a desk fan in a bedsit and an industrial blower. It is true and it is no use. The figure that settles your bill is stamped on your own appliance, and the one below it belongs to a model somebody can actually buy in San Fernando.
Every number on this page came off a named model with the page it was taken from beside it. Where only one model was found, it says one model. Where none was found, the row is missing and the reason is printed.
Put your own plate figure into the calculator
Two numbers, both yours. The watts printed on the appliance, and the hours a day you actually run it. Nothing below is a quotation and no money appears in it.
- A day
- 7.44 kWh
- A month
- 223 kWh
- To cover it in daylight
- 4 panels
The panel count assumes 5.23 peak sun hours a day, the Global Solar Atlas figure at Pampanga (San Fernando), a performance ratio of 0.8 covering inverter losses, heat, wiring and dust, and 550 W panels. It is an illustration of one appliance, not a system design, and it assumes the appliance runs in daylight. Change any figure above and the arithmetic follows it.
One of these is not like the others
The same six figures as the table below, drawn to scale from zero. It is the only honest way to show what an air conditioner does to a bill, because in words it is a number and on a scale it is most of the chart.
- Electric stand fan, 16 inch blade Sharp PJ-S161M(WH)
- 50 W
- Electric stand fan, 16 inch blade Panasonic F-409SS
- 30 W
- Rice cooker, 1.0 litre Philips HD3030/00
- 600 W
- Washing machine, 8 kg Sharp ES-TL8010P-GY
- 470 W
- Air conditioner, 1.0 HP Carrier WCARH010EE
- 930 W
- Air conditioner, 1.5 HP Carrier WCARH012EEV
- 625 to 1,310 W
Rated power, from named models sold here
Rated power is what the manufacturer says the appliance takes at full tilt. For a fan, a rice cooker or a washing machine that is close enough to what it really draws. For the two that cycle, read the section under this one first.
Electric stand fan
16 inch blade, 40 cm
30 to 50 W across the two models sourced
Rice cooker
1.0 litre
600 W on the one model sourced
- 600 W Philips HD3030/00
- Printed as Wattage, in the technical specifications on the Philips user manual for this model. The product page itself does not print the figure. See it
Washing machine
8 kg, top load
470 W on the one model sourced
- 470 W Sharp ES-TL8010P-GY
- Printed as Power Consumption (W) on Sharp Philippines product page. See it
Air conditioner
1.0 HP, window type, conventional
930 W , which is the figure worth staring at
- 930 W Carrier WCARH010EE
- Printed as Power Consumption on the specification tab of a Philippine dealer listing for this model, read 23 September 2026. Not linked: it is a retailer rather than the manufacturer.
Air conditioner
1.5 HP, window type, inverter
625 to 1,310 W , because an inverter varies its own draw
- 625 to 1,310 W Carrier WCARH012EEV
- Printed as Power Consumption on the specification tab of a Philippine dealer listing for this model, read 23 September 2026. Not linked: it is a retailer rather than the manufacturer.
Two of these do not draw their rated watts for very long
A refrigerator runs its compressor for a few minutes, stops, and starts again when the cabinet warms. An inverter air conditioner does something similar more gently, running hard to pull the room down and then settling. Quote either one as a single wattage and you have described the loudest few minutes of its hour.
For those two the useful measure is energy over time, and Meralco publishes its own, measured on named units. Those figures are in the panel beside this, unconverted, for the reason stated with them.
Meralco's measured figures
From its published tested-unit lists, June 2022, on units it tested itself.
- 0.5958 kWh per use
- Carrier WCARH010EE, 1.0 HP window
- 0.3321 kWh per use
- Carrier WCARZ010EE, 1.0 HP window
- 0.4124 kWh per use
- Condura FP-53KSD009313, 1.0 HP split inverter
- 1.0379 kWh per use
- LG GR-B222RLCL, 8.0 cu ft two-door inverter
- 1.2696 kWh per use
- Samsung RT22FARBDSA, 8.3 cu ft two-door inverter
- 0.2617 kWh per use
- Philips HD3030, 1.0 L rice cooker
- 0.0584 kWh per use
- Sharp PJ-S160M, 16 inch stand fan
Meralco calls these energy per use and nowhere states what a use is, so none of them is converted to watts anywhere on this page. Treat them as a way of ranking one model against another, which is what they can honestly do.
Horsepower is not the number you want
Air conditioners are sold here by horsepower, and one mechanical horsepower is 745.7 watts, so it is natural to reach for that. It is the wrong end of the machine. Horsepower describes what the compressor delivers, and what you pay for is what the unit pulls out of the socket to make that happen.
The 1.0 HP Carrier window unit above draws 930 W. That is about a quarter more than the horsepower arithmetic suggests, and the gap is the motor's own inefficiency plus the fan and the controls. Size an array off the box and you will be short before you start.
The plate on the side of the unit has the real figure. It is the one to type into the calculator above.
How many solar panels to run an air conditioner
This is the question people actually arrive with, and it has an answer, but not the one they are usually given. There is no panel count for a 1.0 HP unit, because two units sold here at the same horsepower pull different amounts from the socket, and because a machine run four hours needs half the array of the same machine run eight.
