Do bug zappers use a lot of electricity and significantly increase your bill?
Is it better to leave them on all the time?
Where should use put the bug zapper in order to make it effective and reduce the overall energy usage?
And how much does it cost to use the bug zapper on average?
This short guide will help you answer these questions, in order not to worry again about using these devices that provide a comfortable and healthy living space.
Without further ado, let’s begin!
Do Bug Zappers Use a Lot of Electricity?
Bug zappers do not use a lot of electricity as they are small appliances that are usually rated between 15-40 watts in power, and they might not be needed to run all the time in some cases.
These are usually bug zappers that are used for a single family house, an apartment, a small shop, or a small garden.
For larger spaces such as warehouses, restaurants, big offices, …etc., you may need to use multiple small bug zappers at the same time, or one big bug zapper of the rating that might go all the way up to 100 watts.
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How Much Electricity Does a Bug Zapper Use?
On average, a bug zapper uses close to 1 kilowatt-hour of electricity per day, and around 30 kilowatt-hours per month, based on the average rating of 40 watts, and assuming that you leave it on all the time.
The way you calculate the energy consumption of the bug zapper is as follows:
Divide the power rating by 1,000, and you will get the power in kilowatt rating.
40/1,000 = 0.04 kW.
Multiply the rating in kW by the number of hours the bug zapper is expected to work per day. (Let’s assume you leave it on all the time, 24 hours a day)
Bug zapper’s electricity consumption per day = 0.04 kW X 24 hours/day = 0.96 kWh/day.
To find the energy consumption per month, multiply the daily energy consumption of a bug zapper by the number of days of the month.
0.96 kWh/day X 30 days/month = 28.8 kWh/month.
Remember that these estimates are based on the average rating of 40 watts, and the daily usage for 24 hours, non-stop.
You might need to use a smaller size of a bug zapper with the rating of 15-20 watts if you have a small house or apartment, and you may only leave it on during the evening and night hours, which would reduce the total energy consumption to less than the half of this above estimate.
How Much Does a Bug Zapper Cost to Run?
The bug zapper costs around 14 cents per day, or around $4 per month in order to run all the time, assuming the average size of a 40-watt bug zapper, and based on the average energy rate of 14 cents/kWh.
The actual running cost of a bug zapper might differ from someone to another based on the actual rating of the bug zapper, the total number of hours you leave it on every day of the month, and the actual electricity price they get charged as energy companies charge different prices.
For example, in Connecticut, customers pay around 21 cents/kWh, which is 50% higher than the average price of 14 cents/kWh.
That would make the cost of using the bug zapper in the previous example around 21 cents/day, or $6/month.
While in other places like Idaho, where the cost of energy is around 10.2 cents/kWh, which is around 30% lower than the average.
In that case, the cost would be around 10 cent/s per day, and around $3 per month, using the same unit and operation conditions in the example above.
Is it Better to Leave a Bug Zapper On All The Time?
Leaving the bug zapper on all the time might use more energy than turning it on and off based on the time of the day, but the overall electricity usage is not that high anyway, because bug zappers are small appliances that do not consume a lot of electricity in general.
Whether it is better to leave a bug zapper on all the time or not might be different from one case to another.
Leaving the bug zapper on all the time might help in minimizing the number of insects in a certain place at a faster pace, which helps in breaking the breeding cycle and might help you get rid of them entirely.
Sometimes, it might be even necessary to leave it on all the time if you live in a place where it is a good environment for bugs to breed and live, like if there’s stagnant water, a fountain, long grass, dead plant leaves, …etc.
Conclusion
Bug zappers do not use a lot of electricity, and can be necessary in order to provide a comfortable and a healthy living space.
In order to make the best use of a bug zapper, consider buying a unit that is designed to cover an area close to the area you have, and position it in the area where you may find that bugs exist the most, which sometimes might be outdoors.
There are many brands that create bug zappers in different sizes and shapes, such as:
- Flowtron
- ZAP IT!
- ASPECTEK
- BLACK+DECKER
- Stingmon
- ZFITEI
- Hywean
- Micnaron
- Black Flag
- Endbug
- And others.
I hope that this short guide was helpful for you and that now you are not worried about getting broke for using a bug zapper, even if you keep it on all the time.
If you still have other questions on this topic, please, tell me in the comments’ section below, and I will do my best in order to help you out 🙂