What is the power consumption of an air conditioner in your home?
A lot has been written in recent years about the power consumption of air conditioners. As a result, quite a few different stories have circulated. Some people describe an air conditioner as a real power guzzler, while others see it as a smart way to cool and heat efficiently.
The truth is more nuanced. An air conditioner obviously uses electricity. But exactly how much depends on the model, the room, the insulation of your home, the outdoor temperature and, above all, how you use it.
To make this concrete, this article looks at four popular Mitsubishi Heavy Industries wall-mounted residential models: the SRK20ZS-WF, SRK25ZS-WF, SRK35ZS-WF and SRK50ZS-WF. We use these models as a reference because they are widely used in living rooms, bedrooms, home offices and attic rooms.
The consumption figures below are based on the technical specifications of these units.
The official annual consumption according to the specifications
| Model | Cooling capacity | Annual cooling | Annual heating consumption |
|---|---|---|---|
| SRK 20 ZS-WF | 2.0 kW | 83 kWh | 793 kWh |
| SRK 25 ZS-WF | 2.5 kW | 103 kWh | 804 kWh |
| SRK 35 ZS-WF | 3.5 kW | 146 kWh | 895 kWh |
| SRK 50 ZS-WF | 5.0 kW | 250 kWh | 1158 kWh |
These values come from Ecodesign calculations. These are standardized European test values designed to allow appliances to be compared fairly. They are therefore not guarantees for your exact home, but they do provide a reliable basis.
So, what does that cost approximately?
For the cost calculation, we use an average electricity price of €0.27 per kWh. Milieu Centraal gives this as the average electricity tariff as of January 2026, including energy tax and VAT. According to Milieu Centraal, an average Dutch household uses approximately 2,430 kWh of electricity per year. This helps put the consumption of an air conditioner into perspective.
| Model | Annual cooling costs | Annual heating costs |
|---|---|---|
| SRK 20 ZS-WF | approx. €22 | approx. €214 |
| SRK 25 ZS-WF | approx. €28 | approx. €217 |
| SRK 35 ZS-WF | approx. €39 | approx. €242 |
| SRK 50 ZS-WF | approx. €68 | approx. €313 |
For cooling, annual consumption is often quite modest. Even with the largest model in this comparison, the product specifications indicate around €68 per year. For heating, the amount is naturally higher because the air conditioner is used more often and for longer periods. At the same time, that heat often replaces part of your gas consumption.
Consumption per hour: useful, but not the whole story
Many people want to know: how much does an air conditioner like this consume per hour? The specifications also state the electrical input power for cooling and heating.
| Model | Cooling consumption | Cooling cost per hour* | Heating consumption | Heating cost per hour* |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SRK 20 ZS-WF | 0.44 kW | approx. €0.12 | 0.59 kW | approx. €0.16 |
| SRK 25 ZS-WF | 0.62 kW | approx. €0.17 | 0.74 kW | approx. €0.20 |
| SRK 35 ZS-WF | 0.89 kW | approx. €0.24 | 0.94 kW | approx. €0.25 |
| SRK 50 ZS-WF | 1.35 kW | approx. €0.36 | 1.56 kW | approx. €0.42 |
*Calculated using €0.27 per kWh.
Important to know: a modern air conditioner does not run continuously at full power. Thanks to inverter technology, the unit reduces output once the room has reached the desired temperature. In practice, the average hourly consumption is therefore often lower than the nominal power would suggest.
What does this mean for an average household?
If you mainly use the air conditioner to keep a bedroom or living room comfortable in summer, the extra electricity consumption usually remains limited. The cooling consumption of these models ranges from 83 to 250 kWh per year. That is roughly 3% to 10% of the average annual electricity consumption of a Dutch household.
If you also use the air conditioner for heating, the picture changes. In this range, you are looking at approximately 793 to 1,158 kWh per year. That is more electricity, but it does not automatically mean higher living costs, especially if it reduces your gas consumption. An air conditioner works as an air-to-air heat pump: it does not convert electricity into heat one-to-one, but extracts heat from the outside air and brings it indoors.
How should you read SEER and SCOP?
With air conditioners, you often see the values SEER and SCOP. Put simply, SEER indicates how efficiently an air conditioner cools over an entire cooling season. SCOP does the same for heating over an entire heating season.
The higher the value, the more efficiently the appliance uses electricity. Take the SRK25ZS-WF, for example. According to the specifications, it has a SEER of 8.50 and a SCOP of 4.70. This means that over the season, the air conditioner delivers on average around 8.5 times as much cooling capacity as the amount of electricity it uses. For heating, it delivers on average around 4.7 times as much heat from 1 kWh of electricity.
That is exactly the difference compared with a standard electric heater. Such a heater converts 1 kWh of electricity into roughly 1 kWh of heat. An air conditioner with a SCOP of 4.70 extracts much of the heat from the outside air and mainly uses electricity to move that heat.
Important note: SEER and SCOP are seasonal averages. On a mild day, an air conditioner works more efficiently than on an icy winter morning. Use these values mainly to compare models fairly.
Conclusion
A Mitsubishi Heavy Industries air conditioner is not a device that uses “nothing”, but the image of it being a huge power guzzler is also too simplistic. For cooling, the annual costs based on these popular residential models are relatively low. For heating, the costs are higher, but this is often offset by savings on gas.
If you want a realistic picture, do not look only at the maximum power of an air conditioner. Pay particular attention to the annual consumption in kWh, the SEER for cooling and the SCOP for heating. These values say much more about what an air conditioner actually does in the home.
Sources:
- STULZ Benelux Webshop – Mitsubishi Heavy Industries SRK20ZS-WF / SRC20ZS-W
Used as the source for the technical specifications of the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries SRK-ZS-WF models, including cooling capacity, heating capacity, input power, SEER, SCOP and annual consumption in kWh. - Milieu Centraal – Your energy bill explained
Used for the average electricity price of €0.27 per kWh as a calculation example. - Milieu Centraal – Average energy consumption in the Netherlands
Used for the average electricity consumption of a Dutch household of approximately 2,430 kWh per year. - European Commission – Air conditioners and comfort fans
Used as background source for energy label information, annual energy consumption and the interpretation of efficiency values for cooling and heating.