So it takes two numbers, and you have both. The watts on the plate, and the hours you actually run it. Here is what that comes to for the units sourced further up this page, at the same sun hours and the same losses the calculator uses.
- Carrier WCARH010EE, 1.0 HP window, eight hours
- 4 panels 7.44 kWh a day, 1.78 kWp
- The same unit, four hours instead of eight
- 2 panels 3.72 kWh a day, 0.89 kWp
- Carrier WCARH012EEV, 1.5 HP inverter, at the bottom of its range
- 3 panels 5.00 kWh a day, 1.20 kWp
- The same inverter unit, at the top of its range
- 5 panels 10.48 kWh a day, 2.50 kWp
The inverter unit is the interesting row. It is one machine and it wants three panels or five depending on how hard it is working, which is why a single figure for it would be wrong at both ends. Its plate carries the range and the guides quoting one number for it have picked an end.
One thing this arithmetic does not do. It covers the unit while the sun is on the roof, and an air conditioner running at two in the morning is drawing from something else by then, which is a battery question rather than a panel question.
Solar for an aircon at night: the battery it takes
What people ask about appliance wattage
How many watts does an electric fan use?
The two 16 inch stand fans sourced for this page draw 50 W and 30 W, and both figures come from the manufacturer’s own Philippine product page. That is a much narrower band than the 30 to 100 W the guides currently ranking for this question quote, because those describe every fan in the world and these describe two you can buy here.
Your own fan is the one that matters, and its figure is printed on the motor housing or on the plate under the base.
Where do I find the wattage on my appliance?
On a rating plate, which every appliance sold here has to carry. On a fan it is on the motor housing at the back or under the base. On an air conditioner it is on the side panel or inside the front grille. On a washing machine it is on the back near the inlet. On a rice cooker it is on the underside.
You are looking for a number followed by W. If the plate shows amperes instead, multiply by 230 for a rough figure, because that is the voltage the plate will also state.
How many solar panels do I need to run an air conditioner?
Two numbers settle it and neither of them is horsepower: the watts printed on the plate, and the hours a day you run it. The 1.0 HP Carrier window unit sourced on this page draws 930 W, and eight hours of that comes to four panels of 550 W at the sun hours for San Fernando. Run the same unit four hours and it is two.
An inverter unit does not have one answer. The 1.0 HP Carrier inverter model above is rated from 625 W to 1,310 W, which is three panels at the bottom of its range and five at the top, so any guide quoting it a single figure has chosen an end without telling you.
All of that covers the unit in daylight. Running it overnight is a battery question.
How many solar panels do I need to power a house?
Not from a panel count somebody else published, because it is your bill that decides it rather than the size of your house. Square footage is the input the results for this question keep using, and it describes the building rather than what anybody does inside it.
The honest route is the other way round: the kilowatt-hours on your own statement, the share of them you want to cover, and the sun hours for your area. The sizing tool on the cost page does exactly that and shows its assumptions while it does.
Is a 1 HP air conditioner 746 watts?
No. One mechanical horsepower is 745.7 watts, and that is the power the compressor delivers, not the power the unit takes from your socket. The 1.0 HP Carrier window unit sourced above draws 930 W, which is about a quarter more.
So sizing solar from the horsepower on the box will leave you short. Use the figure on the rating plate.
Why is there no refrigerator row in the table?
Because a refrigerator does not draw its rated wattage for very long. The compressor cycles on and off all day, so a single watts figure describes a few minutes an hour and misleads you about the rest. The honest measure for a fridge is energy over a day, which is why it appears in the measured column further down rather than in the rated one.
The same is true of an inverter air conditioner, which is why its row shows a band rather than a number.
Why is there no light bulb row?
Because no Philippine source was found for one. Every figure on this page is a named model sold here with the page it came from, and searching for a bulb returned retailer listings from other countries. Leaving the row out is more useful than filling it with a number from a different market.
In practice the wattage of a bulb is the product itself, printed on the box and on the glass, so it is the one appliance you never have to look up.
What does this have to do with solar?
Array size follows your daylight consumption, and your daylight consumption is these numbers multiplied by the hours you run them. The calculator above does that arithmetic for one appliance so you can see which of yours actually matters. On most Philippine bills the answer is the air conditioner and almost nothing else.
Send us your monthly kilowatt-hours and the town and we will do the rest of it properly.
Where to read next
One appliance is arithmetic. A whole house is a survey, and the paperwork depends on whether anything goes back out to the grid.
Send us the kilowatt-hours off your own statement
One appliance is the easy half. Your town and your monthly kilowatt-hours are enough for us to work out the rest, and the roof itself needs somebody on it with a tape measure.
Tell us the property and what you are trying to cut, and you will get a written answer with a size and a next step. No visit is booked and nothing is charged for asking.
Sources are linked on each figure. The measured column is Meralco's published tested-unit lists for aircon, refrigerators and freezers, kitchen appliances and fans, tested as of June 2022 and December 2021. Nothing on this page is a quotation and no appliance figure here is ours. If a plate is unreadable or missing, send us a photo of it through the enquiry form or the Message us button and we will work it out with you.